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HR Management

Gather statistical evidence to show you don’t discriminate

08/05/2008
Employees who can show that a company routinely discriminates against members of a particular protected class will have a much easier time showing that, as members of that class, they were discriminated against, too. Perform your own statistical analyses to test your hiring practices for hidden discrimination …

Remind managers: Justify deviations from disciplinary rules

08/05/2008
Handbooks and disciplinary rules help managers mete out consistent and fair discipline. But no handbook or set of rules can cover every possible disciplinary problem, and supervisors need some discretion when deciding what punishment fits the crime. The problem is that any deviation from the rules may be seen as discrimination if an employee who belongs to a protected class perceives that he has been punished more harshly than a co-worker who broke the same rule …

Is ‘at-will’ employment at risk in Colorado? Voters will decide

08/05/2008
Colorado (like nearly every other state) historically has been an “at-will” employment state. That means employers are free to fire an employee, and an employee is free to quit, at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice. But this fall, that could all change. Ballot Initiative 76 would amend the state constitution to eliminate at-will employment …

Judge Upholds ‘Guns-at-Work’ Law; Companies Duck and Cover

08/05/2008
A Florida judge has upheld that state’s new "guns-at-work" law that allows employees to keep firearms locked in their cars on company parking lots. But many employers are aggressively looking for ways to keep the weapons off their premises, using special exemptions built into the law. With two other states recently enacting legislation similar to Florida’s (and more poised to consider the issue next year), this is an issue HR needs to monitor.

Plutonium taints workers; NIST vows better procedures

08/05/2008
Employees at the Boulder campus of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) were contaminated when a vial containing about a quarter gram of plutonium-laced powder cracked on June 9, spilling a few particles …

Can we ban guns in the workplace?

08/04/2008
Q. May an employer prohibit employees who are licensed by the state of Texas to carry a concealed firearm from bringing firearms onto the employer’s property? …

Rep. Green asks for investigation into fatal Goodyear explosion

08/04/2008
U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, in a letter to the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), called for an investigation into the fatal explosion that occurred June 11 at a Houston Goodyear facility that makes synthetic rubber for tires …

E-mail gets employee axed; she sues recipient

08/01/2008
Menorah Park, a senior living center in Beachwood, found itself in the midst of an Internet war after one of its employees slung cyber-mud at self-proclaimed media maven Perez Hilton …

Measure effectiveness to make sure flex plans work for you

08/01/2008
Your organization wouldn’t offer flexible work arrangements like flextime and compressed workweeks if managers didn’t believe the benefits—better employee engagement, recruitment and retention—outweighed the costs. Still, a recent survey by Hewitt Associates found that few organizations have formal and consistent policies in place to manage their flex programs …

Employees have paid time off to volunteer in community

08/01/2008

Daimler Financial Services in Farmington Hills, Mich., not only gives its employees an extra paid day off every year so they can do volunteer work but also helps them find charities in need of help.