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HR Management

Can we recover business documents from employee’s personal laptop?

07/26/2013
Q. Many of our executives use their personal laptops for business purposes. We don’t have a policy governing this practice. We will be terminating our COO and want to know how we can legally go about transferring or deleting all work-related files from his personal computer.

Your ‘disabled’ employee is doing running races: How should HR respond?

07/26/2013

Let’s say you just found out that one of your employees who’s out on medical leave—with severe restrictions on his activities—recently participated in a 10K running event. What should you do? Your immediate reaction may be to quickly put a finishing line on this guy’s employment. But, as the following case shows, you’d better think twice.

Does your discipline policy grant ‘one harassment free’?

07/24/2013
We all struggle with drafting policies. In the following case we learn that leaving certain words out of your disciplinary policy can be just as legally dangerous as putting the wrong words in. In this case, the employer’s discipline policy essentially allowed employees to engage in one act of sexual harassment without being terminated.

U.S. Supreme Court rules on DOMA, California’s Prop 8

07/23/2013
The U.S. Supreme Court in June issued two highly anticipated decisions addressing same-sex marriage in cases that resonated nationwide and in California. The cases are significant for employers because they are likely to have ripple effects on state, federal and local laws, in particular those dealing with employee benefit plans, taxation and immigration.

Set rules for promotion, insist on compliance

07/23/2013
Here’s a good reason to post all promotion opportunities and let employees know where they can learn about openings. Employees can’t sue over missed promotions if they never bother to apply—as long as it’s clear how the promotion process works.

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.

Whaddya bet a lawyer didn’t write these work rules?

07/23/2013

Amy’s Baking Company gained notoriety this spring when TV celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay simply gave up trying to turn around the struggling restaurant on his show. “I can’t help people who can’t help themselves,” Ramsay said after the owners rejected his suggestions for improving the business. Apparently, the owners did try to help themselves when they wrote the restaurant’s employee policies …

Does social media improve internal communication?

07/19/2013
Despite employees’ pervasive personal use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and other social media platforms, a recent Towers Watson survey found that only 56% of employers use social media to communicate and build community with their workers.

Work with providers to sort DOMA impact

07/18/2013
The June 26 Supreme Court decision that overturned Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act will have very specific effects on HR. The most immediate ones involve taxes on pay and benefits. If you operate in a state where same-sex marriage is legal, start working now with your benefits providers.

National origin, language & religion: Legally managing diversity at work

07/17/2013
To achieve compliance and prevent successful discrimination claims (which could involve class-action exposure), employers must be attuned to workplace issues around national origin, religion and race. For most employers, this means training management and HR personnel to carefully consider their policy-making and daily decisions that can affect such issues.