Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
The following is a list of the bestselling paperback business books as ranked by the New York Times on February 7. 1. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell. How and why certain products and ideas become fads. 2. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of […]
Earlier this month, a statewide class-action lawsuit was filed in a Northern California federal court, alleging that Minnesota-based giant 3M systematically discriminates against older employees. The lawsuit follows a similar case already pending in 3M’s home state.
We feel vulnerable to lawsuits because our brand-new supervisors and managers haven’t been trained. What guidelines do you give for the first few weeks?
Make sure your employees know the “whys” behind your tech policies. Otherwise, they’ll find ways to work around them — and may even bring your system down in the process. According to Lisa Guerin, author of Smart Policies for Workplace Technologies, you must explain the policies you write about technology. If your employees don’t see […]
Last week, the California Supreme Court listened to arguments regarding the limits of sexual harassment protections when it comes to free speech in the workplace.
Just in the past year, we’ve started doing almost all of our hiring through online sources. In some ways, it works very well, but I’m becoming increasingly concerned that we’re sort of losing control of what was a pretty solid commitment to diversity. Are we exposing ourselves to discrimination and affirmative action problems by recruiting […]
A recent case provides a dramatic example of how great the financial incentive can be for employees to blow the whistle on their employer. Donald McLendon, a former health care executive, will receive over $34 million for giving the government information about unlawful billing and fraud by his former employer Olsten Corp. and hospital giant […]
Under California law, you can be automatically liable for harassment committed by your managers and supervisors even if you had no notice of the problem and did nothing wrong. But just who qualifies as a supervisor has long been a troubling and important question because your chances of being held responsible increase as more employees […]
I know that California law requires both parties’ consent to record or monitor phone calls. So if we intend to record or monitor incoming phone calls, we need to have a recording that says that the call may be monitored or recorded. However, what if we are calling out to a customer or client? At […]
What are the legal and pay issues around unpaid time off, especially for exempt employees? Our internal surveys show that our employees want more time off, and we want to respond—we want to be a “great place to work.” But we just don’t see that we can afford to add paid vacation or personal days. […]