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

HR Management

What does California’s new law mean for our dress and grooming policy?

11/16/2012

Q. We would like to enforce a strict dress and grooming code in our company. Are we required to exempt from our policy employees whose faiths call for them to dress or groom in a specific way?

Track the training you offer, who qualified–and which employees took advantage of it

11/16/2012

If you offer training to some, you must offer it to everyone else in the same classification who qualifies. Refusing to train some employees may be grounds for a discrimination lawsuit. Prevent such lawsuits by carefully documenting all training offers and how employees respond.

Get ready to scramble with your work schedules

11/14/2012
December is the most popular month for employees to take sick days. Maintaining staffing is already difficult during the holiday season, and you face legal risks in requiring employees to work on certain religious holidays.

What are the 10 deadliest jobs in America?

11/13/2012

The next time you find yourself griping about a paper cut or a sore back from sitting all day, realize that things could be a whole lot worse. Here’s the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest list of the 10 most dangerous American jobs.

Go ahead and hold holiday celebrations–just be sure to hold the religion, too

11/09/2012

The winter holiday season is ap­­proaching and with it, perhaps some excessively cheerful holiday glee. That may offend some religious individuals from a wide variety of faiths. But as long as employers don’t go overboard on the religious aspects of the season and don’t punish those who want to play Scrooge, a little merriment is fine.

Surveillance video law: How do we comply?

11/08/2012

Q. We have surveillance cameras in several locations in our workplace that record activity, but no sound. The images can be viewed over the Internet by supervisors and HR personnel who have the password to the site. What should our privacy and electronic communications policy say about access to the camera feed?

Lawsuit-proof your promotion process: Post all openings, require formal application

11/05/2012

If an employee sues and claims he didn’t earn a promotion because of some sort of discrimination, you have one bulletproof defense: proving that you posted the job but the employee never applied. How do you prove that?

Tout your successes in an annual HR report

11/02/2012

Midsize employers can benefit by following the lead of large HR departments, colleges and government agencies that create annual reports detailing HR’s goals and accomplishments. Use these seven tips to produce reports that increase HR’s influence.

DOL stats: Workplace fatalities fell in 2011

11/01/2012
The number of workplace fatalities fell by 81 last year, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics. In 2011, 4,609 U.S. employees died on the job, compared to 4,690 in 2010.

The HR I.Q. Test: November ’12

11/01/2012
Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz …