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HR Management

Rehiring ex-employees? Beware these 6 common slip-ups

03/11/2010
As the economy rebounds, you may be looking closely at ex-employees who departed on good terms. Here are six common rehiring mistakes.

Offer flex schedules to low-wage workers, too

03/11/2010

Plenty of organizations offer flexible schedules, allow telework and let parents slip out early once in a while to catch a child’s soccer game. But in many workplaces, those benefits are perks that only managers and white-collar workers enjoy. Yet several studies show that when low-wage employees have some flexibility in their hours, teamwork improves and unscheduled absences abate. If your organization’s lower-wage employees are candidates for flex, consider these eight strategies.

Worker wants to alter a discipline note she saw in her personnel file—Now what?

03/11/2010

Q. An employee asked to review her personnel file, and we let her. Now she wants us to change a discipline notice she found in the file. We don’t have to do that, do we?

Put your attendance and tardiness policies in writing

03/11/2010

You naturally expect people to show up for work on time. But you could get into trouble if you don’t have a written policy saying so. Having written rules makes it more likely employees will understand your expectations.

11th Circuit topples hurricane-proof crane standards

03/11/2010

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Miami-Dade County’s ordinance requiring construction cranes to be able to withstand 140 mph winds is invalid. Construction firms had challenged the law, arguing that it would cost jobs, hinder workplace safety and was beyond the county’s (or the state’s) ability to regulate compliance.

Miami-Dade, vendor settle—and whistle-blower gets $1.25M

03/11/2010

Miami-Dade County has agreed to settle a long-running legal dispute with the Wackenhut security firm, and one of the biggest winners is a Wackenhut worker who blew the whistle on the company. The battle began in 2005 when Michelle Trimble accused her employer of billing the county for 300 hours of work a week that no one was performing. The alleged overbilling amounted to $4.5 million per year.

At Akron’s Summa Health, where there’s smoke, there’s no hire

03/09/2010

Akron-based Summa Health Systems has announced it will no longer hire smokers. Applicants who wish to work at one of Summa’s six hospitals must provide a urine specimen to prove they are nicotine-free. Current employees are not affected by the new policy.

Are we allowed to prohibit moonlighting?

03/09/2010

Q. Is there any law against having a policy that prohibits my employees from working a second job?

Employee fired after registering complaint is now suing? You could be personally liable

03/09/2010

Here’s a new worry for Ohio HR pros who play a role in deciding whether to fire employees: You could end up being sued personally if it turns out that the discharge was wrongful under Ohio’s public policy exception to at-will employment. That means your own assets—not just the company’s—are at risk. Here’s how it works:

Trim the fat from your business writing

03/09/2010

In business writing, you don’t receive extra credit for slathering your sentences with fancy phrases, the way you did in college. Do that in a memo or e-mail, and you can expect eyes to glaze over. Here are five “less is more” tips for writing more effectively at work.