Employers may suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune from time to time. But when knives fly at work, supervisors better know the relevant company policies. Consider the case of an employee at the North Carolina Department of Transportation who was apparently the workplace prankster.

Texas joins a number of other states that have had to increase unemployment tax rates in 2010. The recession has steadily drained the state’s Unemployment Compensation Fund.

Your organization probably has policies prohibiting sexual harassment, and you probably offer training for supervisors and employees alike on how the policy works. But that simply isn’t enough. You should have multiple ways for employees to report sexual harassment. The more ways you provide, the more likely a court will conclude that an employee who failed to report the harassment was acting unreasonably.

In an attempt to close a gaping state deficit, New York Budget Director Robert Megna has told government agencies to offer early-retirement packages to state employees. The state made a similar offer earlier in 2009, and 1,100 workers took that option before it expired in early November.

Gov. Ted Strickland has expanded unemployment compensation to displaced workers who are attending school. Under the new plan, unemployed workers who are full-time students need not actively seek a job in order to receive UC benefits.

Using money from the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funding law, a statewide initiative called Project HIRE (Hometown Investment in Regional Economies) could pay Ohio employers $6,000 to train each qualified new worker they hire.

Recent workplace shootings in Orlando, Fla., and Fort Hood serve as powerful reminders that employers must heed signs that an employee could act out and harm co-workers or supervisors. There were 768 violence-related deaths in the workplace in 2008. Despite those disturbing numbers, many employers stick their heads in the sand. They put their assets and employees at risk by gambling that “it couldn’t happen here.”

Q. We don’t have a lot of space in our office. Our HR staff shares space with administrative employees and some managers. Must we separate the HR staff from others to protect employee records from snooping eyes?

Once again it's time for "March Madness." If your workplace is like many, talk of NCAA tournament picks and the Final Four will be everywhere, as well as bets on the games. While office pools are a lot of fun, they also can present some risk for employers. Consider developing a written policy on workplace gambling to prevent things from getting out of control.

It is remarkable that a seemingly simple, one-page form—the Form I-9—can cause so many headaches. But who ever said a government form was easy, much less an immigration-related form. Here are the most common mistakes employers make.

We’ve all heard the good news about the economy: that the recession is crawling to a resolution and things will slowly get back to normal. Most of the executives I know don’t believe it. Now that we have reduced our workforces, frozen salaries, eliminated bonuses and suspended 401(k) matches, the question remains: When the recovery does occur, is any of that going to change?

The Internet continues to make HR’s job of verifying résumé claims almost impossible. As job-seekers have become more desperate in the past year, a host of new online services have emerged that help applicants falsify their résumés.

Most managers rely too much on a list of standard interview questions for which most applicants have canned responses. Instead, try these queries, each designed to get applicants to really tell you about themselves and their skills. Plus, read the winning entries from our just-concluded HR Professionals Week question: What’s the most bizarre thing you’ve ever experienced in a job interview?

I’ve had a very awkward situation come up: The wife of one of our employees called and said she suspected her husband was romantically involved with a co-worker. She wanted to know what I planned to do about it. I stammered something about employee privacy and tried to wiggle out of committing to do anything. This seems like a real can of worms. Should I look into this at all?—Syl, S.D.

President Obama has signed legislation to extend until March 31 eligibility for the 65%, 15-month COBRA premium subsidy to individuals who have involuntarily lost their jobs. It's the second time the subsidy has been extended. Will it be the last?

By now, you should have an electronic communications policy and know to block computer access to newly terminated employees. But it’s also wise to prohibit current employees from forwarding e-mails from the company computer to their personal e-mail accounts outside the company.

You probably don’t check up on most employees who call in sick because they do it infrequently and most likely are being truthful. However, every organization has its share of workers who abuse sick-leave policies. No state or federal laws regulate how employers can handle workers who call in sick. But beware: Going too far to ferret out shirkers could invite discrimination and harassment claims, and unnecessarily damage morale.

Pittsburgh-based health insurance provider Highmark opened two new employee health centers in November and estimates the on-site facilities could save it several hundred thousand dollars the first year. Employees can visit an on-site doctor for primary care, vaccinations and physical therapy, and will be able to have prescriptions filled there as well.

Do you have ready access to your organization’s discipline records? Can you say with certainty that everyone charged with the same misconduct receives the same punishment? Or is there bias hiding in those records? The best way to check is to group discipline by type of misconduct and punishment ...

Twice this month, we've had employees complain that they want to be paid extra because their supervisors asked them to perform tasks that aren't in their job descriptions. But job descriptions can't cover everything! Anyone else had this problem? How should we respond?—Melanie, Florida

Here are five examples of real-life benefits programs cited in our HR Specialist: Compensation & Benefits newsletter: business finance courses for employees, weight-loss contests, a social club for longtime employees and retirees, extensive training for interns, as well as face time with execs.

Employers seeking Internet-savvy candidates have been flocking to social media sites in the past year. But employers (and their lawyers) are discovering a hidden problem in that recruiting-by-Facebook strategy: Depending too much on the sites could leave your organization vulnerable to age and race discrimination lawsuits. Heavy use of social networking sites may skew your job applicant pool to contain few minorities and older people.

While it’s true the IRS is now conducting its annual phone survey of small-business taxpayers, be alert: The IRS is warning that con artists are posing as IRS agents to extract personal financial data from unwary businesses.

Thinking about forming a safety committee? Here’s incentive: During the night, a Seattle firefighter mistook the fire pole for a restroom door. (A safety light that illuminated the pole had burned out.) He fell 18 feet and suffered spine and brain injuries ... A jury awarded him $12.7 million.

By focusing sales compensation on what matters most, successful companies are offering up lessons on variable pay from which every compensation pro can learn. Struggling to make variable pay work for your organization? Pay attention to these sales compensation trends that just might apply in your organization: