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Policies / Handbooks

Employers win Nassar battle, but retaliation war continues

08/20/2013
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar that, to win a retaliation lawsuit, an employee must show the employer’s intent to retaliate against the employee for exercising Title VII anti-discrimination rights was the “but for” cause of the challenged action, not just a motivating factor. As important a victory as the Nassar ruling was for employers, it’s important to recognize that the retaliation war is ongoing.

Truth is, a handbook needs an honesty policy

08/20/2013

Nearly one in five U.S. workers admit to lying at the office at least once a week, according to a CareerBuilder survey. A quarter of hiring managers say they’ve fired an em­­ployee for being dishonest. In such cases, it’s much easier to discipline and terminate an employee when you have a general honesty, ethics or misrepresentation clause in your employee handbook.

Supreme Court rejects EEOC’s broad definition of ‘supervisor’

08/13/2013
In a major victory for employers, the Supreme Court in June ruled that, in Title VII cases, only someone with the power to take “tangible employment action” can be considered a supervisor. The Court’s decision in Vance v. Ball State will make it harder for employees to sue for supervisor bias, a claim that carries strict employer liability.

Anti-harassment policy, training are meaningless if supervisors decide to ignore them

08/13/2013
When a co-worker makes himself a nuisance (or worse), a robust anti-harassment policy, a clear reporting method and swift and sure action will cut liability in almost all cases. But what if the policy isn’t en­­forced or a supervisor learns about the harassment but ignores the problem and doesn’t take action? Then all bets are off.

HR: Corporate America’s social media cops

08/12/2013
HR takes the lead in enforcing employer policies regulating how employees use social media, according to research by the Society for Human Resource Management.

‘Nonterritorial’ workplace allows maximum employee choice

08/05/2013
Some lucky employees have all kinds of options when choosing where to get their work done. Their em­­ployers have embraced what I call the “nonterritorial workplace.” It allows employees to work wherever they will be most productive on any given day.

EEOC seeks to block book company’s severance releases

07/30/2013
North Carolina-based national book distributor Baker & Taylor faces challenges to language in the release it includes in all its severance packages. The EEOC claims the release violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by forcing employees to sign “broad, misleading and unenforceable” agreements to receive severance pay.

ADA: Sometimes, no accommodation will work

07/30/2013
Some disabled applicants or employees will never be able to perform their jobs. However, you can only reach that conclusion after both sides engage in the interactive accommodations process. If no accommodation will let the person perform the job’s essential functions, you can terminate an employee or reject an applicant.

6 ways to keep young women’s careers moving

07/30/2013
Women of the Millennial generation are turning their backs on career paths that could give them the keys to the C-Suite. The problem lands squarely in HR’s lap—as do the solutions.

Target misses mark with multicultural training

07/29/2013
Minneapolis-based retailer Target is scrambling to explain a training document that surfaced at one of its Northern California distribution centers. The document purports to tell supervisors how to interact with Hispanic employees—and in the process betrays some offensive stereotypes.