• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Employee Relations

Google HR: Pay ‘unfairly,’ give freedom & meaning

07/27/2017

Laszlo Bock, the former senior VP of people operations at Google and author of the book Work Rules!, helped grow Google’s workforce from 6,000 to 76,000 in the past decade. At the SHRM conference this summer, Bock offered these tips for HR.

10 steps to ‘Millennialize’ your recruiting and retention strategies

07/27/2017
Creating a more casual dress code and doing away with cubicles may help draw the attention of some younger job candidates. But real improvement in recruiting and retaining of Millennials must go deeper, focusing on helping people build trust and connection to their work.

8 questions gauge your leadership

07/26/2017
Be honest, if your employees were asked these questions, what would their answers say about your leadership?

Missing exec might have taken ‘hundreds of thousands’

07/21/2017
A retirement community for University of Minnesota employees is abuzz with rumors after a senior executive vanished after he was fired in the wake of a criminal investigation.

Telecommuting: A search for equilibrium

07/20/2017
Even as the overall numbers of telecommuting employees rises, some companies are reconsidering their telecommuting policies. The fluid situation suggests that there is no one-size-fits-all policy that covers the who, how and when of telecommuting.

Details matter when documenting discipline

07/19/2017
Smart employers make sure they document—in advance—the underlying reasons for any disciplinary actions. When preparing documentation, be sure to provide all the details, especially if two employees committed arguably similar offenses but were punished differently.

Discipline calls for language that cites objective shortcomings, not editorial opinions

07/13/2017
When disciplining employees, try to stick to objective facts. For example, if a worker isn’t abiding by a dress code, state what rule she is violating. Keep the editorial comments to yourself.

Prepare to justify discipline occurring after employee complains about discrimination

07/13/2017
Simply put, a bad review all by itself isn’t usually grounds for a lawsuit in most cases. However, punishing someone with a bad review because they complained about discrimination may land you in legal trouble.

Bungled investigation may not sink defense

07/13/2017
Sometimes, investigations don’t go as planned. An employer can have good policies and the best of intentions and still make mistakes. Fortunately, that’s not necessarily the kiss of death for a workplace investigation. Just be prepared to clearly explain what happened.

Texas Supreme Court greenlights Bev Kearney’s lawsuit

07/13/2017
The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that a long-simmering sex and racial discrimination lawsuit filed by former University of Texas women’s track and field coach Bev Kearney can proceed.