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Hiring

Buying business and rehiring staff? Beware excluding employees who have filed lawsuits

07/23/2013
When you buy a business, the employees generally don’t automatically transfer. Typically, the new owner decides which employees to keep on the payroll. Before you exclude any existing employees from consideration, make sure that rejecting them won’t look like a failure to hire because they have previously filed discrimination litigation.

Medical pot laws don’t prohibit drug testing

07/23/2013
You are free to tell employees they can be terminated for having marijuana in their systems and then randomly test for the substance. That’s true even if a doctor recommends that the employee use medical marijuana.

When is the right time to do background checks?

07/19/2013
Q. When should we be doing our background checks: Before an offer is made? After the offer is made and before employment? Or after employment has begun? We generally do the check after we make an offer and before employment starts. 

Congress and more states seek to block employer access to employees’ Facebook/Twitter passwords

07/18/2013
In the past year, laws banning em­­ployers from asking employees and applicants to hand over passwords to their personal social media sites have been passed in 10 states. Now, such legislation is pending in Congress.

Can an offer letter create liability?

07/17/2013
Q. Our company recently terminated a manager who had been with us for less than three months. He just seemed not to be the right fit. Now the former employee is threatening to sue, saying he left a good opportunity to take a job with us, based on our offer and what was said in the hiring process. We did use an offer letter, which stated that employment would be at-will and that the offer letter did not constitute a contract of employment. Do we have cause for concern?

Minnesota ‘bans the box,’ limiting background checks

07/17/2013
Minnesota has joined the league of states that have adopted “ban the box” legislation that bars most employers from obtaining or asking for an applicant’s criminal history before the applicant has either been selected for an interview or received a conditional job offer.

Employment status notification bill proposed

07/10/2013
A bill before the North Carolina House of Representatives would require employers to give employees notice of their employment status at the time of hire and when any material change in the employment relationship occurs.

New expunged record law limits background checks

07/10/2013
North Carolina’s new Expunged Criminal Record bill will affect what questions employers may ask on job applications and during the hiring process. The law prevents most em­­ployers from asking about crimes and criminal charges that have been ex­­punged from job applicants’ records.

Scrub protected-class info from résumés

07/09/2013
Here’s a simple way to keep many disappointed applicants from filing needless lawsuits: Make sure someone removes any application or résumé information that indicates race, national origin or other characteristics belonging to a protected class before the information is passed on to whoever makes the initial screening decision.

Hidden liability: Understand the risks of negligent hiring

07/09/2013
You know there are certain questions you just can’t ask job applicants. But using discretion in the hiring process doesn’t mean you should give up on the practice of thoroughly investigating the background of candidates for certain jobs in which a rogue worker could harm other people.