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HRIS / Technology

Delivering bad news? Many bosses hide behind e-Mail

11/01/2007

RadioShack earned a public relations beating last year when it used e-mail notifications to alert 400 employees at its Texas headquarters that they were being laid off. But that practice may be more popular than you think …

Creating an effective blog policy to limit employer liability

10/01/2007

Employment lawyers have been warning for some time that blogs will one day be a volatile issue in the workplace. Recent events show that day has arrived. For example, a member of the Cherokee County, GA, Planning Commission provoked a firestorm of controversy after an online post she made advocated dismantling Israel to achieve peace in the Middle East. The outcry forced her to resign …

California’s sexual harassment training requirements: The final word

10/01/2007

If you’ve been looking for definitive guidance on California’s Sexual Harassment Training Law (AB 1825), it’s finally here. The Fair Employment and Housing Commission issued final regulations implementing this first-in-the-nation law on April 23, and the Office of Administrative Law approved the regulations on July 18. The regulations include specific direction on the type, length and frequency of harassment training that California employers must provide to their employees …

Management ‘Pyros’: Spot ‘Em, then put out their fire

10/01/2007

Some managers turn every problem into a three-alarm fire, which can be stressful and ineffective. How do you know if a manager (or you) is a “management pyromaniac”? Fortune Small Business offers this quiz …

Do your policies violate the NLRA? You might be surprised

10/01/2007

Employers beware! Do your personnel policies—or how you enforce them—violate the National Labor Relations Act? The answer may surprise you, especially if you operate in a union-free environment. Earlier this year, the National Labor Relations Board heard oral arguments in a case that will determine whether employees have the right to use their company’s e-mail system, or other communications-based systems, to communicate with each other regarding union matters and terms and conditions of employment …

The ‘iPod generation’ soaks up employee training via podcasts

09/18/2007

HR staff at McLean, VA-based Capital One wanted a training program that would allow users to learn at their own pace and free them from sitting in classrooms and at their computers. So they piloted the Audio Learning Program, passing out iPods to about 300 employees and creating digital audio training programs …

Dump your paper to-Do list; manage tasks online

09/01/2007

Various on-screen task-tracking tools can keep your to-do list front and center on your computer. In addition to your e-mail program’s task tool, check out these web applications …

Swamped by e-mail? Employees declare ‘E-mail Bankruptcy’

09/01/2007

Some workers are so far behind in unread e-mails that they’re deleting everything and starting from scratch with an empty in-box. Others are swearing off e-mail forever. A better response: Prevent overload in the first place with better e-mail management skills. Here are four ways to retake control of your in-box …

Swap big documents quickly without overloading e-mail

09/01/2007

How? “Tubes” is a free download that allows you to drag and drop files into a virtual tube to deliver documents instantly. It creates secure peer-to-peer connections (or “tubes”) between your machine and another one …

E-mail is forever—So be careful what you say

09/01/2007

An ill-worded e-mail, unlike a phone conversation, can come back to haunt you. Deleting e-mail doesn’t mean it’s gone forever, or that a recipient hasn’t saved, printed or forwarded it. Plus, there are plenty of computer experts out there who can recreate or retrieve deleted e-mail messages. The best policy is to assume that whatever is in an e-mail can be used against you in a court of law …