More than 33 million Americans now work remotely at least one day per month, according to the “Telework Trendlines 2009” survey report. Still, most managers have been trained to work with employees who are only physically present to them. How can you manage what you can’t see? Here are some tips:

Don’t come down too hard on your employees, but confronting the situation is important. Jim Turley, CEO of Ernst & Young, understands that managing people means talking to them personally when things go wrong, knowing that it does more harm than good to ignore flubs.

Whether they’re shooting off their own tweets or following others, employees using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and personal blogs are creating liability and PR risks with their online rants, raves and company gossip. We’ve gathered the best of HR Specialist’s recent coverage of social media’s HR implications. You’ll find sound legal advice, and maybe a laugh or two.

This month's collection of real-world quick tips from American business leaders, brought to you by members of The Alternative Board.

It’s not the end of the world, but to your employees, it feels like it could be. How you handle times of trouble for your company will decide whether or not your people come out unscathed.

If your organization doesn’t have a solid performance evaluation system in place, you’re taking a high-stakes gamble you just might lose. Discharged employees who sue will have a much easier time getting to a jury trial if you can’t produce performance evaluations that back up why you terminated them.

“A meeting is an event where minutes are taken and hours are wasted.” This old saying may be true in many cases, but it doesn’t have to be that way. A bit of preparation, discipline and solid follow-up can help you conduct more productive and focused meetings. Here are 11 guidelines.

I'm a one-person HR department, but I know a lot about payroll from an earlier job. Our finance supervisor just quit, so now I'm doing that job too. The sole remaining finance employee got a raise to reflect his increased workload, but I haven't received any extra pay. How should I approach my boss to address this disparity?—B.G., Fla.

Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, stood in front of his staff, knowing there was not much chance he could hang onto all 8,000 of them. He’d already briefed them in an e-mail about the dire situation. “I want to run an idea by you that I think is important,” Levy said. Then he asked for ideas on saving money. In the end, the center reduced layoffs from 600 to 150.

How to reverse a bad situation? Practice three-way respect: 1) Respect yourself. 2) Respect your colleague. 3) Respect the problem. Jack and Mike had been college buddies, and now Jack had inherited his dad’s manufacturing business. Feeling that the business had languished, Jack had some new ideas...

Q. I'm training a new team member, and every time I clarify or correct something she has done, she immediately becomes defensive and short with me. How should I give her direction so it doesn't spark a defensive reaction? What should I do when she reacts that way?

How do you deal with problem employees? Expert HR trainer Amy Henderson says supervisors' discussions should focus on four points when addressing problem behavior.

When employees approach retirement, they sometimes go on autopilot, frustrating everyone involved, including co-workers and supervisors. But you can demand productivity from such employees and discipline them accordingly. Just be prepared to take special steps to stay away from age bias claims.

A big management axiom is: “It’s not important for my employees to like me; they only need to respect me.” Not true, says management consultant Mike Winstanley. It’s fine—even important—for managers to be liked by their employees, he says. Four ways that managers can increase their “likability":

It’s an asset to take risks yourself, but a good leader is secure enough to encourage risk-taking among employees ... The Pathmark supermarket chain uses what employees call a “turtle award,” named from a saying that “a turtle only moves forward when it sticks its neck out.”

Break the ice quickly with a new team by trying this:

In 1970, the CEO of Tektronix, a firm based in Oregon and renowned for its measurement and monitoring technology, sat at a desk in the main workspace. When needing privacy, he and any other staff members could use a small, glass-windowed office in full view. His approachability helped the team click.

With employees fretting about layoffs, or reeling from recent workplace cuts, now’s a great time for team-building. You don’t need an expensive round of paintball to gain the benefits of team-building exercises. But you do need to squeeze the most out of them.

Surveys of U.S. workers consistently show that employees want more than a paycheck from their jobs—they want to feel safe, secure and appreciated at work. Here are eight guidelines for recognizing and rewarding employees, according to an Adecco management report.

Do any of these statements sound familiar? “If I don’t do it, it won’t get done correctly.” “I can do it better (or faster) than anyone on my staff.” “My employees are already so busy.” All of them indicate that a manager is struggling to overcome roadblocks to becoming an effective delegator. (To find out whether you’re an effective delegator, take the quiz below.)

Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta Airlines, knows that anger sends the wrong message and can deflate your authority. “Everything you do is an example, and people take a signal from everything you do," he says.

Giving employees critical feedback, negotiating with vendors, sticking up for your people (or your budget)—they’re all communications situations that require a certain amount of assertiveness. These 18 questions can help you pinpoint areas of weakness in your ability to express yourself. Use your results to figure out where you can improve.

It may feel like the sky is falling, but if you use emotionally charged words in front of your team members, you will only heighten their fear and panic. Contain the fear by crafting a message that sounds realistic but not hopeless.

Managers aren’t only responsible for an organization’s fiscal assets, they’re also responsible for its human assets. According to a recent Adecco report, here are 13 simple ideas you can implement today to become a more effective manager:

Now that warm weather has arrived, it seems abundantly clear that some of our employees are, shall we say, hygienically challenged. Any suggestions on what to say or how to handle an employee who has body odor?—Darlene, Pennsylvania