HR Soapbox

Has HR Become Your Organization’s ‘Manager Complaint Department’?

May 16, 2014
HR people realize it’s part of their jobs to help supervisors deal with employee issues. But what if managers go overboard, reflexively dumping even the smallest of employee complaints onto HR?  Stop doing your manager’s dirty work! Teach bosses who instinctively turn to HR to, instead, seek solutions on their own. Here are four tips to make this happen …

The NLRB Wants to Rewrite Your Email Policy … and Your Whole Employee Handbook

May 9, 2014
Under the Obama administration, the NLRB has begun involving itself in your workplace—unionized or not—more than ever. A new ruling could erase your ablity to prohibit employees from writing personal emails at work.

10 Things Employees Are Dying to Hear Their Managers Say …

April 21, 2014
Employees crave more than just a paycheck from work. They want to go home feeling valued and respected for the job they do. Here are 10 phrases or questions that managers can use with employees to help build respect, gratitude and trust …

When an Employee’s FMLA Leave Expires, Can You Say Goodbye?

March 28, 2014

Few issues churn up as much HR confusion and frustration as the FMLA. That’s why organizations are typically more than happy to quickly pull the termination trigger right after employees reach their legally allotted 12 weeks of FMLA leave. But employees who need a finite amount of additional time off may be legally entitled to more leave as a “reasonable accommodation” under the ADA. Learn more …

Best Quotes From the 2014 LEAP Conference

March 20, 2014
From March 12-14, 2014, hundreds of HR professionals from across the country gathered at the Bellagio in Las Vegas for the 10th annual Labor & Employment Law Advanced Practices (LEAP) Symposium, hosted by Business Management Daily and The HR Specialist. Here are some nuggets of wisdom from the event:

8 ‘Tough-Love’ Truths for the Business World

March 10, 2014
At some point, every business and every employee seems to fall in a rut or get stuck in neutral. The problem typically isn’t bad luck, bad people or even a bad economy. It could be you. Here are eight “tough love” truths to help get you going again …

The Free-Range Office Concept: Will It Catch On?

February 28, 2014

How would your employees respond if you took away their desks and, instead, told them they could plop down anywhere each day with their laptops and phones. Conversion to such an “untethered” office isn’t a concept sweeping the country, but it is being tested in some locations. How would your office respond?

Snapchat for Business: Beware the Legal Risks of Self-Destructing Texts

February 14, 2014

A new breed of business-related apps aim to copy SnapChat, making self-destructing online discussions popular in business, too. The goal: become the digital equivalent of behind-closed-doors meetings and off-the-record conversation, with no written record of the discussion. But the trend carries some legal risks for HR …

Does Super Bowl Hangover = Legit FMLA Leave?

January 31, 2014
The Monday after the Super Bowl has become “the biggest unofficial holiday of the year, with 1.5 million people calling in sick as a result of the game and about 4.4 million people will show up late for work.” How many of those late/missing workers will try to tap into their job-protected allotment of FMLA leave? And what can you do to help combat this kind of FMLA abuse? Here’s a 9-step program:

Easing of Marijuana Laws Doesn’t Have to Blunt Your No-Tolerance Company Policy

January 24, 2014
The legal wall criminalizing marijuana has begun to crumble and, in major turnaround from past decades, a majority of Americans now support legalizing pot. But for employers (even in those pro-pot states), this new legality trend doesn’t have to alter your policies. Here’s more advice, and a link to a sample policy …