While you may not have been partying much at the office lately, some employers see summer as an ideal time for an all-staff get-together. Instead of spending a lot on flowers and glassware rentals, though, they’re getting creative with summertime themes. Here are ideas that assistants posted on the Admin Pro Forum.

Congress is considering legislation that would require employers with 15 or more workers to provide seven days of paid sick leave per employee per year, an expansion of the FMLA that a coalition of HR and business groups immediately decried.

Every year, you probably receive (or help write) your performance evaluation. But have you really evaluated your job lately? Doing a “career audit” is a way of asking yourself: How is my position actually working for me? We talk you through the questions you need to ask yourself.

Vacations appear to be another victim of Americans’ tight budgets and layoff fears. More than one-third of workers say they won’t use all their allotted vacation time this year, and just 39% plan to take one compete week off ...

An arbitrator has ruled that the EEOC willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by forcing employees to take comp time instead of overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours a week. The EEOC will be liable for back pay, plus liquidated damages that so far haven’t been determined.

It’s a serious mistake to wrongly classify employees as exempt when they should be designated as hourly workers eligible for overtime. Be especially wary of one of the most common errors: Applying the exempt administrative classification to employees just because they perform nonmanual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the company. Such a misclassification neglects the second part of the test ...

According to a study by the International Association of Administrative Professionals and OfficeTeam, promotions and cash bonuses were ranked by managers as the most effective ways of recognizing employee accomplishments. But administrative pros put two other appreciation tactics at the top of their list:

Customers who phone the call center at Ascend One, a debt management company in Columbia, Md., are likely to talk to an employee who’s dressed in pajamas. Since 2006, the organization has allowed its call center employees to work from home, and about half of them—300 or so—have accepted the offer.

High-performance leaders revolutionize their roles by changing the dynamic between leader and follower: Not only do they hold team members accountable for results, but they themselves expect to be held accountable by team members. Being held accountable requires a thick skin and brave employees willing to offer honest feedback.

When was the last time you reviewed your company’s bulletin boards in the break room or alongside the time clock? Do they show the correct, updated federal- and state-law posters? A little time spent seeing what’s there—and what’s missing—will keep you in compliance with state and federal laws.

Mike Figliuolo’s favorite part of being a tank platoon leader was taking his men on a tank gunnery exercise. But a new soldier who transferred into his platoon flouted rules, took a sloppy approach and lacked fire in the belly. No amount of yakking helped—but a 7UP did ...

Outdated workplace posters aren’t just a minor mistake that, at worst, could trigger only a small fine. As a new court ruling shows, poster mistakes can actually breathe new life into supposedly dead employment lawsuits …

As the effects of the recession linger on, personal bankruptcy filings are still climbing. If you’re a private employer that doesn’t want to hire managers who can’t handle their financial affairs, be careful before rejecting someone because he’s filed for bankruptcy.

When it comes to work-related matters, many private-sector employers think that employees’ rights to privacy are limited, if they exist at all. A recent $1.8 million jury verdict should help dispel that myth.

Goals are the heart of any pay-for-performance system. They set the standard against which employees’ progress is measured—and on which bonuses and raises are based. But goal setting can be a tightrope act. To establish goals that improve organizational performance, ask these eight questions, developed by the Harvard Business School:

Question: “I’m not sure whether to trust one of my co-workers. 'Amy' is helpful and considerate to me. She provides useful information and makes friendly, encouraging comments. However, some co-workers say Amy stabs people in the back because she wants to climb the corporate ladder. If Amy really is a skillful manipulator, how do I avoid being hurt by her tactics, especially when management thinks so highly of her?” 

OSHA last month announced it has issued $237,500 in proposed penalties against a Big Springs oil refinery accused of cutting corners on safety. The fines will be levied against Alon USA after an OSHA inspection found numerous safety violations.

Disciplining employees often requires making tough calls, especially when the disciplinary action is based on the word of co-workers. You may be forced to choose whom to believe. Don’t be tempted to ignore the complaint just because you can’t be sure who’s right. As long as you are honest, courts will be reluctant to second-guess you.

We all know that it costs money to train employees—and that turnover after investing in advanced training is a genuine and expensive problem. That doesn’t mean employers can get away with refusing to train someone approaching retirement age. That may be seen as age discrimination.

When promotion processes bypass qualified candidates, discrimination lawsuits are almost sure to follow. That’s because employees can easily poke holes in complex candidate-ranking systems, and supervisor bias emerges when promotions are on the line. If you have set criteria for promotions, make sure you follow your own rules.

Employees who come to HR with complaints about alleged discrimination are protected from retaliation, as are employees who go to the EEOC or state and local anti-discrimination agencies. But what about employees who voice informal complaints? They’re protected from retaliation, too, even if all they did was simply voice concerns about how the company is treating other employees.

When supervisors and managers have to deal with an employee they perceive as trouble, emotions can take over. That’s bad news. Warn them that anytime they have to deliver bad news to an employee—for example, while disciplining or firing—they must refrain from making smart-aleck comments. Wisecracks are too easy to misinterpret, especially if the employee already thinks the employer is out to get him.

When an employee is out on FMLA leave, employers have to be careful about balancing their need for full staffing so they can get the work done and the worker’s right to take leave. If missed work poses a problem, the best approach is to focus on specific work deficiencies that aren’t related to FMLA-protected absences.

The EEOC has filed pregnancy discrimination charges against Orlando-based Hilton Grand Vacations after the company failed to rehire a worker who resigned to deal with pregnancy-related health problems.

Avoid these five common myths about motivating employees. For example: Motivating with money—recognition and status work better.

Employees eligible for intermittent FMLA leave are entitled to take that leave at the beginning of their scheduled shifts if they need to. While that may make them late for work, you can’t punish that tardiness, as long as the employee follows your call-in policies and the underlying reason for being late is related to intermittent FMLA leave.

 Q. “What would be the best way to tell an employee we don’t want to hire her daughter? We’ve had her as a temp, but never would’ve hired her for a full-time job.” Here's how readers of our  HR Specialist Forum answered that question:

If your company hopes to break out of the economic doldrums, research shows you’re better off bringing in a complete stranger to lead a reorganization, rather than promote from within. Example: Ford brought in an outsider to turn around the organization—Alan Mulally from Boeing. Meanwhile, GM replaced CEO Rick Wagoner with his protege, Fritz Henderson, who may have felt too much empathy for his former boss to completely reverse past decisions.

Employees who discover their colleagues are making more money for doing the same work often conclude that there can be only one reason—discrimination. Next stop: an attorney, who will try to confirm the pay bias by comparing the employee’s paychecks with his co-workers'. That’s why you have to be proactive, consistently keeping good records that show why you’ve made every compensation decision.

Q. Our job application doesn’t ask for the applicant’s age or date of birth. However, we plan to start conducting background checks on job applicants we’re seriously considering. The company that will conduct the checks for us said the birth date is on all the applications they see and that it’s instrumental to conducting the checks. What should we do?

The FLSA allows employers to round off an hourly employee’s arrival or departure time to the nearest five minutes, tenth of an hour or quarter of an hour. But your rounding practices can’t always favor the employer. Rounding must be neutral or it must favor the employee. That means if you round down, you must also round up. You have several ways to make rounding fair:

Sometimes it seems like supervisors and employees work in entirely different places. Several recent studies show that bosses and front-line employees have widely varying views about their organization’s priorities, morale, compensation and benefits. Here are seven key flashpoints:

Q. One of our supervisors wants to coach his son’s basketball team and has asked to leave work an hour early twice a week. We told him we do not have a problem with leaving early, but that he would have to use vacation time to cover the time lost. He refuses to do that and says we cannot dock his pay for the two hours because he is a salaried supervisor. Is that right?

When co-workers involved in a romantic relationship break up, tensions can boil over in the workplace. And when an ugly situation creates a need for discipline, things get sticky for employers. Be wary of any discipline that targets just one of the former lovebirds. As the following case shows, doing so can lead to a sex discrimination lawsuit.

Not every employee who earns a promotion will be successful at the new job. While you certainly want to do everything possible to allow the employee to thrive in the new assignment, you’ve also got to be practical. When you conduct those initial performance reviews, consider the possibility that the employee will ultimately fail. Here’s how to encourage success, but plan for potential failure:

When one of your employees objects to alleged illegal or discriminatory conduct in the company, you can’t simply fire or demote the person. That would be considered illegal retaliation. Still, that doesn’t mean such employees have the right to be insubordinate, rude and nasty.

 “The leaders of my organization say they understand how HR works, but they really don’t have a clue—and aren’t too interested in finding out.” That's a common complaint from HR professionals across the country. So how do you “train” your boss on HR and erase some of his or her misperceptions? Try these three strategies.

Look anywhere and you’ll find advice for achieving success, even if, like blogger Todd Taskey, you’re specifically looking for how success can turn into failure. Why on earth is he looking for failure? Because it happens all the time. Here are three ways people let their success go sour:

Some employees believe the Pregnancy Discrimination Act makes it illegal to discharge a pregnant woman for any reason related to the pregnancy. That’s not quite true. The PDA merely requires employers to treat pregnant women no differently than other employees. That may mean discharge for complications associated with pregnancy—under the right circumstances.

An Arizona technician lost 100 pounds in a weight-loss competition to snag the grand prize: his first skydive. Read about that and other employee wellness initiatives from across the country. They're keeping employees healthy, and helping employers keep health benefits costs down.

Employees who don’t fit into one of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s exemption categories are entitled to overtime pay. Their job titles don’t matter. What counts are actual job duties. Those duties, of course, change over time. That’s why it’s important to review exempt status regularly.

According to a recent working-conditions survey, many employers are not doing the routine maintenance they should to keep their labor and employment compliance in tip-top shape. There’s no guarantee that tuning up your workplace policies like you do your car will avoid lawsuits. But, some routine preventive maintenance will go a long way to ensuring better compliance and fewer problems.

Cyclists at this year’s Tour de France proved you don’t have to be the “leader” to dazzle people with your leadership skills. Teammates on one team acted like leaders when they helped propel one of their fellow cyclists to win six stages of the race.

Looking for a way to eliminate unfounded sexual harassment claims from former employees? One way is to make sure your sexual harassment policy tells employees to keep taking their harassment claims up the chain of command if they aren’t satisfied with the first response.

Last year, Ohio doctors who were fed up with health insurance companies started The Physicians Assurance Corporation (TPAC). Designed to serve the employer-provided health insurance market, it featured low premiums, aggressive disease management—and an enthusiastic cadre of physicians. But TPAC lasted less than 10 months.

You’re asking for trouble if you consider FMLA leave-related absences a negative factor when making employment decisions. Courts view such decisions as direct evidence of retaliation—which makes it almost impossible for the employer to win a lawsuit.

Public employees who speak out on matters of public concern are protected from retaliation because their speech is protected by the First Amendment. For some time, courts have held that, if the employee’s motive was not informing the public, but instead securing some other workplace advantage, the speech was not protected. But now the 2nd Circuit has concluded that isn’t the law.

Employees often don’t think about suing until after they have quit their jobs and moved on. Then they claim they had no choice but to quit because working conditions were so dreadful. Beat such allegations by keeping resignation letters and any notes taken during exit interviews. They help prove the resignation was voluntary.

It’s one of the toughest HR problems: Handling a sexual harassment claim when the alleged harasser is a supervisor. But all is not lost. With proper planning, you can minimize the liability risk. Here’s how:

Before you fire any employee, double-check to make sure others who performed just as poorly or made similar mistakes were also terminated. Doing so may prevent a lawsuit … or, if you are sued, at least provide evidence that you treat everyone alike.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in late September upheld a lower court ruling that the National Football League cannot suspend Minnesota Vikings defensive tackles Kevin Williams and Pat Williams for violating the sport’s drug policy.

Employees who complain about discrimination are protected from retaliation—but not from every consequence of their complaint. Take, for example, what often naturally occurs when someone files a harassment complaint that turns out to be unfounded or unworthy of drastic action like firing the alleged harasser. There’s bound to be backlash from other employees ...

Propak Logistics, an Arkansas-based freight management company, has drawn the ire of the EEOC, which is suing the firm for refusing to hire applicants who weren’t Hispanic for nonmanagement positions at its plant in Shelby.

As one of the largest investment management companies in the nation, Malvern-based Vanguard Group is used to making money, not paying it out. That could change now that the firm has been sued for racial discrimination after allegedly refusing to hire a black applicant for a high-level finance job.

With EFCA on the march in Congress and unions staging a big push to add new members, it's up to enlightened managers to show employees they don't need organized labor. These 14 steps will get bosses talking to employees ... and keep unions from gaining a toehold in your company.

The EEOC has cited national convention marketing firm Freeman Companies with discriminatory hiring practices based on the company’s use of applicants’ credit scores and criminal background checks in hiring.

One of the cardinal rules of hiring is that you should ask all applicants the same questions. But even good rules can sometimes be broken … when it makes good sense. For example, if you are interviewing both internal and external applicants for an open position, it’s perfectly logical to ask internal applicants some different questions ...

Under Section 179 of the tax code, your business may elect to “expense” (i.e., currently deduct) the cost of qualified assets up to an annual limit.. Strategy: Acquire and place business assets in service before year-end. After 2009, the maximum deduction is scheduled to revert to $125,000 (plus indexing for inflation).

At work, numbers speak volumes. If you can’t show, quantitatively, that something is improving, then how can you really know it’s improving? It’s not surprising, then, that more admins are being asked to set SMART goals—specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely goals—to be evaluated against.

Ask senior executives to decode leadership for you and you’ll probably get a long, useless list of qualities. For this reason, three students of management set about grouping together what happens when leadership happens:

Do you “play favorites” with certain employees? Most managers would probably say “no,” but people often harbor unconscious perceptions that can influence day-to-day decision-making and job reviews of the employees they manage. Several factors unrelated to employee performance can impact evaluations conducted by managers.

Do you "play favorites” with certain employees? Most managers would probably say “no,” but people often harbor unconscious perceptions that can influence day-to-day decision-making and job reviews of the employees they manage. Several factors unrelated to employee performance can impact evaluations conducted by managers.

Isolated comments may not create a hostile work environment, but they can mushroom into a bigger problem. That’s especially true if you don’t discipline those who offend. What to do: Don’t wait until you have a full-blown hostile environment on your hands. You can terminate the offender before harm is done.

Here's a collection of creative employee benefits programs, excerpted from the "What's Working" column in our sister newsletter, Compensation & Benefits.

In Reaux v. Infohealth Management Corp., a federal judge recently ruled that employers that are not otherwise required to provide FMLA leave could wind up subjecting themselves to the FMLA by promising it to employees.

Some supervisors become visibly annoyed when receiving a doctor’s note that sets work restrictions on one of their employees. If the employee sees that reaction and then suffers discipline or termination soon after, watch out! He or she could link the timing of the two events as evidence of discrimination or retaliation.

Though big is beautiful at Kraft Foods, by 2006 the behemoth was too weighed down by its centralized structure to be nimble or responsive. So in 2007, chairman and CEO Irene Rosenfeld announced to the management team a new initiative, later dubbed “Organizing for Growth”—a rewiring of the organization that put more power in the hands of business units.

Employers that round off the time on employees’ time sheets must do so in a way that doesn’t cheat hourly employees out of pay in the long run. That means that if you round down, you must also round up. Otherwise, your time records won’t reflect all hours worked, leading to potential violations of overtime and other wage-and-hour laws.

The Washington Redskins’ hiring of an “offensive consultant” looked to some like a pure play to undermine the head coach. The Redskins owner rationalized that his hired hand was “another pair of eyes.” That only works, though, if the coach wants another set of eyes. Since that wasn’t the case, the owner appeared to be perpetuating infighting and chaos. Result? A case of “toxic management.”

There’s only one safe way to respond to an employee’s pregnancy announcement—and that’s a simple “Congratulations!” Anything else may spell trouble down the line, especially if the pregnant woman ends up being terminated. She’ll probably sue and try to tie any negative comments to the termination, arguing they demonstrate pregnancy bias.

Some employees have learned how to play the FMLA game very well. For example, you may notice a suspicious Monday-Friday pattern of intermittent leave for an illness. If you really believe an employee is trying to pull a fast one, don’t play the termination card right away. Instead, your first—and safest—option is to request a medical certification stating the employee has a serious health condition.

Talking with employees about their performance problems can be an uncomfortable moment for any manager. But it’s also a crucial part of the job and, if done well, will ultimately make a manager’s job much easier. Here are seven steps to planning and executing such discussions:

As the year wraps up, your employees could be feeling a double dose of stress from the lingering recession and the upcoming holidays—and both are likely to keep at least some otherwise-reliable employees home from work. As the holidays approach, HR pros can take steps to boost morale and jump-start employee engagement.

“We’ve put a freeze on pay raises, so why do we need to keep doing performance reviews?” The recession has led many employers to ask themselves that question. But dropping reviews can be a morale buster and liability magnet.

Sometimes it seems like supervisors and employees work in entirely different places. For years, researchers have known that bosses and line workers have widely varying views about things like priorities, performance ratings, communication and benefits. Here are eight areas for which recent studies have revealed major disconnects between what employees want and what their bosses think they want:

Q. The attorney for one of my former employees sent a letter demanding payment for overtime compensation. The letter threatened to sue me personally, along with my corporation. I understood that only the employer—the company—and not the CEO or owners of the corporation could be sued under employment discrimination laws. Can I be sued personally for wage-and-hour claims?

It may be terribly annoying and very disruptive, but it is also the law: Employees eligible for intermittent FMLA leave are entitled to take that leave at the beginning of their scheduled shifts if they need to. While that may make them late for work, you can’t punish that tardiness as long as the employee follows your call-in policies and the underlying reason for being late is related to intermittent FMLA leave.

We’ve all been told a thousand times that to increase our influence and effectiveness, we need to write personal thank-you notes. Here’s the right way to do it, as evidenced by a 1991 note from George H.W. Bush to Goldie Hawn.

If your organization uses independent contractors, watch out: Starting in February, the IRS will begin intensive audits of 6,000 randomly selected employers. One of the key targets: Determining whether employers are improperly misclassifying workers as independent contractors to save on taxes and legal risks.

First, set aside the stereotype that the federal bureaucracy is inherently dysfunctional. Sure, it’s got plenty of faults. But Uncle Sam’s best-run agencies can actually teach private-sector employers a thing or two about HR. Here are eight lessons employers can learn from the biennial agency-by-agency ranking of federal employers:

Problem: "I'm in charge of turning on the dishwasher each night before leaving. To some, this translates to my also being in charge of cleaning up after everyone. Several memos have been distributed ... but have not been successful. Any ideas? I'm tired of being known as the office maid. My name is not Hazel!"

A co-worker comes to you to complain about her boss. How should you respond? It depends on the outcome you want. Before reacting, pause, focus on the outcome and then choose your reaction.

The EEOC recently filed a lawsuit against a San Antonio apartment management company for discriminating against an employee after he hired a black worker.

According to the EEOC, White Way Cleaners discriminated against a female worker when it first moved her from the cleaning line to the front counter during her first pregnancy and then again when it terminated her after learning she was pregnant again.

Here’s a problem you may not see coming: A group of employees comes forward and complains about a supervisor’s management skills. You decide to take action and demote the supervisor. Before you act, check for potential bias if the supervisor is of a different ethnicity, race or other protected classification than the subordinates.

Thanks to a recent appeals court decision, employers no longer have to hire attorneys to fight unemployment compensation cases. Employers can represent themselves or use the assistance of representatives who aren’t lawyers.

Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court made it easier to prove retaliation by lowering the standard for what it would consider an adverse employment action, courts were finding retaliation in seemingly minor management decisions. As the following case shows, that’s not happening as much anymore.

Some good news: A federal court has ruled that an employer that mistakenly tells an employee he is covered by the FMLA isn’t bound by that mistake.

Employees who discover their colleagues are making more money for doing the same work often conclude that there can be only one reason—discrimination. Next stop: the office of an attorney, who will try to confirm the pay bias by comparing the disgruntled employee’s protected class status to those earning more.

Not everyone is going to get along with everyone else at work. The fact is that some employees may be more difficult to like than others. But as long as an employer makes sure its “difficult” employees are treated with civility, it doesn’t matter that co-workers ignore them or form their own little cliques.

Have you audited the employee bulletin board in your break room or next to your time clock recently? Have you ever done so? A little time spent seeing what’s there—and what’s missing—will keep you in compliance with North Carolina and federal laws.

Several cases on the U.S. Supreme Court's docket this term involve employment and labor-related issues. One of the most notable of these will decide how much time plaintiffs have to file a lawsuit when they believe they have been unfairly penalized by hiring tests. Other cases will resolve issues involving an alleged whistle-blower, pension benefits, race discrimination and labor arbitration.

Most employers want to stay union-free for obvious reasons, such as retaining direct control over wages and benefits. But it’s not all downside to have a union represent your employees; there are some advantages. One is that troublesome employees end up bugging their union reps about work problems instead of management.

The EEOC has filed suit against Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic-run institution in Belmont, claiming the college’s refusal to provide coverage for birth control in its employee health plan violates the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

Avoid sending big files back and forth with your boss—try Dropbox, a virtual hard drive ... Hold a web conference free and invite up to 20 guests, with DimDim, which Inc. magazine calls the best in its class ... Print less by taking advantage of the less-popular settings in your Print dialogue box ...

The news that consulting giants TowersPerrin and WatsonWyatt are merging has sent shockwaves through the HR world. How will this alliance affect the consulting environment? Will it be good news or bad for HR pros who need outside help? Now more than ever, it may pay to hire someone to help you choose a consultant.

Despite a two-year rise in job satisfaction between 2006 and 2008, about 212,000 federal workers consistently gave lower ratings than private-sector workers on their supervisors’ leadership skills, openness and willingness to help employees advance.

Issue: You're responsible for securing sensitive employee information. Benefits: Privacy measures and policies protect employees from identity theft and privacy invasion. Actions: Refine your privacy policy, institute a proper ...

Your company may benefit from a special “bonus depreciation” deduction if it acquires business property this year. The bonus depreciation deduction is equal to 50% of the cost of qualified new (not used) assets placed in service in 2009. What’s more, you may be able to combine bonus depreciation with the Section 179 election.

Question:  “Our office manager constantly takes aim at minorities and older employees. After we sent an anonymous letter to the human resources manager about this woman’s prejudiced behavior, he posted a notice saying only signed complaints will be investigated. If we sign our names, we know the manager will retaliate.  She has a history of firing people who protest her heavy-handed tactics, and her boss wholeheartedly supports her. If human resources won’t consider our complaint, what can we do?” — No Way Out

When is your most diligent worker also your biggest lawsuit risk? Answer: When that nonexempt employee works through his or her lunch break or during other off-the-clock hours—a fact nobody realizes (or turns a blind eye to) until he or she sues for unpaid overtime.

Managers can play a key role in creating an environment in which employees will want to look for new ideas. It’s important to let employees know that initiative and innovation are valued and that people who question will be rewarded—not labeled as troublemakers. Here are nine tips for removing barriers to employee creativity:

Many leaders at larger companies fancy themselves too busy or important to do the messy work of managing, says Henry Mintzberg, management professor at McGill. You’re not a leader if you’re AWOL. And while, yes, there’s a difference between leading and managing, that doesn’t preclude leaders from rolling up their sleeves and pitching in.

Lavish office parties are as distant a memory as mimeograph machines for most workers. This year, as companies cinch their belts a little tighter than usual, how are you handling the holiday office party? Administrative professionals weighed in with their suggestions on our Admin Pro Forum:

Disputes between co-workers and between employees and their bosses are almost inevitable—which is why every HR professional must know how to gather the necessary facts to find out what’s going on. Whether it is a small inquiry or a weighty investigation into serious allegations of misconduct, being deliberate and intentional about an investigation will create a more helpful and less disruptive process.

Layoffs, shortened workweeks, stressed-out workplaces … it all can lead to another byproduct of the recession: increasing workloads and work slippage. How are administrative professionals ensuring that, with stakes soaring higher than ever, no work falls through the cracks?

Don’t depend on comprehensive health care reform to significantly cut the cost of the health insurance benefits you provide to employees. Many of America’s best companies have found that a few best practices do a remarkably good job of improving employee health and controlling health care expenses. Here are some of the best practices in health benefits used by America’s best employers.

You expect colleges and universities to prepare your youngest workers for their new jobs. But are you prepared for them? These digital natives quickly grow impatient with last year’s hardware and software. Hiring them puts more pressure on your organization to keep its technology ahead of the curve.

Leaders should ask less and tell more. But is that right? Sometimes it pays to go back to the vault for advice. NASA research on crisis management suggests the command-and-control response may be wrong.

Q. My company may use the salary reduction plan you referred to in the article "Use salary reduction plan to lower tax." Can the plan be based on a percentage of salary?

It happens to every manager: You sit down to prepare a staff member's review and realize you can remember only what the person has done the past few weeks. Supervisors should never rely solely on memory to evaluate employee performance. The most useful, easy-to-implement way is to create and maintain a log for each person. Here's how.

What does it take to jump the fence from your administrative role and be seen as a true leader in the company? The HR Specialist posed the following question to three of the leading HR thought leaders in America today: “What are the actions that a true HR leader takes to demonstrate leadership within an organization?” Their answers pointed to the following six actions:

A progressive discipline system is the best way to correct employee performance problems. It’s also the best way to protect against wrongful termination lawsuits. It allows you to ensure that any employee fired because of inferior performance was treated fairly and in accordance with your company’s policies. Here’s a five-step model for progressive discipline:

Q. Legally, is there a difference between exempt employees “volunteering” their time or being required to reduce their salaries (or work hours) during these slow economic times?

Question:  “I suffer from adult attention deficit disorder (ADD). After a recent mishap at work, I mentioned this to my boss. She said she knew nothing about ADD but was glad I told her. Since then, I have noticed that she treats me differently. My co-workers talk about me behind my back and seem to think I’m not very bright, which is so far from the truth. What advice do you have for someone in this situation?" —  D.F.

Are your employees performing the exact same tasks they were three years—or even three months—ago? Probably not. Layoffs have left millions of employees juggling their own tasks as well as those of departed co-workers. One byproduct: When employees’ job duties no longer qualify them as exempt from the FLSA, they can raise the “hourly” flag and sue for unpaid overtime pay.

Paul Falcone, author of 101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees, offers these scripts to follow when you need to have awkward but essential conversations with employees. Here's what managers should say after they've said, "Hey, got a minute?" Falcone will present more of his powerful advice in Tough Talks: Scripts and Strategies for Difficult Employee Discussions, an HR Specialist webinar happening this Thursday, Nov. 12.

What should you do about a co-worker who takes advantage of a boss-less office? How do you bring this to your boss’s attention without appearing like a troublemaker? Here are some ideas for addressing a co-worker’s slacker behavior:

“My senior admin recently asked us what we should discuss during our monthly admin meetings,” a reader wrote. With time at a premium, this is a good point, as there’s an ever-increasing need for groups to get more real work done during regular meetings. Suggestions for making your next admin meeting more productive:

Try these cool Outlook tips: Click-and-drag names to your Contacts list. Eliminate the auto-complete names that appear in the “To” field of your e-mails. Share calendars with others in Outlook 2007 ...

If an employee’s FMLA medical certification is incomplete (required information is omitted) or insufficient (the information provided is vague, ambiguous or nonresponsive), an employer is now entitled to request additional information directly from the employee’s health care provider, subject to certain key limitations.

Do you aspire to work in the C-suite? You can safely assume that top executives will require a prized package of office skills. But most high-level execs say they also want assistants who have the “X Factor.” Love it or hate it, high-ranking executives want employees who can read minds, anticipate needs and supply that indescribable “something” that propels an executive toward success.

Q. As a cost-saving measure, our company reduced the salaries of exempt employees by 10%. Employees get their salaries regardless of the number of hours they work. We have always asked our employees, though, to fill out a time sheet on which they write down 40 hours every week. Now we will ask them to record just 36 hours on this time sheet. Any problems with this?

One of the cardinal rules of hiring is that you should ask all applicants the same questions. Even good rules can sometimes be broken—when it makes good sense. For example, if you have an open position and are interviewing both internal and external applicants, it’s perfectly logical to ask internal applicants different questions, since they’re already familiar with your operations.

Set aside any notions you might have that the federal bureaucracy is inherently dysfunctional. In fact, Uncle Sam’s best agencies have a thing or two to teach private-sector employers. Here are eight lessons employers can learn from the biennial agency-by-agency ranking of federal employers by the Partnership for Public Service and American University’s Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation.

Suppose you converted your IRA to a Roth IRA just before the bottom fell out of the stock market. Based on the inflated value of the account on the conversion date, you were staring down the barrel of a tax disaster. But now you see signs of a market rebound. And you’d like to take advantage of the Roth IRA setup for all the same reasons that attracted you to it in the first place. Strategy: Reconvert your IRA.

Deductions for employee travel expenses are allowed if they are related to business activities. Strategy: Accelerate business trips planned for January into December. This enables you to write off the travel expenses in 2009 instead of waiting until 2010.

When you're not on top of your e-mail, you feel out of control. It can also torpedo your career, since people associate responsiveness with competence. It is possible to clear out your e-mail inbox—and keep it clear—daily. But you must be willing to change your behavior. Here are four steps ...

Question:  My supervisor, “Jake,” is infatuated with me. He vies for my attention and pouts when I insist on keeping our relationship strictly professional. He has even hinted to his buddies that we’re having an affair, which is totally untrue. Before his behavior became obsessive, I used to be friendly with both Jake and his wife. I keep telling him that I’m not interested, but he still continues this sad, pathetic fantasy. Short of filing charges, how can I put a stop to this? — Not Interested

Employers that support pregnant and working mothers fare better if they do get sued by someone who believes she suffered pregnancy discrimination. That’s because courts are reluctant to believe that an organization would suddenly become biased after demonstrating a history of progressive policies for pregnant women and working mothers.

Times are changing in the world of workplace immigration law. Employers now have to complete a new version of the I-9 Form. The feds just launched “a bold new audit initiative” to punish employers who hire illegals. And starting Sept. 8, thousands of federal contractors are required to use the electronic E-Verify system. Result: a greater risk for immigration-related trouble than ever before ...

It’s a fact of life: Employees get into arguments at work. Obviously, you can’t let a situation get out of hand. But be careful how you discipline the individuals. That’s especially important if there’s no clear evidence about who said what to whom. If you decide to suspend one employee, suspend the other one, too.

You may dread confronting employees face to face about performance issues. But employees are far more likely to accept your critique and commit to improvement if you present those problems in a fair, concrete and "problem-solving" manner. Use these six tips as a framework to guide your discussion:

When an employee takes FMLA leave, chances are you’ll have to replace him with a temporary employee or assign the work to others. What happens if the fill-in worker discovers that the employee currently out on FMLA leave wasn’t doing as good a job as you thought? Can you then fire the employee while he’s on FMLA leave?

Question: My department recently moved to a new building ... I was given an office that was originally designated for “Judy.” Judy seems offended by this change. I think she blames me for the decision, even though I had nothing to do with it. Now I’m starting to feel guilty. How can I fix this?

What if a management consultant suggests that you find “young, energetic” people to take over? A court ruling last week sends a clear warning: Be careful who you listen to for advice … and where you write it down.

You need to show supervisors how your new online time sheet system works, but you're having a hard time getting everyone together for face-to-face training. Ditch the calendar tag routine (and the conference room) and make your own training video. Here's a free, easy way to do it.

Participation in new “social media” outlets is on the rise, creating many questions for employers. Should we be using social media to develop business or to recruit new talent? Should we allow employees to use social media at work? What types of restrictions do we need? Can we monitor off-duty conduct? And what are the potential liabilities?

These days, organizations have to do just as much (or more) with fewer employees. That may mean employees’ job duties and responsibilities change frequently. But be aware that such changes could alter the person’s classification under the Fair Labor Standards Act—and open you up to an overtime lawsuit.

A recent government study showed that the average small business overpaid its taxes by $11,638. That’s sad enough. But sadder still is the fact that the tax code is actually written to favor small businesses like yours.

Here’s how little it takes to land a good organization in the hottest of legal waters: One verified comment by a supervisor showing that he’s against promoting or hiring minority applicants may mean a costly class-action lawsuit. The good news: You can often ferret out hidden discrimination with some simple statistical analysis.

Though work mates care about you, they pay more attention to messages that show there’s something in it for them, says Susan Mason, a principal of Vital Visions Consultants. So, for example, if you want something from your boss—whether it’s approval on a new printer purchase or a more flexible schedule—figure out what benefit she will realize. Figure out “What’s In It For Me?” from her perspective.

Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz ...

Learn what’s key to your organization’s success by asking your boss, “What keeps you up at night?” ... Devote 18 minutes a day to time management ... Snag a cheap, last-minute air fare by turning to Twitter ... Confront an awkward situation without having to say anything ... Help a lost smartphone find its way home.

For the past 15 years, complying with the FMLA has been complex, but at least the law stayed the same. But earlier this year, that all changed when the first major overhaul of the FMLA took effect. Here are the details on the changes every HR pro must understand.

Sometimes, it takes a new manager or supervisor to see how poorly an employee is performing. If an employee who has been getting good reviews suddenly appears to slump under new leadership, don’t jump the gun and discipline the employee right away. Here’s a better approach ...

Question: “Two people in our office are falsifying their time sheets. As a result, they get paid for lots of overtime when they actually don’t even work their regular hours. Our boss is in a different location, so she doesn’t know what happens here. When  we gently tried to inform her about this problem, she said we were being petty. The rest of us are honest employees who show up for work, do our jobs and make up any time we miss. Our co-workers’ dishonesty hurts morale and causes a lot of resentment. What should we do?”  -- Honest & Angry

A brutal economy … layoffs … pay cuts. These are trying times to be a U.S. worker, and not all are handling it well. Nearly half of U.S. workers say they feel stressed out, compared with 39% in other countries, according to a Robert Half International survey. Here are 10 ways to deal with your employees' recession-induced stress:

The rules for home-office deductions are particularly tough for corporate employees. Even if you legitimately use a home office for business purposes, you may not be entitled to a deduction. It doesn’t matter if you’re the owner of the company. Strategy: Rent the office to the company, which can deduct the rent payments as a business expense. You must pay income tax on the rent payments, but won’t owe employment taxes.

You can't do much in Excel if you store dates and times as text. When you store them as numbers, though, endless possibilities exist.

IBM managers “all the way up the chain” are on Facebook—and if you’re not, “You feel like you’re doing something wrong,” one employee said. But most businesses don’t have a social media culture like IBM’s. Instead, more than half of all U.S. companies prohibit the use of such sites at the office. Such policies may create more problems than they solve.

Managers of the massive federally funded Starrett City housing complex in Brooklyn have settled with the EEOC, bringing a halt to a lawsuit that accused the management company of disability discrimination after it allegedly failed to promote an employee because he suffers from attention deficit disorder.

Supervisors who want to hand-select a particular employee for a job may be tempted to play fast and loose with the company promotion process. Watch out!

You’ve just made another tough promotion decision, and 10 other urgent tasks require your attention. Before you move to the next item on your to-do list, take the time to document the promotion process. That way, if you are later sued, you can easily show the court the factors you considered.

Companies that fire lots of employees get sued for discrimination by many of the castoffs. But all those terminations may be an indication of employee/management personality conflicts, not discrimination.

Q. As I was reading the newspaper recently, I saw one of my employees featured in the arrest column. She had been arrested the night before for driving under the influence. Committed to maintaining a law-abiding workforce, I would like to terminate this employee. Can I?

Employees whose supervisors sexually harass them have a fairly easy time winning their cases. But courts are much more lenient when the alleged harasser is a co-worker. That means employers can relax a little if an employee complains about a co-worker. Fortunately, the alleged harasser’s title isn’t the deciding factor. Instead, courts look to the actual job responsibilities.

Do you know exactly how you should respond to a sexual or racial harassment complaint? If you don’t, now is a good time to come up with a strategy—before you have to implement it. Advice: Your plan should spell out exactly how the harassment investigation will be handled, who will handle it and what will happen if the allegations prove true.

First, employers suggested. Then, they encouraged. Then pleaded. Now more U.S. employers are turning to the almighty dollar to get their employees to change their pound-packing, chain-smoking, sedentary ways. Despite the sour economy, more employers are creating and expanding wellness programs in recent years. And they’re increasingly turning to financial rewards and penalties to increase participation.

In 1970, the federal government passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). Then in 1973, North Carolina passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act of North Carolina (OSHANC). The North Carolina act has its own administrative and review procedures that aren’t always similar to its federal counterpart.

Men can sexually harass men, and women can sexually harass women. The U.S. Supreme Court has outlined three ways an employee can prove that an incident of same-sex harassment is sex discrimination:

Question: “I’m not sure whether to trust one of my co-workers. “Amy” is helpful and considerate to me. She provides useful information and makes friendly, encouraging comments. She seems like a good team player. However, some co-workers say Amy stabs people in the back because she wants to climb the corporate ladder. According to them, she shows off her knowledge, points out others’ mistakes and makes a big deal of her workload. Amy clearly has the trust and confidence of management, so apparently her other side is seen only by her peers. If Amy really is a skillful manipulator, how do I avoid being hurt by her tactics, especially when management thinks so highly of her?”  -- Cautious Co-worker

Q. Several of our hourly employees have requested access to their office e-mail from their iPhones, BlackBerrys and other similar devices. We are inclined to allow this access, but want the employees who receive access to sign express waivers to the effect that they will not be “on-the-clock” while doing so. Can we legally require such a waiver?

Size matters when it comes to planning events. For smaller events, you can go solo. But for larger ones, it takes a committee, a nod from management and a zinger of a spreadsheet for keeping tasks and timelines on track. To help you track the details, try this sample checklist adapted from Midwest Meetings:

The Obama administration's immigration enforcement activities will target employers that hire undocumented workers instead of the workers themselves. Employers, take note: Follow your employment eligibility verification processes to a "T". Failing to comply can carry a high price: huge fines and criminal charges.

A new Tax Court decision could produce a better tax result for many owners of LLCs and partners in LLPs. Strategy: Use a loss from an LLC or LLP to offset other highly taxed income. Previously, it was presumed that such losses usually could be used only to offset income from other “passive” activities. But the new case has opened the door to bigger tax savings.

Some bosses are visibly irked when they receive a doctor’s note restricting the work an employee can perform. If the employee notices that reaction and then gets disciplined or fired, watch out for a lawsuit! Her attorney will probably try to link the timing of the doctor’s note and the adverse employment action as proof of discrimination or retaliation. 

Even the best bosses sometimes blow up. An employee slacks off or messes up, and the manager lashes out. Everyone knows such outbursts shouldn’t happen. That doesn’t mean they won’t. How you handle the aftermath may make the difference between a jury trial and a smooth return to workplace normalcy.

This summer, a spontaneous outburst of dancing captured on video at the Sasquatch Music Festival showed the power of leaders to sway crowds. Business bloggers Seth Godin and Todd Taskey shared their thoughts on what it teaches about business innovation.

Some employees have learned how to play the FMLA game very well. For example, you may notice a suspicious Monday-Friday pattern of intermittent leave for an illness. If you really believe an employee is trying to pull a fast one, don’t play the termination card right away. Your first—and safest—option: request a medical certification stating the employee has a serious health condition.

“Write this down in the minutes,” demands a board meeting attendee, implying that his clout alone should be reason enough for you to do what he says, right or wrong. In such a situation, you could use minute-taking standards.

Question:  “Although I am considered the lead supervisor in my department and have practically run the place for the past year, the company recently chose someone else to be department manager. An executive who is new to our company made this decision. He didn’t offer me an interview or make any effort to get to know me. I am having trouble accepting the situation and feel very resentful. How can I get past this?  And when I talk with this executive, how do I convince him that I would have been the right person for the job?” — Passed Over

The recession has put the brakes on pay raises in many workplaces. But too many employers have halted performance reviews at the same time. That’s a major mistake. Reason: Discharged employees who sue will have a much easier time getting to a jury trial if you can’t produce evaluations that back up your stated termination reasons.

You know it’s illegal to retaliate against an employee who returns to work after winning or settling a lawsuit against you. But that doesn’t mean management has to be afraid of her, worrying that she’ll perceive every little slight as the organization’s way of getting back at her. As the following case shows, employees can’t cry retaliation for the little stuff.

Have you discovered all the shortcuts buried within Excel? Try zipping around Excel spreadsheets using these keyboard techniques.

As with many other federal employment laws, the Fair Labor Standards Act includes a retaliation provision that protects workers who complain that their employer has violated the law. Until recently, it wasn’t clear what kinds of complaints actually triggered the FLSA’s protections. That’s now changed.

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 for bosses who manage teleworkers:

If you're thinking of investing in gold, do it inside your retirement plan. As opposed to the maximum federal tax rate of 15% on most other long-term gains, the maximum tax rate on long-term gains from precious metals is 28%. By using retirement plan funds to invest in gold instead of personal funds, you can avoid a big tax hit on a sale.

When a VIP comes to your office, how do you dole out extra-special treatment? Being friendly and responsive is the key to treating VIPs, says Peter Post, Emily Post's great-grandson and author of The Etiquette Advantage in Business. Here's Post's advice on how to practice guest etiquette:

Human resources professionals know the importance of evenhanded discipline. But other managers may not be so careful, often preferring to issue casual and informal warnings that aren’t recorded anywhere, only to insist on more severe sanctions when they perceive employees crossing some indefinite line. When that happens, you run a real risk of facing a disparate treatment lawsuit.

Not all the action on health care reform is happening in Washington. Plenty of employers are focusing closer to home, creating wellness programs that lower health care costs—and don't break the bank.

While some Web 2.0 tools are about socializing and idea-swapping, LinkedIn is the only tool completely devoted to business networking. Nurturing your online presence could lead to job offers, new knowledge or a beefed-up reputation as an expert.

Twenty percent of West Valley Staffing Group’s employees worked there for a while, left for other jobs, and then came back to claim their former positions. And many of the technology temp agency’s 60 employees have worked there for a decade or longer, even though most Silicon Valley firms suffer from high turnover. Perhaps it’s the perks ...

As the recession drags on, many employers have begun trimming compensation. If you plan to cut pay for exempt employees, do so with care. Handle it wrong, and you could run afoul of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal law governing wage-and-hour practices. The worst-case: Cutting pay and hours could turn exempt employees into nonexempt hourly workers.

Imagine this nightmare scenario: You’ve contracted with a vendor to enter personnel data into a new computer system, including employees' Social Security numbers, addresses, names of dependents, health records and bank account routing numbers. Then the vendor notifies you that employee data was somehow stolen or lost. What do you do?

The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, which takes effect Oct. 3, has more employers worried about rising health insurance premiums—and looking to employee assistance programs as a way to keep costs down. The law prohibits group health plans covering 50 or more employees from imposing extraordinary coverage caps on mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Be honest with yourself: Do you have a love/hate relationship with Excel? You know the power it wields, but does Excel end up costing you time and stress? Here are a few tips on how to navigate and maximize your spreadsheets:

Whether you're dining with peers at a convention or meeting with a vendor, lunch etiquette can keep you from marring your image with a faux pas. Here are five etiquette rules for business meals, according to Robin Jay, author of The Art of the Business Lunch:

Is bullying marring your workplace? Gary Namie, co-founder and director of the Workplace Bullying Institute, advises going directly to management.

There’s more than just semantics involved when you’re talking about the tax treatment of “repairs” for a business building versus “improvements.” On one hand, the cost of repairs made by your business is currently deductible. On the other, the cost of improvements must be capitalized and written off over time via depreciation deductions.

The Mayo Clinic is known for its unique approach to leadership development. These four tenets are critical to maintaining its culture:

Progressive discipline is a system in which penalties increase upon repeat occurrences. But don’t pick and choose which employees you run through progressive discipline. It’s critical to apply those procedures to all employees or none, as this new case shows ...

Question:  My boss’s boss, “Ellen,” frequently redirects my employees without informing me. She just tells them to disregard my assignments, then issues new instructions. Recently, Ellen asked a member of my staff to manage a major project, even though she knew I had already chosen someone else for that role. Previously, she had expressed no concerns about the person I selected. Every year, Ellen approves my annual goals, then switches things around and makes it impossible to accomplish them. My manager is no help because he’s very weak. Do you have any suggestions? — Bypassed

You can’t know what your employees are really thinking. That’s why one CEO went undercover to find out. He worked, in disguise, for two weeks on 10 different sites. His goal was to hear what workers said when they were uncensored. The biggest lesson he learned?

Imagine typing only about half of what you do now. Keyboard shortcuts may seem like more trouble than they’re worth. But once discovered and practiced, shortcuts can prove to be valuable timesavers. The key is not trying to learn them all...

The key to determining whether someone has a condition that meets the FMLA’s definition of “serious health condition” is the medical certification the employer receives from a health care provider. But the rules on how to get that certification have changed. Here's what you need to know to comply with the law.

With news from Capitol Hill that the “card-check” provision has been dropped from the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), employers need to be concerned that passage of the controversial pro-union legislation is now more likely than ever. In exchange for dropping card checks, EFCA backers gained three incredibly powerful proposals that will dramatically increase union ability to win elections.

Typically, if you have a downtown office and take work home on nights and weekends, you won’t qualify for a home office deduction. Reason: The home office isn’t your principal place of business. But don’t give up! You still might be able to deduct certain expenses connected with that home office.

Employers can do plenty to stop sexual harassment, but employees have obligations, too. If the company has a process for reporting co-worker sexual harassment, employees must follow it. Otherwise, they lose the right to complain. That’s why you need a sexual harassment policy that gives employees the information they need to come forward.

When an employee threatens litigation, take your time building the case against him. Make sure you base your decision on solid facts. Double-check to see that there’s no way the employee can claim you singled him out for unfair or inequitable treatment. Then rest easy, knowing that if you’re sued, you can counter the allegations with facts and get the case dismissed quickly.

Here’s another reason to act fast when an employee says a co-worker has sexually harassed her: Employers that act quickly seldom lose sexual harassment lawsuits if their action stops the harassment.

No sexual harassment policy will protect your company if what is going on in the cubicles or on the shop floor is blatantly offensive. It may not even matter that the offended or harassed employee didn’t follow your complaint policy and report the harassment to upper management. If she tried to talk to her immediate supervisor, that’s enough.

Under the FMLA, only employers that have 50 or more employees within 75 miles of the company’s work site are required to provide FMLA leave to their employees. The requirement is commonly known as the “50/75 rule.” Can an employer that has fewer than 50 employees within 75 miles of the company’s work site willingly agree to provide its employees with FMLA rights and benefits? That situation recently occurred in Reaux v. Infohealth Management Corp.

Employees who work for government agencies have a few additional rights that privately employed workers don’t enjoy. One is the right to speak out on matters of public importance. That right, however, is quite limited. Even so, some public employees think they can say anything about their supervisors and not be disciplined. That just isn’t so.

If you employ seasonal labor, import employees from other countries and make payroll deductions for their equipment and transportation, you may want to hire an expert in visas and seasonal labor. That’s what saved one employer from double damages and an extra year of liability.

The parent corporation of several New York City area car washes has agreed to settle overtime claims from 1,187 current and former employees for $3.4 million. Coupled with a previous settlement with 200 workers for more than $1.3 million, Lage Management has paid out more than $4.7 million in back pay and liquidated damages.

Under the FMLA, employers with 50 or more employees within 75 miles of the company’s work site are required to provide FMLA leave to their employees. But even if you're a small employer, innocent mistakes could make the “50/75 rule” meaningless to you — and force you to provide FMLA leave. Learn how to avoid that trap.

Q. My company is considering requiring employees to agree to an arbitration clause to resolve any employment disputes, including discrimination complaints. I have been told it is a good risk-management tool for avoiding high legal defense costs and big jury verdicts. Do you agree?

You and the supervisors at your organization have read horror stories of negative performance reviews spawning lawsuits from disgruntled employees. As a result, some supervisors may shy away from rating someone lower than his or her colleagues. That fear is one main reason too many reviews are positive even if performance is average or poor. The better thing to do is to urge your supervisors to “get real” with reviews.

Do you have employees who are easily distracted, restless, disorganized and forgetful? Maybe that’s just who they are—or maybe they’ve been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It’s an “invisible” disability, but one court recently said employers shouldn’t be so fast to discount it. A disability is a disability … whether you can see it or not.

Question: “I have been fired from almost every job I have ever had. My friend says I’m just unlucky, because I seem to wind up in impossible situations that I can’t escape. I know that difficult people are everywhere, but I guess I haven’t learned how to properly navigate around the worst ones. I’ve tried the fight-back approach and the just-deal-with-it approach, but neither seems to work. Last time, I made a pre-emptive strike by complaining to human resources, but I still wound up on the losing end of the stick. I have been fired from five jobs in seven years. What would you recommend for someone like me?” — Nathan

Q. In a recent article (Savvy move: Sidestep the new tax pitfall for home sales) you said I would not qualify for the home sale exclusion if I move to my vacation home. Will I qualify if I move to a home I don’t currently own?

The United States is facing a swine flu outbreak that has caused the government to declare a public health emergency. Recently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published new guidelines to help employers prepare for flu season and prevent the rapid spread of the H1N1 influenza. Here are the CDC's suggestions, plus insight on your risks and obligations as an employer ...

When a secretary posted a question on our Admin Pro Forum recently, she heard plenty of advice from admins who have trouble getting supervisors to adhere to deadlines. Here's a sampling of their “been-there-done-that” advice:

Years ago, a landmark study at General Electric found its performance appraisal counterproductive and ineffective. Praise had no effect on performance, and criticism led to backsliding. What was going on?

In past recessions, furloughs—requiring employees to take a certain number of unpaid days off—were mostly limited to blue-collar workers. But this downturn is different. In the past two years, everyone from tech firms to state government has furloughed their white-collar employees. Experts offer the following options for furloughs:

In sharp contrast to optimistic forecasts that technology would rid your company of the “paper monster,” computers seem to have exacerbated the problem. Now, you’re sending, receiving and storing information electronically and printing copies—lots of copies. You may be able to live with the mess, but what will happen someday if you need to get your hands on one of those documents?

Like most industries, the business loan alternative industry has continued to mature and offer different financing potions that are less expensive and have different requirements for the borrower.  

At Progress Energy’s quarterly “compliments and concerns” meeting, senior administrative assistant Amy Finelli uses a template for minute taking. As a result, she can quickly send out notes after the meeting “because I don’t have to figure out how to organize the topics,” she says. Here are a few more of Finelli’s power tools for meetings:

Layoffs, pay cuts and an uncertain economy have left many organizations with fewer employees to do the work—often for the same or less money. Not all of those employees are handling it well. Here are a dozen ways you can deal with economy-induced employee stress and help your employees focus on their work:

Employees whose job tasks have changed may now be wrongly classified as exempt from overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen, one that could quickly eat up any temporary savings you’re trying to achieve—especially if it turns into a class-action suit.

Three Los Angeles law firms have partnered to open a 12,000-square-foot day care center for 88 children of attorneys and staff, starting in the fall. The three firms are neighbors: Munger, Tolles & Olson, O’Melveny & Myers, and Oaktree Capital Management.

When you manage a staff, it’s only natural to want them to like you. But at the same time, it’s a mistake to get so chummy with employees that you lose your ability to lead them effectively. The best managers walk a fine line by earning the respect of their team without going overboard and befriending everyone. Here’s how you can strike the proper balance:

Q. Our Internet policy says that if we find employees accessing pornographic web sites, they’ll receive a three-day suspension without pay and a mandatory referral to an EAP counselor. Can we require this?

Many employers are discovering they have to cut staff to survive. It’s tempting to eliminate those positions where the least work is being done. After all, the employees doing the least work should be the least missed. But before you decide to RIF someone, remember that you cannot consider FMLA leave in the calculation.

At the next business social event, break away from your comfortable clique and try your hand at networking.

The Department of Homeland Security has authorized more raids on workplaces it suspects include undocumented workers—and employers, not the workers, are being charged with breaking the law. At the same time, the NLRB is pushing employers to settle unfair labor practice cases and ordering them to rehire employees terminated for exercising National Labor Relations Act rights. But what happens when those fired workers are actually ineligible to work?

More than half of HR professionals report that gossip and rumors have increased at their workplaces since the recession began, according to a SHRM study. And 23% say they’ve had to address more frequent “eavesdropping incidents.” The solution? The times call for stepped-up communication, says Steve Williams, director of research for SHRM. His suggestions:

When measuring how much money your organization sinks into employee health, don’t stop once you’ve calculated your share of employees’ insurance premiums. Instead, pull out your attendance records and a calculator to determine just how much productivity is suffering because of employee illness and poor health. Then find out what kinds of medical conditions are keeping employees from working at full capacity.

Taking minutes wasn’t getting any easier for Terri Michaels, even after years of practice. “I had become wordy, and the minutes were sometimes eight pages. Each new director or company wanted them done differently,” she says. Finally, she enrolled in a workshop, and things changed. Now she uses these 10 best practices:

When a new boss suddenly gives a lousy performance review to an employee who is used to getting good reviews, the employee may try to blame the change on the new supervisor’s alleged bias. Absent other evidence, that won’t prove discrimination in court.

When faced with an employee who may have a physical or mental disability, a manager's legal antenna should go up right away. The ADA requires employers to engage in an interactive dialog with employees to determine whether a disability can be accommodated. Do it wrong, and you're probably looking at a lawsuit. Here's how to handle the conversation.

Communication is a cornerstone of any relationship—at least any good relationship. So why do so many executives rely on casual, on-the-fly exchanges with their assistants? Joan Burge, an administrative trainer CEO of Office Dynamics, holds a daily huddle with her executive assistant. Here’s how they make the communication work:

You’re required to offer job accommodations to employees with qualifying disabilities. But if an employee has a medical condition that requires frequent bathroom breaks, does that count as a “disability”? The answer is a clear “yes," especially this year …

Even after the economy recorded its worst contraction in a quarter-century, health care costs for the nation’s employers are expected to grow by another 9% next year, according to a new study. Employers say they plan to push more of the costs of insurance to their workers in 2010, while expecting greater responsibility from workers for managing their personal health.

Here are four ways managers can make sure they really hear what their employees are saying. The payoff: fewer costly mistakes, less wasted time and better quality and service. Feel free to pass this article along to your supervisors.

Now that the Cash for Clunkers program is over, the results are coming in and it looks like the big winners from the program are Hyundai and Ford with year over year monthly sales increases of 47% and 17% respectively. The number three selling new car during the Clunkers program was the Ford Focus with the Ford Escape showing up in the top 10 as well. The other two American car companies actually showed declines in sales during August with GM down almost 20% from last year and Chrysler sales down 15%.

What’s the difference between the three U.S. auto makers? Obviously, there are a lot of factors, but I’d argue the most important is leadership.  As I wrote in this blog back in August of 2007, my money was on Ford CEO Alan Mulally to lead a turnaround at Ford and it looks like that’s what he’s doing. I spent some time earlier today reading some recent articles about Mulally and watching some video interviews with him to try to determine what he’s done right since arriving at Ford from the Boeing Corporation in 2006.  (My sources include articles in Fortune magazine, Business Week, and the U.K. Guardian along with video interviews from Time magazine and the New Yorker

Based on that research, here are five Mulally success factors I’ve come up with that I think apply to any leader charged with leading a turnaround in their organization.

“All first drafts are terrible. I don’t care if you’re Hemingway.” That comes from a writing professor who may as well have been talking about email. No email should be sent without revision. Here's an email etiquette checklist to follow:

Your 26-year-old co-worker doesn’t want to wait until her annual review to find out how she’s doing at work. She wants to know now. Gen Y employees want more feedback, more often, than previous generations. They’ll seek it from their immediate boss, as well as others. If you’re not comfortable with or accustomed to offering feedback, heed these tips:

Lots of employers win sexual harassment lawsuits, but not until they have had to air their dirty laundry in public—and pay for the privilege, too. That’s one reason to insist on a professional workplace free of sexual innuendo and harassing behavior. HR performs one of its most valuable services when it impresses on management the high cost of winning a sexual harassment lawsuit ...

This spring’s swine flu scare might have been just a warm-up act for a far more serious flu pandemic this fall. If you took steps to prepare your workplace for an outbreak in April, dust off those plans and check them against our list of things to do to make sure your organization keeps running in the coming months.

American workers can access the Internet, e-mail, instant messaging and other forms of electronic communications from anywhere at anytime. While electronic communication helps people do their jobs, it also leaves a trail. A telephone conversation relies on the memory of two participants, but e-mail and IM discussions can be preserved for years to come. And, given the casual way so many people fire off e-mail these days, that can spell legal trouble for employers.

Social media, such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter, are leading to confusion over what’s appropriate: Should your boss be your Facebook friend? Can you “tweet” about work? What would your firm’s VP say about your mentioning him in your blog? Some tips from etiquette expert and labor lawyer Joseph Clees:

The key to not letting gossip drain energy from your workplace is teaching supervisors to effectively address employees’ concerns, such as rumors about layoffs. “Write a script, so that everyone is speaking in the same voice,” advises management expert Quint Studer.

Are you collecting your maximum tax breaks from the massive economic stimulus law passed earlier this year? The IRS has issued a fact sheet touting the tax perks available to small business owners under the new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Here are eight key provisions:

You schedule a meeting, then hear of a last-minute schedule conflict. A round of rescheduling e-mails only leads to confusion. Locations change, people forget to show up ... the list of common problems goes on. But if you’re a Microsoft Outlook (2002/2003) user, you can rely on Group Schedule to check schedules, fill out meeting requests and send group e-mails.

Before you decide to throw out old evaluations and files, consider this: An employee may sue and refer back to those evaluations from memory. If she remembers nothing but positive performance reviews until a recent poor appraisal (engineered, she believes, to get her fired), you’ll need to be able to show her employment history wasn’t as rosy as she remembers.

Question:  My department recently moved to a new building. Initially, everyone received a printout showing where our offices would be located. However, our boss decided to reconfigure the office assignments based on job responsibilities. I was given an office that was originally designated for “Judy.”  Judy seems offended by this change. I think she blames me for the decision, even though I had nothing to do with it. Now I’m starting to feel guilty.  How can I fix this? — Not My Fault

Remind upper-level managers: When a supervisor or mid-level manager makes comments that could be construed as racist or religiously motivated, it pays to act fast. In fact, firing the responsible manager sometimes can be the best way to go. That way, if the employee he disparaged later gets turned down for a promotion or a raise, it will be much harder for an attorney to show a connection between the supervisor’s biased views and the denied opportunity ...

Say you’re contemplating an investment in a new business venture. It’s somewhat risky, given the current economic conditions, but you may want to help a relative or friend get the business off the ground. Unfortunately, if things don’t pan out, the loss would have limited tax value. Strategy: Invest in Section 1244 stock. That way, as long as certain requirements are met, you can write off up to $100,000 if the business fails.

As Congress returns from its August recess, look for a renewed push to pass a compromise version of the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that’s been dubbed “the most sweeping pro-union legislation in the past 50 years.” The EFCA landscape is changing fast. Keep up with the latest by registering for our Aug. 27 webinar, Beyond EFCA: Preparing for the New Era of Union Organizing.

Consumers are hanging on tightly to every penny. One main cost they’re skimping on: their own health care—a move that experts say will lead to sicker Americans and higher health care costs down the road for U.S. employers. Here are three ways your organization can keep workers focused on their health even as they skimp on other expenses.

A recent study says that 40% of managers are considered “bad bosses” by their employees. Yet most managers assume that their relationships with their employees are running smoothly. Obviously, some of those bosses are wrong … and that can create major problems for a business. Here are seven common employee complaints about management, plus ways managers can silence them.

Q. Under what circumstances can my business make deductions from an exempt employee’s weekly salary without putting the employee’s FLSA exemption in jeopardy?

A survey of small business leaders performed by California-based TriNet Group says employee morale at small businesses was up or holding steady in the second quarter of 2009, according to 75% of respondents.

If you're relying solely on your memory to evaluate employee performance, you're making appraisals far more difficult than necessary. That's why it's best to institute a simple recording system to document employee performance. The most useful, easy-to-implement way is to create and maintain a log for each person. Follow these six steps:

Are some of your organization’s leaders still stuck in the Dark Ages when it comes to attitudes about pregnancy, childbirth and child care? You might be a few off-base questions away from a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit. Remind managers and supervisors to keep their opinions on mothers and motherhood to themselves.

Some employees think that any disability that periodically acts up entitles them to unlimited time off. Sometimes, courts view extra time off as a reasonable accommodation, but there are limits.

Q. How should I address a woman who uses two last names, such as "Geneva Besmer Silverstone"? By her maiden name, her surname or both?

Sure, at one time or another, we’ve all worked for some great bosses and some bad bosses. But nothing can be more debilitating than working for someone who is ignorant of the laws. In the following case, a company president walked right into an FMLA lawsuit because he had never even heard of the Family and Medical Leave Act. He knows about it now ...

What exactly is a tickler file, and what’s the best way to use one? We liked the answer one administrative assistant, Bonnie, gave on our online forum, Admin Pro Forum.

What's a smart HR professional to do when his or her employer is sued and the records you thought would back up management are gone? You can still save the day by locating different electronic or paper correspondence that supports your decisions ...

Web sites don’t last forever. Some changes can be accomplished with simple maintenance, but patching can take you only so far. Here are five signs that it’s time to revamp your site.

If you find yourself seeking new employment, consider taking proactive, positive approaches. All hinge on online methods, which 40% of new job seekers use in their searches (2008 Spherion Emerging Workforce Study).

Federal anti-discrimination law says employers must try to “reasonably accommodate” employees’ “sincerely held religious beliefs or practices,” as long as the accommodations wouldn’t place an undue hardship on their organizations. What religious practices would be deemed legitimate in the EEOC’s eyes?

Q. This refers to your recent article, Turn nondeductible support into child care credit. Wouldn’t the credit be outweighed by the income tax owed by the relative for watching the children?

Even if someone else in the management hierarchy actually terminates an employee, a supervisor who’s seemingly had it in for the employee can still cause a world of legal headaches for the employer. This is the so-called “cat’s paw” legal theory, which holds that employers are liable if they approve a recommendation that is based on illegal motives such as retaliation.

Employers often get into trouble when they punish someone who has filed an internal harassment or discrimination complaint. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t discipline employees for legitimate reasons just because they filed an unrelated complaint. The key is being able to show a good reason for your actions.

Here’s a way to guarantee a race discrimination case will go to a jury trial: Let a supervisor with an obvious racial bias participate in the decision to terminate an employee who belongs to the protected class the supervisor dislikes. Even if you have a seemingly legitimate reason to terminate the employee, the supervisor’s involvement will taint the entire process.

Even if it’s all in their heads, some employees think their co-workers and supervisors are out to get them. If they’re unable to find an attorney willing to take the case, they’ll often file the lawsuit themselves, asking the court to find and pay for an attorney. Fortunately, fewer and fewer judges are granting those requests.

The U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t decided any big sexual harassment cases for several years. That doesn’t mean the problem has disappeared or that employers should slack off in their efforts to prevent and fix sexual harassment. Instead, review your training program to make sure sexual harassment gets the attention it deserves. Then be sure to investigate any harassment complaints you receive.

Here’s added incentive to handle terminations and other employment actions at the local level. When employees sue, their attorneys often look to expand the lawsuit beyond one person. They’re trying to find larger patterns of discrimination. This strategy can sometimes succeed if higher-ups in the company made the decision and based it on a common policy or framework.

Employees who want to file a discrimination complaint have to meet tight deadlines. They have just 90 days after receiving an EEOC “right-to-sue” letter to start their lawsuits. A perceived threat from an employer —such as a statement that it will “dig up” everything it can about the employee—doesn’t excuse missing the deadline.

Ever since the Supreme Court decided the White v. Burlington Northern case in 2004, retaliation lawsuits have been all the rage. But lately there’s been good news for employers. Courts have been refining the retaliation standard for almost five years and have begun concluding that truly minor work changes aren’t retaliation.

Chip away at a paper pile by first flipping the stack upside down, so the oldest material is on top. It’s easier to toss out old things. Break down a large pile into one-inch piles. Attack the first one-inch pile by reviewing each piece and asking these four questions:

Leaders find business lessons every where, even from a shirtless guy at a music festival. See the Youtube video that went viral, and find out why two top business gurus believe that, when in doubt, good leaders just jump in with both feet.

You may have noticed more people than usual lurking outside your executive’s door. That’s because economic fears are prompting more employees to eavesdrop and gossip about what might happen next at their workplaces...

Queston: “I want to know if I should tell my manager that I’m looking for another job.  For the past several months, our company’s business has been declining. Management recently slashed our pay, and one of my co-workers was laid off. It seems obvious that anyone in this situation would be exploring other options, but I’m not sure if I should bring it up. I've always been able to talk openly with my boss, but lately he acts like a different person.” — Uncertain

By now, nearly everyone in HR has heard of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), under which unions would have a much easier time becoming certified. Because unions have become more aggressive and more successful at unionization even without the EFCA, I recommend that employers adopt the TEAM approach to keeping their workplaces union-free.

If you develop a reasonable retention policy and follow through by regularly deleting information you don’t need, chances are an employee later won’t be able to say you intentionally interfered with the ability to present a legal case ...

Leading Gen Y workers can be a baffling experience. "How do you find the good capital ‘G’ ones?” laments one leader. You may not find them, but you may be able to train them. Teach them skills they need, including the values of your organization.

If you notice that “summer stare” on employees’ faces as they gaze longingly out their office windows, it may be time for a morale-boosting seasonal schedule change. Here are some ideas working for the readers of the HR Specialist Forum:

Many employers place arbitration clauses in their employment applications or handbooks. The idea is that forcing employees to arbitrate workplace disputes will be quicker and easier than going to federal court. A recent federal court decision by a Florida-based judge has upheld the right to take even FLSA complaints over wage-and-hour law to arbitration.

Question: “Our organization will start a performance-based management for all employees in 2010.  We are to select two goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.  As an executive assistant to a senior-level executive in a large organization, I find it difficult to define specific and measurable goals. I schedule meetings, make travel arrangements and generally manage the people traffic for my boss's attention, but I don't see those duties as measurable.  Does anyone have suggestions for adding specific performance goals for an administrative support professional?” — Karen Bryant

If you’ve ever been caught up in an employment lawsuit, chances are you couldn’t wait for it to be over. Yet every case presents a valuable opportunity to prevent future problems and improve HR effectiveness by conducting an “autopsy” of the claim.

The economy is still funky. Unemployment continues to rise. And, with Boomers entering their retirement years, some of those older laid-off employees are crying foul. In fact, the EEOC last year reported a shocking 29% rise in age discrimination claims. The good news: A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision made it more difficult for employees to win such cases, as the following case shows …

In 2007, the EEOC released a set of guidelines advising employers on issues related to caregiver bias. Following up on that issue, the commission has supplemented those guidelines with recommendations designed to help employers “reduce the chance of EEO violations against caregivers.” It’s imperative that companies begin to train managers and supervisors on the content of this most recent guidance.

If your organization is limping through the economic downturn, you’ve no doubt considered cutting down your labor burden to save money. Before you resort to radical surgery—in the form of layoffs—consider a more benign cure that increases the odds of a full recovery. Furloughs—requiring staff to take unpaid time off—can reduce payroll costs without inflicting long-term damage.

Whether they’re shooting off their own “tweets” or following others, workers using Twitter—the fastest-growing social networking site—are creating liability and PR risks with their 140-character rants, raves and company gossip. Advice: Draft a brief policy on  your organization’s expectations for employee’s use of Twitter and other social networking sites (plus video).

Question: “My manager asked me to take over a very difficult position for which I had no background or training. He has been pleased with my progress. However, a group of guys from another department seem determined to make me fail. They ignore my requests, withhold information and argue about everything. My male predecessor left because of their behavior, so my being a woman is not the only problem. I tried making peace by offering to help with their work, but that only made things worse. Apparently, they viewed my olive branch as a sign of surrender. Recently, my boss and their manager decided that all communication between us must go through the two of them. This worries me, because it looks like I can’t handle the situation. Any suggestions?” — Not One of the Guys

Want to know how to get under the skin of the lawyers who represent employees? Ask one. They won't all cop to what sinks their cases, but this one did. Learn what she fears most when staring down an employer in court.

Meetings can be brutally boring. They can be too frequent, too long and too unproductive. You may think you can’t do anything to make a meeting more efficient and results-oriented—you aren’t the person leading it, right? But Amy Henderson, Henderson Training Inc., believes you can do a lot to influence a meeting.

Last year, U.S. employees filed a record number of legal complaints claiming they suffered discrimination at work. You know that U.S. anti-discrimination laws require managers to treat all applicants and employees equally. But what, specifically, do the laws require of supervisors and managers? Here’s a rundown:

1. Still shying away from Twitter? Almost a third of senior executives now use the social-networking tool ... 2. Gauge reactions to a controversial announcement before you deliver it to a group ...  3. Seek a new hire with integrity, intelligence and energy, advises Warren Buffett.

Employers expect employees to get to work on time. Occasional problems with traffic or family issues sometimes make employees late. But chronic tardiness is another thing altogether. While most employers track tardiness occurrences, they should do more. How?

You’ve been hearing a lot about creating value at work, especially lately, right? Being an intrapreneur is one way to do it. Intrapreneurs create a new process, product or service where they currently work. It’s like being an entrepreneur, but without venturing off to start your own business. It’s what Google famously allowed its employees time to do.

According to an EEOC lawsuit, when new management took over Club Gabys in Pembroke Pines, Fla., it stated its intention to “get rid of all the old and ugly people” and presumably replace them with young, beautiful and charming people like themselves ...

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that managers who actually supervise the work of subordinates have a duty to report sexual harassment when they learn of it. If they don’t, their employer can still be held liable.

If you use your computer system to monitor your employees, now’s a good time to ask your attorneys: Are we vulnerable to a lawsuit under the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a part of the federal Wiretap Act? A federal court considering a California case may have just made your electronic monitoring policies far riskier.

In light of the H1N1 virus pandemic scare, now's the time to make sure your organization has an effective pandemic plan in place. As public health officials prepare for a vaccination campaign this fall, here are 13 steps you can take to deal with H1N1.

When HR investigates discrimination complaints, you don’t have to act like a court of criminal law, deciding whether an employee is telling the truth “beyond a reasonable doubt.” So don’t feel paralyzed if a discrimination investigation boils down to one employee’s word against another’s. Use your best judgment to decide who is telling the truth and go with that judgment.

Question:  “My boss, “Debra,” has been a wonderful mentor. As a result of her mentoring skills, I was recently offered a job with another company at a 30% pay increase. I would like to repay her by doing some “reverse mentoring.” Debra oversees a department of 125 people, manages a $3 million budget and has an MBA. She is also one of the smartest people I know. However, top management here frequently fails to recognize excellence.

After 27 years with this company, Debra finally seems ready to move on. She has been asking me questions like “What else do you think I might be qualified for?”  How can I help her?” —Grateful to My Boss

The Obama administration is stepping up efforts to audit employers it believes are violating federal employment eligibility verification laws. At the same time, it's ending "no-match" letters and requiring federal government contractors to use the E-Verify electronic verification system. Find out the latest on the ever-shifting issue of immigration and employment.

It’s late, and you’re chained to your desk finishing work your boss needs first thing in the morning. The two colleagues who were helping with the project? Long gone. Don't get stuck going it alone like that again. These four tips will help you manage co-workers who drop the ball.

When an employee announces she’s pregnant, it’s important for HR and supervisors to know what they must do—and what they can’t do (or say) under federal anti-discrimination and leave laws. Most employers must comply with the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the FMLA. The ADA may apply if pregnancy complications arise.

Discipline and termination meetings are emotionally charged events that carry the potential for nasty words, hurt feelings and even legal troubles. As a manager, you never know how employees will respond to discipline or firings. But you need to be prepared for anything—including employees who “let it all out” in long, loud rants. Follow these four do’s and don’ts to defuse rants and avoid lawsuits:

How many times have you come up with a more efficient way to accomplish something and wished you could quickly share it with co-workers? You can with collaborative tech tools, says Richard Laermer, media consultant and author of Punk Marketing.

Employees who take intermittent FMLA leave can often cause real problems for employers because they take time off so sporadically. But sometimes you may detect a pattern that indicates the employee might be abusing authorized intermittent leave. Can you fire him?

CEOs want their HR leaders to break outside the operational box and become more strategic players. But many HR pros are so bogged down by daily process, they have trouble lifting their heads out of the weeds. Here's a self-assessment to help you gauge the strategic value you bring to your organization.

When fans of natural cosmetics maker Burt’s Bees learned the company was selling itself to Clorox, a buzz of protest followed, as customers complained the bleach maker was not environmentally friendly. In response, CEO John Replogle went blogging ...

“Hot teams” improvise, do more work with less supervision and make the extra effort to follow through. Management consultant Laurence Haughton offers this advice for turning ordinary groups into hot teams.

Some employees think they know their jobs better than their supervisors do. They want to decide which parts of their jobs are important and which parts are not. Then, when evaluation time rolls around, they try to show that they achieved their own goals for their jobs—even though management wanted other goals met. Don't let this happen.

Last week,  I sent out one of my periodic newsletters which featured my recent blog post on leadership lessons from the Boss, Bruce Springsteen. That article prompted a note from Rich Beach, a director at IT services provider CGI and an alumnus of our Next Level Leadership™ group coaching program. In addition to being a smart and interesting guy, it turns out that Rich is also a great writer and quite the rock and roll aficionado. In his note, he shared with me one more leadership story about Springsteen and a lesson from the Beatles about getting the right people on the bus.

So, with his permission, and in his own words, here’s Rich Beach with two really cool leadership lessons from the history of rock and roll.  Thanks Rich!

It’s important to let your supervisors know they should be careful about handling job reference queries involving poorly performing employees. In fact, it’s best if they refer all inquiries about ex-employees to HR. As the following case shows, it’s best to let the potential new employer reach its own conclusions about the worker.

Large organizations have long realized that HR interns contribute to the bottom line. They’re inexpensive, productive and eager to impress. Now, with budgets cut to the bone, HR departments can use all the talented, low-cost staffing they can get. That’s especially true for small and midsize HR departments. Here are the best ways to find HR interns:

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:

We all know the “basics” when it comes to computers, right? Not necessarily. One person’s everyday shortcut may be another person’s “Cool! I didn’t know you could do that!” Try these nine keyboard and mouse tricks right now.

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.

When you hear "negotiation," what comes to mind? When I ask this question at seminars, women often respond: men in suits arguing and yelling; buying a car; attorneys. When I ask how many women enjoy negotiating, only a few hands go up. Yet in reality, women are born to negotiate.

Give those URLs a trim ... Show your e-mail skills by avoiding supersize attachments ... Use the subject line to identify different categories of e-mail ... Feel more rejuvenated after a summer vacation by coming home on a Saturday ...

Wear your heart on your sleeve: Emphasize with customers’ deep-seated concerns by moving from passion to compassion in marketing ... Educate managers with faster, more specific training: The trend is to pick up tailored programs offered by consultancies ... Move beyond traditional risk-management to lead your company through faster times.

Q. Can you give me a rundown on the “card check” law everyone is so afraid will transform labor-management relations?

When employers investigate discrimination claims, they don’t have to act like courts of criminal law, deciding whether an employee is telling the truth “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Don’t feel paralyzed if a discrimination investigation boils down to one employee’s word against another’s. Use your best judgment to decide who is telling the truth and go with that judgment.

Sometimes, it isn’t the rule violation that makes a supervisor want to fire an employee, but the way the employee responds when confronted. Some will lie and deny what turns out to be obviously true. Others may ’fess up. You can leniently treat those who do the right thing, while punishing the others.

Q. A female employee has made a hostile environment claim for the first time. She alleged that her male supervisor began sexually harassing her more than two months ago. She claims she didn’t complain sooner because she feared her supervisor would retaliate against her. Based on her excuse, will we still be able to defend against a lawsuit claim by asserting that she unreasonably failed to use the complaint procedure available to her to prevent and stop any alleged harassment?

In a move that is surprising many, the EEOC has been taking on religious accommodations cases involving obscure and ill-defined religions. In one recent Florida case, the agency won the right to a jury trial for an employee who claims her religion requires her to wear a nose ring.

The Kinston-based Britthaven nursing home and assisted-living chain has settled a pregnancy discrimination claim with the EEOC for $300,000. The agreement settles a lawsuit brought by Katherine Hance and other pregnant employees who claimed they were treated differently from other employees ...

Some part-timers naturally want to move up to a full-time position. But when they apply and aren’t selected, they may claim they were turned down because of some form of discrimination—even if the real reason was that they weren’t performing well in their part-time roles.

Cutting training willy-nilly just to save money can create more problems than it solves. During economic downturns, companies need efficient, targeted training programs to improve productivity. And effective training positions companies to prosper as the economy recovers. To examine training programs and avoid eliminating those that do work, ask the following questions:

According to a recent survey, 22% of employees say they use some form of social networking five or more times per week, and 15% admit they access social media while at work for personal reasons. Yet, only 22% of companies have a formal policy that guides employees in how they can use social networking at work. Here are seven key questions to ask when drafting a social networking policy for your workplace.

Question: "I feel that I have been misled by my manager. When I was taking college courses, she told me she would work on getting my pay increased after I received my degree.Now that I’ve graduated, she says our company apparently does not give raises based on degrees.  She also says that our vice president feels I don’t deserve a raise because of tardiness and because I missed some meetings with him.I recently started an MBA program, but I’m not sure management appreciates my efforts to advance my career. What do you think?" — Educated and Underpaid

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.

As many companies cut back on expenses and, in some instances, cut staff, how do you maintain your edge and ask for what your department needs without immediately seeing your request denied? Tell a tale, become a storyteller and see your words make an impact.

Supervisors often come down hard on underperforming employees during regular performance reviews. But sometimes, completely negative appraisals can come back to haunt you if the employee later sues. Juries are more likely to believe that you terminated the employee fairly if you include some positive feedback.

Treasury has formally released its explanations of President Obama’s tax proposals for the 2010 fiscal year. The long-awaited “Green Book” provides vital in-depth information for both individual and business taxpayers. The proposed tax changes hit hard: Revenue-raisers aimed at individuals total more than $736 billion over 10 years while business tax cuts amount to $71 billion over the same period.

Any executive who has ever been charged with leading a turnaround has to empathize at some level with President Obama. How would you like to be accountable for two wars, a shaky economy, fixing the health care system and dealing with Iran and North Korea – all at once?  If you’ve led a turnaround, you know that the flood of issues can overwhelm you and make you more than a little frantic. The image I have in mind is the little Dutch boy trying to plug his fingers into all the holes leaking water from the dike.

Regular readers know that I’m an Obama supporter, but I’m beginning to worry (as is Colin Powell) that he’s trying to plug too many holes at once. As he travelled to Russia, Italy and Ghana last week, Obama needed to take time out to walk back comments from Vice President Biden on the economy and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on health care reform. You just get the sense of someone who is trying to keep too many plates spinning.

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...

When the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management got socked with back-to-back health premium increases of 21.9% and 19% in 2004 and 2005, respectively, its HR execs knew it was up to them to help the employees get healthy.

Q. We are having trouble making payroll and have asked our employees to give up pay for 20 hours per month while they work their regular schedules. Can we do this?

Spend any time scanning the world’s 112 million blogs and you’ll find plenty of employees discussing their work. Sometimes that spells legal trouble for employers. By implementing an effective company blogging policy, you may avoid many of the pitfalls ...

Jack Stack led an employee buyout of International Harvester’s remanufacturing division in 1982 and grew the company to 22 subsidiaries and sales of $150 million by 2000. He laid out his ideas in The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Outcome, his manifestos for open-book management. Today we would call his career a drive for financial transparency.

Q. We are a small start-up company. We have an office manager whom we pay $350 per week. I understand that, in order to be exempt from overtime labor laws, we would need to pay her at least $455 per week. We can’t afford to pay that amount, but are willing to provide her stock in the company. Will that help?

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

As a 48 year old, I am too young to have a first hand recollection of the role that former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara played in shaping the Vietnam War.  As a student of leadership and history, I’ve been fascinated to read the many different obituaries, articles and editorials that have been written about the man since he died earlier this week. They range from sympathetic (as an example, see this interview with George McGovern on Politico ) to reflective (for instance, David Ignatius’ column in the Washington Post to angry (Bob Herbert’s column in the New York Times is one example).

Of all the articles I’ve read on McNamara, the most comprehensive is the front page piece by Thomas Lippman in the Washington Post. With respect and acknowledgment to those who experienced Vietnam as young adults, here are a few lessons that I’ve picked up from the life of Robert McNamara that I think leaders should keep in mind.

Unions are flourishing during the current economic crisis, slowly emerging after decades of decline. Chances are, more and more of your employees are being courted by unions, whether your organization is currently a union workplace or not. Now's the time to educate yourself on what you can and cannot do to discourage union membership.

Like people, some workplaces welcome huggers. Others prefer a smartly extended right hand. "To hug or not to hug" is the question ... and here's the answer.

Question: What kind of touching is considered “inappropriate” at work? I don’t mean sexual contact, but simply an occasional pat on the arm or a hand on someone’s back. One of our managers, who is naturally gregarious, received a formal complaint about this kind of touching. The complaining person never said before that she was offended, so how was he to know? My own management style has been described as warm and “touchy-feely.” Should I start being more careful? -- Concerned

Q. An employee has requested one hour of unpaid intermittent FMLA leave. Can we require him to use up a half or full day of leave instead?

The economy is a shambles, and employers are doing everything they can to stay in business. That includes terminations, salary and wage cuts and temporary furloughs. Nearly every one of those moves carries litigation risk. Have your company’s personnel policies and practices had a checkup lately? A comprehensive audit is one of the easiest ways to spot problems.

Asked to look back over 30 years in the context of our tumultuous times, Jim Collins, author of the best-sellers Good to Great and Built to Last, offers these thoughts about where we find ourselves and how to proceed.

If you operate a business that is open to the general public, you’re legally obligated to make the premises accessible to disabled people. Similarly, you might update the facilities for disabled employees in your office. At least you can salvage some tax benefits when you modify the building: Build your renovation plans around the “disabled access credit.”

You may have noticed more people than usual lurking outside your executive’s door. That’s because economic fears are prompting more employees to eavesdrop and gossip about what might happen next at their workplaces. The solution? The times call for stepped-up communication, says Steve Williams, director of research for SHRM.

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.

Odds are that many forms of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, are already thriving in your workplace. As an employer, it’s best to make a conscious decision about how to address social media issues with your employees. Proactively develop a policy so you don’t get stuck doing damage control—perhaps becoming the latest talk heard ’round the virtual water cooler.

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":

Duane Reade, the New York/New Jersey drug store chain, has agreed to settle an EEOC lawsuit alleging that it allowed the work environment at one of its New York stores to become hostile by subjecting several female employees to sex and pregnancy discrimination.

When dashing off your next memo, report or e-mail, cut right to the core points. HR directors from half of the 120 major American corporations polled in a recent study said they consider writing ability when making promotions. "You can't move up without writing skills," one HR director said.

The EEOC essentially exists to prevent lawsuits by independently investigating discrimination claims and then trying to settle as many disputes as possible. Not surprisingly, the EEOC and its sister agencies often come to believe a discrimination problem exists and then urge employers to settle. Know that you don’t have to agree to settle.

An employee approved for intermittent FMLA leave says she only needs to take an hour this week. Can she take leave in such a short increment? Could she take even less?

At some point in their careers, most people end up in the position of being left to do the work after flaky colleagues drop the ball. Anita Bruzzese (www.45things.com), who writes about workplace issues, offers these four tips for handling co-workers who drop the ball, and how to get them to pull their weight:

I’m spending a lot of time this week talking with high potential leaders in our group coaching program about the next level strengths and opportunities that are showing up in their 360 degree feedback results. The goal is to get the focus down to improving one or two behaviors that will make the biggest difference in how effective they are as a leader over the next year. One thing I’ve learned in coaching busy leaders is that there’s a much greater chance of success if you focus your attention on one or two opportunities that could make a big difference than it is to spread your attention across 5 or 6 or even more things. My rule of thumb is if you can’t remember what you’re working on,  then you’re probably not going to get much better.

That’s where the T shirt comes in.

How can you be assured of enough face time with your boss to ask questions, convey critical information and dazzle her with your smarts—without coming across as a time drain? The key, advises author and workplace columnist Anita Bruzzese, is to be aware of what your boss wants and when and how she wants it.

Q. In your article on the new stimulus law, you say you can get the homebuyer credit for purchases in 2009. Can I claim the credit if I already own a home?

Attorney Alison West thinks every HR pro should keep a pen and paper with them at all times. “It will help you get into the habit of documenting,” she said at the SHRM Conference in New Orleans. West believes documentation is crucial to keeping a workplace running right—ensuring fairness, promoting good performance and, most important, winning in court if an employee sues you.

Let the battle begin. On March 10, The Employee Free Choice Act, commonly referred to as the “card check” bill, was introduced in Congress. It's the top legislative priority of labor unions. If passed, EFCA would streamline the process of union organizing, tilting it substantially in favor of workplace unionization. Union-free employers should consider acting now to keep their operations union-free. Here are the action steps to take today ...

Everyone in the financial world is stepping back and asking, “What am I supposed to be learning from this?” So says Scott Eblin, who interviewed financial-sector leaders in March for a senior executive client. The leaders had taken away four lessons ...

Q. I’ve heard conflicting answers: Is it legal for our company to pay our hourly employees comp time instead of paying time-and-a-half for overtime worked?

Tracking web sites, blogs, social networking sites, Twitter—it can be overwhelming. And if you’re not fluent with online tools, it can sometimes feel like a serious waste of time. Here are four tools to help you keep track, without straying to web pages you don’t have time for.

Violating Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) timekeeping rules can be a costly error, as the hospital in the case above discovered. The FLSA requires employers to keep at least the following ...

Q. We have a pregnant employee who is planning to take maternity leave soon. Her performance has deteriorated badly during her pregnancy, but we don’t think her pregnancy has anything to do with it. Can we terminate?

Prepare for media interviews by reviewing what the reporter has published or aired before. Ask the reporter for draft interview questions in advance. Most of all, know what you want to say and rehearse it. Follow these six tips to get the main idea you want to convey into an understandable story.

Sooner, rather than later, might be the time to think about possibly needing to negotiate a severance package, if you don’t have one. The landscape has changed, so here’s what to have in your back pocket.

We look in mirrors every day. They give us a reflection of ourselves. But what about our inner selves—our attitudes and thoughts? How often do we look there? True leaders look inward every day and take stock of themselves. As simple as it sounds, it’s the step most overlooked by managers in their journey to becoming leaders ...

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.

Too many employers assume they can just classify employees as FLSA exempt without being challenged. The truth is quite different. In fact, many overtime labor law cases are filed when an employer fires an employee for entirely legitimate reasons.

The IRS has yet to issue formal guidance on whether multiple vehicles can qualify for the new vehicle sales tax deduction. But taxpayers can expect some good news on the way. Alert: There’s no limit per taxpayer, an IRS spokesperson recently told tax publisher CCH. Therefore, if you qualify, you can write off sales and excise taxes for two or more vehicles purchased this year.

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.

Q. We need to cut two employees from our marketing department. One of the employees we would prefer to keep was hired only six months ago. If we don’t base our decision on seniority, are we more susceptible to discrimination claims?

Q. We’ve begun paying FLSA exempt employees 20% less per week and asking them to work 20% fewer hours. Some still continue to work far more hours. Can we legally do this, or must the employees report the actual number of hours they worked on their time sheets, even though they’re only receiving 80% of their regular salaries?

Q: “Our new CEO is very vindictive. He has ‘spies’ who feed him stories about employees that he doesn’t like. He fires people based on fabricated information, then displays his power by having security accompany them off the premises. I recently met with him to explain how this is hurting the business. I had data to prove that customer satisfaction and employee turnover have gotten worse since he arrived. But the CEO placed me on final warning for insubordination. For the next year, I can be immediately terminated for any additional offense. How do I establish a safe relationship with this man? — A Dedicated Manager

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.

A comprehensive document management system can help your business boost productivity, improve the bottom line and stay out of legal trouble. Here are three ways to organize files for easy retrieval, establish a record retention schedule and tame your wild email inbox.

My goal this morning is to leave you with some food for thought over the next few days.  This has been a week when I’ve had the opportunity to coach leaders in a number of different situations and settings.  I’ve been impressed and humbled in each instance by the conscious nature of leadership that I’ve seen.  My main contribution has been to frame up some questions and create some space for the leaders to observe themselves and determine what their next moves should be.  I thought I’d share some of those questions with you today.

Catch a second wind by tackling a task on your “Mind Like Mush” list ... Is your boss an ‘allergic-to-details’ type? Keep project files handy that contain details he or she is likely to need ... Find travel deals by booking later ... Spruce up your administrative “portfolio” by adding a dash of visual material.

Q. Regarding your recent article, Any tax impact if I don't take IRA distributions in '09, I question why you would pay income tax quarterly when the RMD is taken in the last quarter. Is your answer accurate?

Many supervisors and managers have yet to learn they shouldn’t make any comments about an employee’s EEOC or other discrimination complaint. Remind supervisors that any comment about employees’ legal claims can be retaliation—and retaliation is much easier to prove than actual discrimination.

Q. We have noticed some of our inventory is missing, and we believe it might be leaving our facility via our employees. Can we search them and their belongings?

Always investigate a co-worker harassment claim right away. If you find a problem, fix it immediately. A rule of thumb: If co-workers say things that most people would find inappropriate, chances are the terms really are offensive—and likely to create legal liability. Most common slang for race or ethnicity is likely to cause trouble.

Employees are often quite sophisticated about their legal rights—especially when they suspect their jobs may be on the chopping block. When they think of the lawsuit possibilities, they may even try to set up their employers. One easy way
to get a case going is to blow the whistle on alleged wrongdoing.

Q. I own a construction company. We require all employees to wear a company shirt. If an employee does not wear a company shirt, he or she is assessed a $25 per day penalty, which is deducted from the next paycheck. Is this penalty legal?

It’s time to check your policy on maternity leave. An Ohio appeals court has ruled that it may be discrimination if you don’t provide maternity leave to employees who don’t qualify for your usual leave plan because they haven’t been on the job long enough.

Sometimes, an employee whose job is in jeopardy will try to protect it by initiating a lawsuit intended to intimidate her employer. She may call in sick instead of showing up for a termination meeting, hoping to create an FMLA retaliation or interference claim. Here’s how to handle such tactics.

When it comes to a racially hostile environment, management must stay on top of the situation. As soon as anyone in HR or upper management gets even the slightest hint that hostile bias has reared its head on the front line, jump into action.

If you have a manager or supervisor whose decisions have caused lawsuits that you have lost, be on your toes the next time that manager has to make an employment decision. Make absolutely sure that you can pin the decision on some objective reason.

Don’t rely on old job descriptions or résumés to prove you have properly classified an employee as exempt from overtime. Instead, make sure employees’ job descriptions actually reflect the day-to-day work they’re performing. Little else counts.

Sometimes, employees claim protection from religious discrimination based on very unconventional beliefs. No matter how unusual, employers must reasonably accommodate those beliefs unless doing so causes an undue hardship. Employers should be prepared to show why it would be a hardship before terminating the employee.

Q. The authorized treating physician of an employee who suffered a job-related injury referred the employee to a pain management specialist. Now our employee tells us that our workers’ compensation carrier has not responded to the referral request. The carrier evidently believes that this referral is not reasonably and medically necessary. Can it deny the referral request for that reason?

It’s been many years since a big sexual harassment case hit the Supreme Court. That’s no reason for employers to rest easy. Regularly review your sexual harassment policy to make sure it’s doing what it should do. Don’t forget to train new managers and supervisors on how to handle complaints, especially those who have recently been promoted from lower-ranking positions.

Q. The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) has been headline news as of late. What is this proposed legislation?

A jury recently awarded a fired employee more than $10 million in punitive damages for age discrimination after what may seem like fairly insignificant ageist talk. Although the court has said the award should be lowered, the employee will still collect more than $6 million in compensatory damages.

Poor attitudes among managers and supervisors can infect the rest of an organization, and courts are becoming more aware of the adverse effects of such so-called “poisoned wells.” As the following case shows, when higher-ups in the organizational hierarchy display signs of discrimination, those lower down may act on those signs.

A federal jury has awarded $74,000 to Melissa Brown, a former food service director at Plymouth House nursing home in Plymouth Meeting, after the contractor employing her dismissed her when she sought maternity leave. But that was just the beginning ...

Employers have great leeway when it comes to discharging employees. But many employers get into trouble by failing to conduct a thorough and fair investigation. If the employee can prove the investigation was so cursory that it was just an excuse to cover up an illegal motivation such as age discrimination, the employer may lose big.

We can’t say it often enough: Employees can lose discrimination claims and still end up winning big because their employers retaliated against them for complaining in the first place. Don’t let that happen at your organization. Develop a plan to stop retaliation dead in its tracks ...

Some people have more trouble than others managing personal relationships. When such a person has a supervisory role, the result can be disastrous. Don’t fear discharging a lousy manager based on what you observe or find out following an investigation.

Fired employees with vengeance on their minds often go looking for a reason to sue. They often latch on to the charge that they complained about discrimination and then were punished. As the following case shows, it takes more than a casual mention of diversity to constitute a protected action.

A New Jersey court has held that e-mails employees send to their attorneys via work computers are not protected by the attorney-client privilege. The court’s willingness to rule that an employer’s right to control how employees use its computer equipment trumps attorney-client privilege is significant. The decision makes it clearer than ever that employers should carefully consider the language they use in their employee handbooks.

Employees everywhere are tapping their professional networks, as they look for new jobs or prepare for the possibility of a pink slip. The good news is that a number of strong associations already exist and can offer a string of networking benefits. Here are a few tips for

It’s natural to ask questions when you learn someone at work is going to have a baby. But it’s quite another thing when pregnancy-related questions come from supervisors. It's best to let HR handle any leave requests and the like. Otherwise, you just might find your questions interpreted as anti-pregnancy bias if you end up having to fire a pregnant employee.

If you have an employee who seems constantly exhausted, take note: He or she may suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). And under the newly revised Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), that person could be deemed “disabled” and entitled to reasonable work accommodations ...

Employers that made the 2009 Companies That Care Honor Roll are going green. Organizers of the 37-member Honor Roll point to a growing trend among applicants toward benefits, policies and activities that shrink their environmental footprint. Some of them encourage their employees to do the same. Some examples:

If your boss micromanages and drives you crazy, forge a stronger relationship with him or her. For example, practice the "art" of communication, says Harry E. Chambers, author of My Way or the Highway—the Micromanagement Survival Guide. “Show that you’re in motion on priority projects by communicating in three specific terms: awareness, reassurance and timelines."

You know a presentation is going badly when audience members start tapping on their BlackBerrys. These days, especially, it isn't easy to capture and hold a group's attention.Keep your presentation clear and effective with these PowerPoint tips:

Although it may seem counterintuitive, there are many good reasons to launch a one-person HR consultancy as the economy sputters. Despite the layoffs and budget cuts, downsized organizations are still hiring HR consultants and contractors to perform a range of basic services.

Despite the daily economic lamentations, some employers are still hiring. Employers that are hiring may think they are in the catbird seat because they may have hundreds of applicants for each position. But a bonanza of applicants is no excuse for shoddy hiring practices.

With competition for customers and clients keener than ever, your product related presentations can make or break sales. Close the deal by sharpening your pitch with the methods of Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs, a widely acknowledged master of presentations.

The two biggest comp and benefits myths about Generation Y employees—your youngest workers—are that they don’t care about money … and that they care only about money. They want more than that. In fact, they want way more. Use their demands as a negotiating tool, and watch the productivity of these young, tech-savvy go-getters soar in response.

You've scrupulously avoided office gossip, but that isn't protecting you from being the subject of this week's chitchat. Wanting to jump quickly to your own defense is a normal reaction, but it might exacerbate the situation. Follow these steps to salvage your reputation and stop the gossip.

Question: "What types of policy/guidelines do you have for office events during business hours? For example, does the admin plan the event or should a committee plan it? How involved is the senior management staff in planning an event?" — Anonymous
 

The federal government has announced a delay in the implementation date for two regulations that affect employers: using the online E-Verify system to check the work eligibility status for new hires and having a written plan to detect and mitigate identity theft of consumers' data.

Q. If an employee constantly calls in sick because of migraine headaches, how can we verify the real reason for the absences? Can we ask for information each time the employee is absent?

Years ago, when I was a corporate executive myself, I read and re-read Kevin Cashman’s Leadership from the Inside Out.  (A second edition has recently been released which I encourage you to buy.)  With its emphasis on the leader as a whole person, Kevin’s book really helped me get up on the balcony and look at the bigger picture of what I was trying to do, what really mattered and how I need to show up to make all of that more likely.  The time I spent with Leadership from the Inside Out had a lot to do with why I became an executive coach eight and a half years ago.  As Kevin would say, coaching is my “sweet spot.”

So, being such a fan of Kevin’s work, you can imagine how happy I was to hear him deliver the keynote presentation last week at the annual meeting of the Washington, DC chapter of the International Coach Federation.  He did not disappoint.  In his talk, Kevin shared 11 things he’s learned in 30 years of coaching leaders.  It was all good, but here are a few of his points that hit home with me that I want to share with you:

Major railroads announced more furloughs of employees in recent days as they try to decide between getting rid of workers completely or keeping them on retainer in hope the economy will improve soon.

Bonuses have gotten a bad name lately. But the howls of outrage that followed news of AIG execs' huge retention bonuses shouldn't be the death knell of pay for performance. Here are 10 tips for making your bonus system work in today's economy.

If you need more incentive to persuade supervisors to stop making negative comments about employees’ ages, consider this: A jury recently awarded a fired employee more than $10 million in punitive damages for age discrimination after what may seem like fairly insignificant ageist talk.

Question: I can’t seem to get promoted, even though I am well-qualified. My performance evaluations are excellent, and I have received numerous awards. The company posts promotional opportunities so that anyone can apply, but the “winning” applicant always seems to have been selected in advance. Obviously, politics plays a great part in these selections, and I am not a political person. I do interact with people, but I just don’t do it with an agenda in mind. How can I get ahead? —  No Way Out

The recession has plenty of employees distracted and anxious—about their jobs, their 401(k)s and their monthly bills. That’s not good news at a time when you need to squeeze every ounce of productivity from your employees. These 14 tips can motivate shell-shocked employees.

Q. In a recent article, Roth conversions: a partial maneuver, you said you could convert part of an IRA to a Roth. Can you undo a partial conversion?

Employers that hire outside firms or investigators to conduct employee investigations and background checks must make sure those vendors strictly comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Failing to do so can result in substantial legal risks, including damages, penalties, fines, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees awards.

Macy’s CEO Terry J. Lundgren knows it’s valuable to see your business the way your customers do. So he spends time each week walking Macy’s floors as a customer would. The experience allows him to get a feel for the shopping experience in a particular store and to take any issues or concerns back to management.

Last week I was coaching a group of high-potential leaders moving up to the executive level. Our topic was “organizational presence,” which was on point since many of these folks are working on expanding their networks beyond their immediate areas of responsibility. 

When I lead a group coaching session, I like to have everyone share examples of what they’re doing to improve their leadership skills in “real life.”  It was striking to hear the results that several leaders were getting by being intentional about asking more questions in meetings. There were two big tips in the stories. Here they are along with a “bonus tip” I shared with the group.

President Obama has said he wants to “make government cool again.” His latest attempt: The federal government’s HR directors are studying a plan to boost the starting pay of college grads by a cool $8,000 a year—to $41,210.

The best way to cultivate passion in your employees is to exude it yourself. If you love what you’re doing and express your enthusiasm, others will follow your lead.

A former manager at Tyler Roofing Co. recently filed suit against the company, claiming that his employment was terminated because he missed work to receive cancer treatments. He sued for disability discrimination and violations of the FMLA in the Eastern District of Texas.

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

Ford’s new chief executive, Alan Mulally, was mocked in 2006 for gathering more than 400 bankers into a ballroom and asking them to mortgage the company’s assets to pay for an overhaul of the carmaker. The cash, he said, would give Ford “a cushion to protect for a recession or other unexpected event.” Here are some take-away lessons from this forward-thinking leader:

Terminating a pregnant employee because she has minor medical restrictions can be very expensive. The move may mean you have to make the employee financially whole—plus pay a large punitive damage award and attorneys’ fees. Here’s the best way to handle temporary medical restrictions associated with pregnancy:

It's almost performance review time, and you want to bring up issues with your boss about co-workers but not sound like a griper? Liz Ryan, a workplace expert, gives her advice on how to speak up during a review:

The Department of Homeland Security announced last month it is shifting its immigration enforcement efforts to target employers that hire undocumented workers, rather than targeting the workers. The new emphasis should put employers on notice to pay close attention to their employment eligibility verification processes. Failing to comply can carry a high price.

This is the time of year when college students start serving summer internships. Often, students offer to work without pay just to get the experience. But does this influx of possible free labor carry hidden risks? Perhaps ...

How often do you start the day with a to-do list? And how often does that list fly out the window by 10 a.m.? The trouble is, says time management coach Patricia Hutchings, we don’t build enough flexibility into our calendars.

While you may not have been partying much at the office lately, some employers see summer as an ideal time for an all-staff get-together. Instead of spending a lot on flowers and glassware rentals, get creative with these summertime themes.

Employee theft is a huge problem, and employers are sometimes tempted to make an example of a thief. They hope to discourage other employees from stealing. It’s a bad idea, because the alleged thief may sue for defamation. Instead, keep the information as confidential as possible.

Anybody can lead people who are hardworking, pleasant, thoughtful, respectful and fun. The true challenge is whether you can handle PITAs, which stands for either Pains In The Ass or Professionals Increasing Their Awareness, depending on how kind you are. Here are a few types of PITAs and how best to lead them.

Congress is considering legislation that would require employers with 15 or more workers to provide seven days of paid sick leave per employee per year, an expansion of the FMLA that a coalition of HR and business groups immediately decried.

As Chrysler sought a buyer, Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray wondered how much it would cost the state in workers’ compensation payouts. Chrysler self-insures its workers’ compensation, but Fiat may not want to assume that obligation. What happens to workers receiving benefits then?

When you’re giving feedback, neither constant praise nor endless criticism is any good. Many leaders fall silent when something is done right. Even worse, unrelenting criticism undercuts morale and kicks up anxiety, killing any joy that people take in their work.

If an employee is taking FMLA leave to care for a newborn or to adopt a child, you can require the person to take any planned FMLA leave in one session. FMLA intermittent leave is not guaranteed for birth and adoption the way it is for other serious conditions that require periodic care.

If an employee asks to be reclassified from nonexempt to exempt, make sure you carefully look at her position to determine her proper classification. If you have a legitimate reason for your classification decision, chances are she won’t be able to win a claim that you discriminated when you refused to reclassify her as an exempt employee.

Ben Smilowitz, a student at the University of Connecticut Law School, never figured he’d start an organization monitoring disaster relief. That’s what happened, though, after he volunteered to help Hurricane Katrina victims and witnessed large gaps in response firsthand.

Being out of a job for an extended period no longer carries the stigma it once did for top managers, says a new Robert Half Management survey.

Even though it’s a cliché, our greatest strengths are also our greatest weaknesses. For Thomas Jefferson, his strength lay in trusting people, but—especially when it came to financial matters—he trusted them too much. To use the signature phrase of a much later president, Ronald Reagan, Jefferson needed to “trust but verify.”

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.

Digging your company out of this recession will probably require some unconventional thinking. Most small businesses can’t simply play it safe and expect to thrive, let alone survive. Ira Blumenthal, author of Ready, Blame, Fire: Myths and Misses in Marketing, points out 10 common business myths that small business owners are too quick to believe in.

Ask your employees to focus on razor-thin, challenging targets, and they might fail or do something unethical. Instead, use this 10-point checklist when setting performance goals for others:

Boost productivity by “plotting” the items on your to-do list ... Organize a boss’s overflowing e-mail box by setting up inbox folders ... Manage team conflict with this tactic ... Take a breather every hour, for peak productivity ...

Pulled from the pages of HR Specialist newsletters, here are five practical, workplace-proven tips for you to try. From management advice to hiring innovations, they'll help you work smarter and more productively.

A Houston manufacturing company has paid $1.6 million in back wages to 1,751 employee, a federal jury in Newark has awarded $2.5 million in damages to 343 sales managers employed by office superstore Staples and even the feds can’t keep overtime law straight. Overtime violations were on the rise this month. Here's a rundown of a few recent cases.

Nearly a third of HR professionals plan to alter their total rewards programs with generational preferences in mind, according to the new Top Five Total Rewards Priorities survey. That figure is likely to increase significantly in the future because the workforce is becoming more multigenerational—especially as older workers remain longer to rebuild their nest eggs.

Do you own a “vacation home” near a beach or in the mountains? It’s a great place, but maybe your children have grown up and moved away or the place has become too expensive to maintain—or both. Strategy: Rent out the home part of the year. Although it can be a hassle, the cash flow and tax benefits may outweigh the inconvenience.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 gives small business owners a second chance at a “one-time” tax-saving opportunity. It revives the enhanced Section 179 deduction and “bonus depreciation” tax breaks that officially expired after 2008. These two tax goodies can be combined so that your small business can write off most, if not all, of the cost of new assets placed in service this year.

Fear can paralyze even the most successful people. To make it through the recession, though, businesses need people who can be fearless. Gayle Lantz, author of Take the Bull by the Horns, says that to move back into “thrive” mode, “You’ve got to figure out how to aggressively move forward.”

As an executive coach and someone who spends a lot of my time trying to figure out how leaders can be more effective, you can imagine how excited I was to learn that there is all kinds of new data out on employee satisfaction in the federal government. The Partnership for Public Service has released the results of its biannual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government report. Being the total leadership geek that I am, it’s been a lot of fun for me to get online and sort through the 74 employee survey questions that the study is based upon. What’s even more fun for me is the direct comparison between the public and private sectors on 13 benchmark questions from the Best Places to Work studies.

(I know what you’re thinking.  “Wow, he needs to find a hobby or something.”  You may be right, but hang with me as I’m getting to the really good stuff.)

That’s the advice Marilyn Carlson Nelson received from her dad when she was 13 years old. Today Nelson, owner of the $40 billion Carlson Cos., is one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs and philanthropists.

Q. We have an employee in her third week of maternity-related FMLA leave who comes to work to check her e-mails, make some work calls, etc. How should we handle this? Could there be liability issues because there’s no doctor’s release yet?

The FMLA now requires employers to give employees serving in the military (or who are next of kin to service members) up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave under specific conditions. While few employers begrudge military families such leave, unforeseen leave can pose scheduling problems as employers come into the summer vacation season.

Pregnant employees of Southfield, Mich.-based accounting firm Plante & Moran count on support from co-workers who’ve been there. HR pairs expectant moms with those who’ve recently had babies so they can ask questions and get support. The buddies also help new moms make a successful transition back to work.

Base compensation and incentives for HR professionals took a hit last year, according to a new SHRM report, and they aren’t likely to recover anytime soon. The one bright spot, ironically, is pay for compensation and benefits specialists.

One of the biggest problems with the FMLA has always been the certification process. Until recently, employers weren’t allowed to call a health care provider whose form looked suspicious or whose diagnosis sounded suspect. Now, fortunately, employers can at least call the medical provider to ask whether the information on the form is accurate and get clarification on any unclear parts.

Employees do the darnedest things, and it’s often up to HR to clean up the resulting mess. Better to have prevented it in the first place. Two recent news stories point out problems that could have been stopped with simple policies on use of technology in the workplace. With the right handbook lingo, much corporate embarrassment could have been avoided.

The Supreme Court has ruled that women whose retirement benefits are worth less because they weren’t credited for time spent on maternity leave before enactment of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act can’t sue to recover lost funds. The decision in AT&T Corp. v. Hulteen generally followed the reasoning the High Court used in its landmark Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber ruling: If a policy was legal at the time alleged discrimination occurred, employees can’t challenge it retroactively.

If you’re in a management role, make sure you “onboard” new hires. You’ll benefit from more engaged, productive employees who want to stay and be committed to the company. Try these three simple ideas:

Don’t wall yourself off from employees. Instead, make yourself an accessible member of the team like Japan Airlines CEO Haruka Nishimatsu. He's even removed the walls from his office so that anyone can stop by without an appointment.

Your boss asked you to prepare a spreadsheet for a meeting the next day. It took a couple of hours and some shuffling of priorities, but you did it. When you arrive at the meeting, though, your boss handed you a spreadsheet that someone else created. Should you tell your boss how frustrated you are?

The Supreme Court on May 18 ruled that women whose retirement benefits are worth less because they weren’t credited for time spent on maternity leave before enactment of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act can’t sue to recover lost funds. Learn more about a case with important implications for benefits programs.

Take steps to ensure that you knock this year’s performance review out of the park. Normally, says workplace expert and former HR executive Liz Ryan, only a small percentage of employees invest time in preparing. “But in 2009, performance reviews will matter—a lot,” Ryan says.

At PCL Construction in Denver, employees decide which wellness programs the organization will offer. Employee-run wellness committees at each corporate location focus on physical, financial and community wellness, as well as team building.

Uncle Sam often examines deductible travel expenses through a magnifying glass. So both employers and employees must meet strict recordkeeping rules—or face the consequences. Fortunately, you can take a shortcut. Use IRS-approved per-diem allowance rates in lieu of accounting for every bagel and cab ride from an employee's business trip.

The federal government has announced a delay in the implementation date for two regulations that affect employers: E-Verify and the "red flag" rules.

Does your company have a mentoring program? About 70% of Fortune 500 companies do. Even if you don’t have a formal way to seek out a mentor, consider doing the legwork to find one on your own.

Parents of disabled kids who work for data management firm NetApp have access to enhanced health benefits to cover speech, occupational and physical therapy. Any child up to 12 years old who is diagnosed with a developmental delay or disorder is covered.

Employees who believe their employers may be forcing them to participate in a tip pool and may be diverting part of the tips to owners or managers who aren’t entitled to them may or may not have a right to sue on their own behalf.

You might have rogue managers in your midst without even knowing it. If one of your supervisors has it in for a subordinate for discriminatory reasons, and you rely on his recommendation to terminate an employee, you may be in trouble.

Here’s a simple way to prevent lawsuits when you have to fire a recently hired employee: Direct the person who hired the employee to also do the firing. If the employee belongs to a protected class, courts will conclude that the termination wasn’t discriminatory. Otherwise, why would the employee have been hired in the first place?

To avoid paying overtime and keeping track of every minute employees spend on the job, many employers reflexively classify employees as exempt rather than hourly employees. But many employers get it wrong—and that can be costly.

Now that much of our workplace communication is via e-mail, text messages and IMs that can be easily saved—and recovered—it’s easier to gather the evidence you need to win in court. If you think an employee is being insubordinate, be sure to review and archive all relevant e-mails.

Congratulations! You’ve settled a case. Now make sure the same employee doesn’t sue you again. Remind managers and supervisors to treat the employee exactly like they treat all other employees in the same position.

In its 1998 collective-bargaining agreement, Caterpillar promised to provide retiree health benefits to its workers at no cost to them. By 2005, Caterpillar recognized it could no longer provide the health benefits without the retirees chipping in. When labor and management sat down at the table to hammer out a new agreement, retiree health costs was one of the sticking points ...

Employees who’ve been fired have little to lose—and they’re quite likely to see a lawyer about possible litigation. Right off the bat, you can expect that attorney to check whether the employer conducted a real investigation before making the termination decision.

Employers, beware: More employees are suing over so-called association discrimination, claiming their friendships or other relationships with black employees have resulted in discrimination against them, in addition to their acquaintances. Recently, the 6th Circuit came up with guidelines for when employees can sue based on their relationships with black employees.

Murphy Ford of Chester will pay $244,000 to settle sexual harassment complaints from three female employees. According to a complaint filed with the EEOC, the women complained to management about the dealership’s service manager who used to grab his private parts and make sexually explicit comments.

Sometimes, immediate supervisors want to be helpful when a valued employee asks for disability accommodations that seem reasonable. Instead of having HR handle the ADA process, they just make the accommodations themselves. That’s a scenario for trouble down the line.

A newly elected official may want to terminate those employees politically tied to his predecessor—and he often may ask HR how to handle the firings. Because such cases can be close calls, always refer the matter to experienced legal counsel.

President Obama has issued four executive orders that fundamentally change the government’s policy on federal contracting—in ways that dramatically favor organized labor. Obama signed the four new orders less than 30 days after taking office.

A Clemmons Burger King is the latest fish caught in the EEOC’s teen sexual harassment net. Burger King will pay $85,000 to a teenage employee who was subject to unwanted touching, sexual advances and requests for sexual favors from the store’s general manager.

Seeking radical change in your organization? Be revolutionary. While managers believe in distributing information, rebels realize that emotions of pride and anger can move a group of people forward.

It won’t surprise you that most companies plan to spend less on training this year. Rather than lament the fact that there’s less money in the budget for traditional training, consider this: Less-formal training might be more effective than formal training, and it still allows you to develop your career.

A new EEOC document spells out the best practices employers should follow to avoid discriminating against workers who care for ill family members, an issue that's especially critical in a down economy. Follow our links to download your copy of this important EEOC guidance.

The decision to outsource HR functions often means a lot of hard work. Hiring a consultant to sort through outsourcing options—whether for payroll, benefits administration or any of dozens of other functions—can save time and money. But you must choose the right consultant.

Employees do the darnedest things, and HR and managers frequently wind up trying to undo the damage. Our newest webinar — Today's Most Bizarre Recent Workplace Cases: How to Prevent Outrageous Workplace Behavior (May 28) — tells tales of outrageous employee behavior ... and the lawsuit against the employer that followed. Here’s our take on the topic, with cases pulled from the pages of our HR Specialist newsletters.

The FMLA grants 12 weeks of unpaid leave to handle a serious medical condition. Military family caregiver leave rules provide for 26 weeks off. But what happens when an employee can invoke both, for example, when she must care for a wounded military spouse while she is pregnant?

It’s becoming a common problem: An employer discovers disparaging comments on an employee’s Facebook, MySpace or personal blog. Maybe a post reveals internal company information. Can the employer take disciplinary action? It depends.

You probably know how to make a case for a raise: by touting the tangible ways in which you’ve added value to the company. But once you’ve asked your boss, he or she will probably respond in one of three ways. Here’s how to handle each possible response and move the conversation toward your ultimate goal: getting a raise.

Thanks to Google’s policy of allowing employees time each week to work on pet projects, the company is forever unleashing new tools to improve your googleability. These four new tools could make you more fluent, more efficient and better-informed.

It’s a myth that good work makes a good career—rather, good office politics makes a good career, says career columnist Penelope Trunk. Here’s how to use office politics in building your career:

Even as we watch the stock market slowly recover, organizations are still laying off employees and searching for ways to cut overhead. If your organization is eliminating even one job, plan it carefully. A hasty layoff can create legal problems that cost more down the road than keeping the employee would have. Here are 10 things to consider:

With the economy slowing down, now is the best time to fine-tune your LinkedIn or Facebook profile, fleshing out the blank spaces and figuring out how to take advantage of those social networking sites. Here are a few tips.

Recently, workplace expert Tory Johnson was interviewed about how women can succeed in a challenging job market (smartblogs.com/workforce). She talked about what she believes is the biggest challenge for female managers, but the advice could easily apply to anyone. Here’s what she said:

Employees who are having work troubles sometimes think they can prevent being fired by asking for FMLA leave. Their ace in the hole if they are fired: They can always sue for retaliation under the FMLA. That only works if those responsible for the termination decision actually know that the employee has asked for FMLA leave ...

When Benjamin Franklin began to put together a public library in Philadelphia, he needed the help of many friends. Instead of claiming the idea, he presented it as a collaborative effort, expediting the process. Franklin emphasized this simple strategy for leadership: Don’t worry about who gets credit.

Clear the deck, scrub it down and start over? Remove everything and put back only what you need? In your dreams! If "cluttered desk," "cluttered mind" is your motto and purging your work station of clutter is only a dream, approach it one problem at a time. Use these seven steps to "declutter" ...

Last year, U.S. employees filed a record number of legal complaints claiming they suffered discrimination at work. You know that U.S. anti-discrimination laws require managers to treat all applicants and employees equally. But what, specifically, do the laws require of supervisors and managers? Here’s a rundown.

Dick Fuld saved Lehman in the late 1990s, following the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management. Ten years later, he probably thought he’d do it again. What causes a good leader to make bad decisions?

Getting ready to create a website, business card or brochure? Think twice before you “save money” by using a template — it could end up costing you $100,000.

With more talent chasing fewer jobs, especially in the financial sector, it can’t hurt to freshen up your résumé and look around. For starters, brace yourself: MBAs, to give one example, are flooding the market. Recruiters receive 50 to 60 résumés per opening where they used to get 10 to 20, so concentrate on showing how you contributed to the bottom line.

In his latest New Yorker article, “How David Beats Goliath,”  Malcolm Gladwell tells stories of how outmatched underdogs beat their much larger, more experienced competitors. He begins with the story of an inexperienced 12 year old girls basketball team that went all the way to the national championship game by running a relentless full court press every game.  He moves onto the story of David slaying Goliath and cites some fascinating research by Harvard political scientist Ivan Arreguin-Toft who studied every war fought in the last 200 years that pitted strong and weak opponents against each other.  On the whole, the underdogs won 28% of the time. When they recognized their weaknesses and adapted their strategies to compensate for them they won 64% of the time.

Pretty stunning, huh?  Gladwell’s article got me thinking about what leaders need to learn from underdogs.  Over the past seven months, as the Federal government has taken a much more active role in stimulating the economy, reviving the financial services sector and restructuring the auto industry, we’ve been regularly reminded of Richard Nixon’s observation in 1971 (and Milton Friedman’s before that) that, “We are all Keynesians now.”  As we move through the downturn and into recovery, perhaps leaders need to adopt the mindset of, “We are all underdogs now.”  With that in mind, here are three success rules of underdogs that can help leaders facing long odds.

Q. We have an exempt administrative employee who is on intermittent FMLA leave. She’s unable to work on Fridays for two or three hours due to a serious health condition. By policy, she must use any accrued sick leave when she is out sick, typically in whole-day increments. Can we charge her sick time in hourly intervals because she is utilizing FMLA intermittent leave even if we charge her in larger blocks when she is just plain sick?

It’s sad enough when an employee becomes seriously ill. What makes it tougher is that work doesn’t stop. Responding to these challenges requires tact, sensitivity and flexibility. Mistakes can mean not only hurt feelings but also potential legal liability problems. The key is balance ...

Q. I am the HR manager of a company with about 350 employees. I have just learned that the company is eliminating one product line and, as a result, there will be a layoff in that department. One of the employees who would be laid off is on FMLA leave. How do I handle this situation? ...

Admin Brooke Wiseman knew that administrative professionals in her company weren’t being used in the most productive ways. For example, some shared the same title but had wide variations in duties. Her goal was to bring more value to the company by turbocharging the partnerships between executives and their assistants. Here’s how she did it.

Many job descriptions conclude with the catchall requirement that employees must perform “other duties as required.” But are some of your supervisors expanding that definition to ridiculous extremes? Such nonwork-related duties are certain to annoy employees, which will hurt retention. At worst, they could create safety hazards and legal claims. Encourage supervisors to keep employees strictly focused on business-related work that furthers the company’s—not the boss’s—goals.

The last time Chrysler found itself in deep peril, in the mid-1980s, Lee Iacocca hired turnaround artist Steve Miller to jump-start the company. Miller recounts meeting a Japanese-American, Reiko McKendry, who wanted to help defuse anti-Japanese sentiment in America and make Chrysler competitive again ...

Turning your back on difficult employees isn't just a management mistake, it can also create legal trouble. That's why, when confronted with employees who don't do what's asked, it's best to devise a strategy for making the best of a potentially explosive situation. Although it may be hard to transform a difficult employee into a warm, friendly ally, you can take the following steps to make it easier for the employee to comply.

It’s not enough if you pay your income tax to Uncle Sam, it’s also a question of when the tax is paid. You could be assessed an “estimated tax” interest charge penalty if you don’t fork over the required tax in a timely fashion. Fortunately, you can avoid any penalties if you qualify under one of three safe-harbor methods. The new economic stimulus law eases one of these safe harbors for qualified small business owners.

New FMLA regulations went into effect in January. Now is an excellent time to offer everyone in management a refresher course in what the FMLA requires. If managers remain ignorant of the new rules—or the old ones still in place—you increase the risk that an employee will charge them with willful violations.

Even the feds can’t keep overtime law straight. An arbitrator has ruled that the EEOC—of all agencies!—willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by forcing employees to take comp time instead of overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours a week. Need more proof that there's an irony epidemic these days? Increasing numbers of lawsuits are being filed against ... lawyers!

Crack open those books. Starting in 2011, the HR Certification Institute will tighten the eligibility requirements to earn the most popular HR certifications: the PHR, SPHR and GPHR.

Bonuses have gotten a bad name lately. But the howls of outrage that followed news of AIG execs' huge retention bonuses shouldn't sound the death knell of pay for performance. Here are 10 tips for making your bonus system work in today's economy.

If you die with most of your retirement funds intact, your family could get walloped by estate tax on top of a hefty income tax bill for required plan distributions. Strategy: Use retirement plan funds to buy life insurance. When you die, the life insurance benefits are tax-free to the beneficiaries. They can use the cash to pay off their tax bills and pocket the rest.

One of the basics in the senior leader’s communications repertoire is the town hall meeting.  Sometimes (oftentimes?), these meetings can really run off the rails.  When they do, it’s usually because the leader comes in without the answers that people care most about.  Another classic mistake is to come in with the desired information but to deliver it in a way that shows no connection whatsoever with the people in the audience.

Fortunately for all of us, there aren’t many town hall meetings on the subject of what leaders are doing  to prevent a global pandemic of influenza.  But, that’s exactly what three senior leaders took on in front of the White House press corps that Sunday afternoon.  To share what the government is doing to deal with the rapidly developing outbreak of a new strain of swine flu, homeland security advisor John Brennan, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control Richard Besser and Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano took to the airwaves.  By chance, I watched it on CNN as it happened and I have to say it was a best practice example of how to conduct a town hall meeting.  (If you missed the briefing, you can watch it here. If you want more information on swine flu and how to stay healthy, visit the CDC website here. In about 20 minutes, these government leaders showed how it should be done when it comes to the what and how of conducting a successful town hall meeting.

Here’s what I saw in their briefing and what leaders can learn from their example.

Shumeet Banerji, chief of the reformulated consulting firm Booz & Co., says, “I don’t believe that leadership is innate, and neither does the firm,” he says. “We believe it can be learned."

Odds are your desk is a hub of organization. If that’s the case, you’re in the ideal position to create more value for your company by coaching others on ROO, or Return on Organization. Your task: Identify a few valuable tips, then share your expertise with others by offering a Lunch ‘n’ Learn on the topic, writing an article in the company newsletter or posting tips through e-mail.

There’s leadership magic in a company that turns kitchen helpers into millionaires. The evidence is in Everything I Know About Business I Learned at McDonald’s, a compendium of simple wisdom by Paul Facella, who started working at Mickey D’s as a teenager and retired as a regional vice president.

Anytime you thrust people together, whether work related or family related, you come across a “toxic taker.” Toxic takers poison your environment, and you need to take action against them. Here are some survival tactics.

Whether you're dining with peers at a convention or meeting with a vendor, lunch etiquette can keep you from marring your image with a faux pas. Here are five etiquette rules for business meals ...

Your business has crunched the numbers, considered the alternatives and come to the conclusion that layoffs are necessary if the business is to remain afloat during these challenging economic times. But how much thought have you given to your remaining employees who are about to watch their friends and colleagues lose their jobs?

In this brutal economy, desperate applicants—and current workers who believe they may be laid off soon—are trying an interesting tactic: They’re volunteering to work for less pay … sometimes much less. A new court ruling shows why you should take those offers seriously.

If your organization sells products or services on credit, take note: August 1, 2009, is the deadline to comply with the “red flag” rules, which require creditors to implement a written program for “detection, prevention and mitigation” of identity theft of consumers’ data. (The FTC recently delayed the deadline from May 1, 2009.)

If Angie Fuller hadn’t discovered the Standard Operating Procedure manual her predecessor left, she wouldn’t have known how to do her job. Once she’d settled into her new position, she began updating the SOP manual to accurately reflect her evolving role. Follow Fuller’s tips to create an SOP manual for your role.

Last week, I had the honor of keynoting the annual Executive Fire Officer Program graduate symposium sponsored by the U.S. Fire Administration.  One of the things I sometimes do is ask members of my audience what they think about an important question and then share their answers with you.

If you find yourself muddled in crisis, shake off the shock, orient yourself and start looking for solutions—fast. Here's how:

If your organization sells products or services on credit, take note: August 1, 2009, is the deadline to comply with the identity theft requirements in the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act. (Note: These rules were set to take effect on May 1, but the FTC pushed them back by three months.)

IT firm Stanley Associates has its own, round-the-clock web-based training university for employees. Stanley University offers employees more than 3,500 courses in technology, business skills, time management, writing and other skills.

Before firing any employee who has filed a harassment complaint, make sure your reasons are solid—and extremely well documented. That means checking to make sure supervisors followed company rules. Ensure that other employees with similar records were also fired. And be sure all documentation you are relying on was clearly created before the discrimination complaint.

According to a forecast by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the Miami area will suffer some of the largest job losses in the nation in 2009. Miami is expected to lose about 85,000 jobs this year. The city’s unemployment rate may exceed 10%.

Minneapolis-based Target, the nation’s second largest discount retailer, has announced it will cut 1,000 jobs in Minneapolis alone. Those cuts include 400 open but unfilled positions, in addition to 600 layoffs.

Employees who suspect their employers are trying to get them to leave voluntarily instead of firing them outright sometimes do quit. Then they turn around and sue under the theory of “constructive discharge.” Essentially, they argue their employer made their lives so miserable they had no choice but to resign. Fortunately for employers, courts are fairly strict in how they view constructive discharges.

Former employees and their lawyers are always looking for ways to maximize what they can get from former employers. One way is to add a wrongful discharge claim if an employee is fired after he or she complains about workplace safety. These cases can get quite expensive, as the following case shows.

Sleeping on the job isn’t productive, and most employers have rules against it. In some environments, falling asleep on duty is downright dangerous and can result in large fines.

When planning a reduction in force, it’s natural to decide who should stay and who should go by ranking employees based on the skills you’ll need after downsizing. Before managers start ranking employees, make sure they understand not to use temporary medical problems and their consequences as a reason for deciding to terminate an employee.

Carole Smith, who worked for property management firm Normandy Properties, sued the company for pregnancy discrimination, and a jury awarded her $600,000 in compensatory damages. Then it assessed the company $1.2 million in punitive damages.

Here’s a lesson to pass on to managers and supervisors: Employees who win FMLA lawsuits after being denied the right to take leave can end up with a large pot of gold at the end of the litigation—a pot that has to be filled by the company.

By now, most employers have heard of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), the proposed legislation that would make it dramatically easier for unions to organize workers and obtain favorable terms in the initial collective-bargaining agreement. Is it time to panic? Of course not, but it is time to take action.

Q. We are downsizing and letting go a long-time employee. We want to help her out by giving her a severance package. What should we consider?

Employers that ignore their employees’ sexual harassment pleas—beware. Not only may you be liable under Title VII, but you may be liable under state law, too. And that can mean huge damage awards far beyond federal caps.

Employees who are promised they can take “FMLA leave” may have a claim against an employer even if it turns out the company isn’t required to comply with the FMLA because it has fewer than 50 employees. Employees can argue that the employer misled them, and that the company should therefore be required to comply with the FMLA.

The 250 Republic Windows and Doors workers who staged a sit-in at the Chicago plant last December will be called back to work over the next few months as part of a bankruptcy proceeding. The workers started the sit-in after Republic owner Rich Gillman closed the unionized plant and opened a nonunion plant in Iowa days later.

Who doesn’t hate performance reviews? They destroy morale and teamwork, says Samuel Culbert, a management professor at UCLA, and they hurt the bottom line. The alternative: Instead of a one-side-accountable, top-down review, consider a both-sides-accountable performance preview.

Whatever you do, don’t cancel a meeting because of a tightened budget. Employees and customers need to see the leadership team standing in front of them, sending a “we’re in this together” message.

Major problems can erupt when supervisors have to manage people they just don't get along with. Smart managers defuse that tension by focusing on tasks, projects and results—not personalities. Feel free to use this 'Memo to Managers' article to educate your supervisors. Paste the content into an e-mail, company newsletter or other communication.

Issue: Poorly written layoff letters can open your organization to legal action. No matter how you write layoff letters, they are bound to anger employees, especially if the employees don’t see it coming. Don’t give irate employees legal ammunition by writing misleading, inaccurate or insensitive layoff letters. Action: Create notices that explain the layoff in the most straightforward, respectful manner possible. To avoid legal action, think of layoff letters as informal legal documents that include the following:

While cleaning out his attic, a British business leader stumbled upon some notes on leadership from the ’50s. The notes were handed out at Eaton Hall near Chester, England, during his military officer training. Dated in tone but clear, concise and purposeful, the notes transcend their original military context.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act regulates how your company performs a job background check on applicants. Contrary to popular belief, this federal law doesn’t just cover credit checks. It covers any background report, such as driving records and criminal histories obtained from a “consumer reporting agency.”

If you’re one of the 11 million account holders who have more than $120 billion invested in tax-free Sec. 529 plans for a child’s or grandchild’s college education, we’ve got good news about investment options. A new IRS ruling allows you to change your investment mix up to two times during the 2009 calendar year.

Q. In your article on the new stimulus law, you said that the Making Work Pay credit phases out beginning at an AGI of $150,000. Doesn’t it depend on modified AGI?

Enough doom and gloom already! Here’s a feel-good story! Sure, the AIG bonus debacle has soured the financial world on retention bonuses, but one company is still offering stick-around cash. To be precise, Wells Fargo is paying a bonus to keep one particular employee.

More pink slips are on the horizon. According to outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas, 1 million more job cuts are likely in 2009. But, there's a silver lining among all the dark clouds of this recession, says the firm's chief executive, John Challenger, and it's this: Layoffs can be good news, in a strange way.

Older employees who learn they might be laid off for economic reasons—especially those who have recently spoken with an employment lawyer—have begun trying an interesting tactic: They’re volunteering to work for less pay. Take those offers seriously.

It’s a popular idea that teams work better than individuals, but sometimes leaders must intervene ...

Employees who return from FMLA-covered maternity leave are supposed to come back to the same or a substantially equivalent position. Don’t make the mistake of offering a position that has the same title and pay, but which involves very different duties. That’s especially true if those duties are more onerous for a new mother.

Just the facts, ma'm. Your employee handbooks should clearly state your organization's rules and benefits without including any excess or superfluous language. If you embellish the document with needless explanations, you may end up eating your words ...

The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a verdict of more than $1 million in an FMLA intermittent leave case involving a foreign adoption. The sad fact is that the employer could have avoided the entire problem by studying up on intermittent leave and adoption.

Help your company maximize its business deductions by keeping comprehensive records of travel, entertainment and gift expenses. Keep your records organized in a diary or a statement of expenditures, supported by documentary evidence. Documentary evidence ordinarily is considered adequate if it discloses the amount, date, place and essential character of the expense.

You return from a conference brimming with new knowledge. But when it comes to applying what you’ve learned, you fall flat. Why is it easier to learn new things than to apply them? Anxiety and old habits get in the way, says Dr. Harry Martin. The solution: Put more focus on what happens after training.

Because the impact of domestic violence reaches deeply into a company’s culture, employers should reassess policies and make domestic violence an HR priority. Four sensible practices can help you help employees prevent domestic violence and lessen its impact.

You never appreciate a good performer until you’ve fired a bad performer. That’s because bad performers take so much time and attention to manage. From the moment you sense that an employee isn’t working out—and you set in motion disciplinary steps—you have to imagine a judge and jury watching your every move. That way, you can stand behind your actions without feeling embarrassed or guilty.

Two companies headquartered in North Carolina have made Fortune magazine’s 2009 “100 Best Companies to Work For” list. The two, both headquartered in Cary, are engineering firm Kimley-Horn & Associates and software giant SAS.

With so many things in play, it’s easy to lose track of all the major issues the Obama White House is dealing with. Today the focus is on the global economy and the G20 meeting. A few days earlier it was on establishing a new approach for taking on Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan (Afpak). From the standpoint of media coverage and public attention, a quiet, but key, architect of the new Afpak policy has been Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

As the New York Times reported yesterday, Gates has now worked for eight U.S. presidents including Obama’s immediate predecessor, George W. Bush. Since leaders often have to work with a new boss (is there anyone at GM reading this?), I thought it would be interesting to see what tips can be gleaned from Gates on how to establish yourself quickly with a new boss while making a significant difference in a short amount of time.

As Administrative Professionals Week (April 19-25) approached, we couldn’t help but wonder what crazy things bosses have asked admins to do. So we asked readers of our Admin Pro Forum to tell us about the most unusual or bizarre thing their boss ever asked them to do. For starters: "Open his sandwich every day to make sure no tomatoes were on it."

An alarming 15% of recently polled employees said the recession has made them less motivated than before. If your employees are so worried about their jobs and personal finances that they’re just going through the motions, it's up to managers to turn them around. Here are 20 proven tips to do just that.

Mounting layoffs are creating a glut of qualified and aggressive job hunters who are desperate for work. As their frustration grows, more applicants are reading deeper into their rejection letters—sometimes spotting job promises or hints of discrimination that you never intended.

There’s never been a better time to implement a violence prevention plan. Tough economic times sometimes cause people to snap—and they might do so at work. You need a prevention program that starts with employee screening and ends with publicizing your tough anti-violence policy.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 contains several tax breaks for energy improvements. Among other modifications, the new law raises the nonbusiness energy credit for improvements to a residence from 10% to 30% and increases the maximum dollar cap to $1,500 (eliminating the $500 lifetime cap).

Major policy issues being debated in Washington will likely change the face of HR this year, according to speakers at the SHRM's 2009 Employment Law and Legislative Conference. As a new Democratic Congress gains legislative traction and the Obama administration begins making policy, those issues could also be key to reversing the fiscal meltdown.

The global economic crisis that has forced U.S. employers to slash their salary budgets has not spared HR salaries. A new report says HR pros' base pay and incentive compensation grew more slowly last year. Compensation isn’t expected to rebound in 2009, either. Find out where you stand.

What’s the best way to help a co-worker who has cancer? Here's advice from Kris Hart, a 43-year-old vice president of global brand management at Harrah’s Entertainment and a breast cancer survivor.

Q. I was interested in your article on Roth IRA conversions. Do I have to convert all the funds in my IRA?

The highly publicized “bailout law” passed last year—the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of  2008—extended a number of tax breaks that had officially gone off the books. But other tax changes in the new law have flown under the radar. Alert: Be aware of new modifications in the rules for casualty and theft losses.

Capt. Chesley Sullenberger made his leadership clear when he landed a plane intact on the Hudson River in January, saving 155 lives. While “the miracle on the Hudson” did seem miraculous, it was mainly the result of preparation and a cool head. Lesson: Stretch as far as you can to prepare to lead when disaster strikes.

If you want to pursue an HR master’s degree but the nearest accredited program is too far away, consider earning your degree online. The quality of such programs has improved dramatically in recent years. Also, online programs allow you to earn the degree from anywhere at your own pace ...

The new economic stimulus law provides special relief for some small business owners. It allows you to carry back net operating losses (NOLs) for up to five years instead of just two. This tax break applies to NOLs in tax years beginning or ending in 2008. File the necessary form now to recover taxes paid for prior years when your business was more prosperous.

Don’t waste your time and money offering benefits no one cares about. Review all your coverages. Conduct eligibility audits. Those are just some of the tips comp and benefits expert Gary Kushner has for HR pros eager to maximize the value and reduce the costs of the benefits they provide.

The IRS and the U.S. Department of Labor have just published guidance to help employers claim the credit for the new 65% COBRA subsidy and create the mandatory new COBRA notices. Look here for links to the documents and information you need to comply.

Q. What kinds of information and documents should we keep in our personnel files?

A. You should include pretty much all documentation concerning an employee’s history with the company—attendance, pay history, job history, discipline and evaluations—except medical documentation and, perhaps, protected activity information concerning matters such as discrimination and harassment complaints.

One "difficult" person is ruining your meetings with his or her bad behavior. What do you do? Those who pontificate or bully put a strain on the group and can sabotage productivity.

If your organization is in good fiscal shape in these tough times, top brass may be looking to snap up the assets of failed companies at bargain prices. Remind management that it may end up picking up liabilities such as unemployment insurance claims if it doesn’t structure the deal correctly.

Margaret Tarulli, a special officer for New York City’s Human Resources Administration, has filed a sexual assault and harassment lawsuit against her former supervisor.

A Bronx jury has ordered Bernard Spitzer, father of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, to pay more than $1.3 million to four former employees to settle racial discrimination charges.

Having similar-sounding titles and rates of pay  doesn’t necessarily make positions interchangeable. That’s what one employee who was turned down for a promotion in her division learned when she sued for alleged race discrimination.

There’s a widespread understanding of the grave impact domestic violence has on personal lives and the havoc it wreaks on families and communities. Now more attention is being paid to its effect at work. Sometimes, incidents of domestic violence actually happen in the workplace. But the impact goes far beyond immediate safety concerns.

Here’s a trap you may fall into accidentally: If you have multiple locations, each operating independently, watch out for wage-and-hour violations involving employees who work at more than one location. Here’s why.

Genuine whistle-blowers are protected against retaliation under the Minnesota Whistleblower Act even if the retaliation occurs years later. Caution management to avoid any action that smacks of punishing an employee for instigating or cooperating with a criminal investigation of alleged company wrongdoing.

Here’s how to end a co-worker sexual harassment case when your organization decides not to discharge the alleged harasser.

Most minor grievances never add up to a discrimination lawsuit. That’s why you shouldn’t lose too much sleep over employees who whine about every little problem. Employees—even those belonging to a protected class—must be able to tolerate minor annoyances. Judges don’t like having to referee workplace pettiness.

Nearly 1,000 vendors are in the employment background screening industry now, making it difficult to sort out the top tier from the fly-by-night firms. Many sell cheap but incomplete background checks in minutes. Too often, they simply restate old information bought from private data brokers. Good news: Now you have a new yardstick on which to gauge their quality before you conduct a job background check.

Dealing with underachievers requires using your judgment and some knowledge of human psychology. Here are some ways to get your underachieving employees moving in the right direction.

Your employee handbook can be a helpful reference providing needed information, or it can turn into a weapon that employees and their attorneys can use against you in court. The choice is yours. Follow these four steps to make sure your handbook works for you, not against you.

What’s a manager to do when faced with conflicting accounts of an argument between employees? An important part of that answer is to resolve the conflict quickly, before it spreads like a cancer through your organization ...

A comprehensive document management system can help your business boost productivity, improve the bottom line and stay out of legal trouble. Here are three ways to organize files for easy retrieval, establish a record retention schedule and tame your wild email inbox.

You are in charge of a committee at work that no one seems to care about. Meeting attendance is lackluster, and those who do come rarely speak up. How can you make people feel more engaged? Try these 11 easy-to-implement strategies.

Two production companies for Will Ferrell’s movie Stranger than Fiction will pay a rejected job applicant who was pregnant $75,000 to compensate her for discrimination.

Boosting your benefits communication during troubled economic times can help your organization retain good employees and ease their worries so they can focus on work. The key: Show employees the value of their benefits.

Work is ever more collaborative, and the need for daily efficiency stronger than ever. So who has time for boring, unproductive meetings? No one. Keep meetings focused by heeding these don’ts.

The $789 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) signed on Feb. 17 by President Obama includes a handful of key HR-related provisions, including: COBRA subsidies, a Making Work Pay Credit and unemployment compensation.

As if computer solitaire wasn't enough of a distraction for daydreaming office workers, March Madness is about to make working hard even harder. But that's not all bad, according to one expert: The morale boost may make the NCAA tournament a good bet for employers. Here are some of the rules of the game for HR.

Yale psychologists, back in 1990, found that the ability to think dispassionately about your own passions is linked with success. This finding opened up a whole new field: emotional intelligence.

What makes the Internet useful is also what makes it so undeniably distracting: There’s no end to what you can find online. Luckily, a few browser add-ons that work with Firefox can help make web surfers more productive (all available at addons.mozilla.org).

Congratulations—you’ve been promoted! After years of proving your technical ability, you’re now thrust into the position of management.

The current economic meltdown underscores this reality: We’re never too far from a crisis. Before a crisis causes things to blow up, train your office for first response.

Is your employee handbook clear on exactly what constitutes maternity leave and how long it lasts? If you plan to permit just the 12 weeks allowed for pregnancy and childbirth under the FMLA, spell that out. Don’t refer to maternity leave separately and then provide a different week or month count ...

Managers may dread performance reviews, but employees are more receptive to them than you think. In fact, 77 percent of employees polled by staffing firm OfficeTeam said they consider performance reviews valuable. Only 8 percent said they weren't valuable at all. Advice: Managers must be alert to these four potential pitfalls that make reviews less effective and heighten the legal risk:

Raise your skepticism a few notches. Résumé fudging is on the rise again. Fueling the trend: recent layoffs and the tanking economy. Applicants who feel more desperate tend to add that extra punch to their résumés.

While employee handbooks are not required by law, they can prove essential — especially for small business owners that can't afford to lose a harassment or discrimination lawsuit. The employee handbook has become an essential tool in the employer’s arsenal to defend against liability for employment decisions.

Collaboration works, until it starts to resemble groupthink. That’s when healthy dissent evaporates, self-defeating tendencies surge, and negative emotions corrode the potential of the group’s work. Make sure your team is working more like the Manhattan Project and less like Enron. Three team management tips:

Preparing your tax return every year is a hassle. But you can boost your spirits by taking full advantage of the tax goodies available on your 2008 return. Although everyone’s situation is different, here are seven proven ways to cut your tax bill.

By matching speakers’ preferred communication styles, you can build both rapport and alliances with a range of people. Here are four communication styles and how you can relate to them:

Pump up your managers with useful research they don’t have time to do themselves ... Sharpen your workplace instincts by playing The Office-Politics Game ... Soothe stress by first dividing triggers into two categories ...

After data management company NetApp added coverage for autistic children to its health plan in 2006, 31 of the organization’s 5,000 employees used the benefit the first year. A total of 43 have tapped it so far ...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit against the city of Bonita Springs, claiming it violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by harboring a racially hostile environment in the Department of Parks and Recreation.

Deborah Smith, a former night manager of the SkyWater Restaurant at the Hilton Minneapolis, has filed a lawsuit alleging she was fired for walking in on an orgy involving upper managers in December 2007.

American workers can access the Internet, e-mail, instant messaging and other forms of electronic communications from anywhere at any time. While electronic communication helps people do their jobs, it also leaves a trail. A telephone conversation relies on the memory of two participants, but e-mail and IM discussions can be preserved for years to come. And, given the casual way so many people fire off e-mail these days, that can spell legal trouble for employers.

The popularity of Internet blogs and social networking sites such as MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook and Friendster is causing confusion and concern for some employers. Is there any harm in using information published on the Internet to screen applicants? At a time when it’s easy to search the web for information on just about anyone, what steps should a reasonable employer take to investigate the background of an employee?

Dreams of a pay increase may be put on hold, but that doesn’t mean giving up on the idea forever. Eventually, the economy will shake itself out of its doldrums, and employees will once again be in the position to negotiate robust raises. In the meantime, lay the groundwork for a future raise.

Employee absences are costing your business more than twice as much as health care, two recent surveys reveal. Cutting even a fraction of absences can have a potent impact on your organization’s bottom line—an attractive possibility in a tight economy when employers need workers to be as productive as possible.

There’s no doubt Generation Y will fundamentally change corporate America. It’s already started. Managing Gen Y is a hot topic among consultants, HR executives and talent management professionals. For a Gen Y’er like me, this is great news. We’re primed to change the workplace for the better. Here’s how we’ll do it.

What if an employee files a discrimination complaint with the EEOC and then suddenly finds herself having to work with someone she deems undesirable? Can she sue and allege that transferring the person she doesn’t like into her work section amounts to retaliation for filing the EEOC complaint?

Ramsey County prosecutors declined to file felony theft charges against Sonia Pitt, former director of homeland security and emergency management at the Minnesota Department of Transportation, finding her conduct in the wake of the deadly I-35W bridge collapse objectionable, but not criminal.

The best way to prevent a lawsuit is to promptly respond to every harassment complaint you receive from employees. Conduct a thorough investigation, reach a conclusion and document that you followed up and found no further problems. Be especially sure to show how you counseled or disciplined the harasser...

Oral agreements concerning compensation and bonus payments can be enforced in court, and that can lead to tricky “who said what” legal problems. Those are problems you can easily prevent with the help of good legal counsel.

A California appeals court has overturned a large punitive damages jury award in a case involving underpaid wages and missed meal and break periods. Had the court upheld the awards, employers would have had a whole new reason to lose sleep over inaccurate payroll records.

California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act protects employees from sexual harassment by co-workers. But what happens if management stops the harassment but the co-workers find other ways to make life miserable for their victims? It’s HR’s responsibility to make sure a victim of sexual harassment isn’t targeted for other mistreatment ...

Employees who are fired after breaking work rules often allege that they were targeted because of some protected characteristic like gender, age, race or ethnicity. The best way to counter such claims is to know beforehand whether your organization is being tougher on some employees who belong to a protected class while letting others slide.

Sometimes, employees don’t have enough information to judge whether something they observe at work is discrimination—or a legitimate management action.

Employees who think they are victims of some form of discrimination must show they were treated differently in some important way because of their race or other protected characteristic. But minor annoyances—such as heavier workloads—are not usually considered discrimination.

New FMLA regulations go into effect on Jan. 16. Employers must become familiar with these changes and adjust their policies accordingly. Here’s a summary of some of the most important changes to the FMLA.

Changing the perception others have of you at work can take up to 18 months, according to Barb Krantz Taylor, a licensed psychologist and executive coach at the Bailey Consulting Group. But there are ways to speed things along, however. Taylor offers four ideas on how to do it.

HR Law 101: Since 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act has provided eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for the birth, adoption or foster care of a child; caring for a child, spouse or parent with a serious health condition; or convalescence after an employee’s own serious health condition ...

HR Law 101: The U.S. Department of Labor’s revised FMLA regulations took effect Jan. 16, 2009. Here's a summary of the most important changes:

Drafting  performance reviews is always a daunting task for supervisors, for many legitimate reasons. In reality, it doesn’t need to be that way. One simple way to reinvent performance appraisals is to shift the responsibility for initial evaluations back to your employees.

Layoffs put retention on shaky ground at precisely the time that remaining employees' loyalty is key to your organization's success. Ignoring that "survivor syndrome" will only cripple morale further and generate more turnover. Communication is the key to overcoming it. Here's how:

A participant in our HR Specialist Forum posed this question: “When some employees come to the HR office, they carry on like they’re at home yelling at their children. What can we do to stop this?" Here’s how some HR professionals replied.

Now may be a good time to review your employee handbook for potential big trouble. The problem: Because handbooks spell out policies that apply to many or all employees, they can be used to justify escalating a simple lawsuit into a class-action suit ...

New research shows there may be a hidden downside to telecommuting policies: They may cause non-telecommuters to leave their jobs. To accommodate the broader impact of telecommuting on others in the office—and stave off any negative effects—experts advise taking a fresh look at your telecommuting efforts.

Small business owners usually aren't HR professionals. Figuring out how to effectively — and legally — manage your personnel records is often a daunting task. But, developing a records retention schedule will ensure that a small business keeps the records it needs for operational, legal, fiscal or historical reasons, and then destroys them when they're no longer useful.

About a dozen states have laws that allow employees to take job-protected leave to deal with domestic violence issues. But take note: Even if your state doesn’t have a specific law, you may need to grant such rights as a matter of “public policy.” A recent court ruling from Washington state shows the legal risks.

You may not realize it, but many small business owners adopt war principles to lead their companies to higher profits. Think about it:

It goes without saying that you should enforce your rules fairly. That’s why you must track every disciplinary action and make a clear record of why each employee earned his discipline. Later, when one of those employees claims the real reason he was fired was due to age, sex or some other protected classification, you can show that wasn’t the case.

Age bias has no place in the workplace, and managers are primarily in charge of preventing it. Warn them against making any statements that may indicate management or your organization prefers younger employees to older ones.

HR Law 101: Employees who want to take FMLA leave must give their employer 30-day advance notice when the need for leave is foreseeable. Employers should respond in writing within five business days to their leave requests ...

Try to track the details of a complex project on a whiteboard, and you may quickly run out of white space. Here are five project-tracking software tools that can come to the rescue.

Cupid's arrow eventually flies into every workplace. Risks: Office romances can be disruptive and, even worse, open the door to legal problems. Action: Balance your need to reduce legal risks with a realistic view of employees' lives. Stay away from trendy "love contracts."

Use your laptop to squeeze more productivity out of meetings: Share data; brainstorm better; take and distribute meeting notes digitally.

Most organizations stick to traditional management approaches, largely because they don’t trust employees with control. But studies consistently show that employees who set their own goals work harder to accomplish them and are happier with their jobs. Here are some practical tips for empowering your employees.

You’re as dependable as a Swiss train: You never miss deadlines, never show up late and always complete even your worst projects ahead of schedule. In return, you’d hope management would offer its appreciation once in a while. Here’s how to get the recognition you deserve without looking as if you’re seeking attention.

If your organization hasn’t moved beyond “reply all” e-mails as its sole means of online employee interaction, promote any of these three options to spark more interaction and productivity ...

Are you considering holding your next big business event at a resort? Aim to site-inspect as much as you can before you leave home, advises Amy Pfeiffer, managing sales director for the Walt Disney World Resort.

The FMLA allows employers to move employees taking intermittent leave to positions that make it easier for the employers. If you do so, just make sure that the temporary position has equivalent pay and benefits. It does not have to have equivalent duties.

Every year, you probably receive (or help write) your performance evaluation. But have you evaluated your job lately? Workplace coach Joan Lloyd suggests asking yourself these questions annually:

An unexpected visit from a government regulator such as OSHA is often unwelcome—and unsettling, too. If you have taken the time to prepare for an OSHA inspection, however, it need not be traumatic. Advance planning and preparation not only make the inspection proceed without difficulty, but also allow you to be in control.

There’s no escaping difficult, dastardly or downright nasty people at work. There’s always at least one of them floating around.  While you can’t control someone’s horrible personality, you can decide how you’re going to respond. That means polishing your EMS— enemy management skills. By killing your enemies with kindness, or at least identifying their M.O. and mitigating their effects on your workplace, you can rise above their noxious influence.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employees fit into one of two general categories—they are either hourly or exempt. But sometimes, an employee’s job may seem to fit into more than one category. If that’s the case, don’t be shy about noting that in the job description.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that President Obama signed into law last week is just the beginning of what's shaping up to be a wave of new pro-employee legislation from the current Congress and administration. Next up on the Congressional front-burner: the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would make it far easier for unions to gain certification. In this Congressional climate, organized labor is poised for rapid expansion.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has announced that Texas will receive a $5 million grant to help respond to military base realignment and closures.

After last year’s stock market debacle, you could be holding assets worth a fraction of their original cost. In fact, some stocks may have zero value. Strategy: Claim a capital loss deduction for worthless stock on Schedule D of your ’08 return. However, you must be able to establish that the stock is truly “worthless.”

By now you know that employers can’t fire or otherwise punish employees because they’re pregnant. But what about employees who choose to have an abortion? Make sure your supervisors know it’s illegal to discriminate against them, too.

Announcing layoffs and cuts in pay and benefits can exact a personal toll on you, too. Here are six tips from psychologists and HR experts to help you cope with the stress that results from telling employees things that cause them anguish.

These days, most small businesses rely—either somewhat or heavily—on software applications. According to a new report by PC World magazine, here are 15 of the best free and low-cost software tools for powering any small or midsize business.

You love your work, but you’d like it even better if you made more money. A bad job market can be a good time to get what you want—and deserve. Why? Everyone else might be too afraid to attempt any salary negotiating.

For many HR pros, the clock is their biggest adversary. Finding enough time in the day to complete every necessary project can be difficult. But the old adage of “work smarter, not harder” is based on the concept of managing the minutes in your day more efficiently. Here are six tips to help you work toward that goal.

Whether or not you’re actively looking for a job, it pays to ratchet up your professional image outside your office. (After all, you never know who might google your name.) For that, the e-portfolio can be your most powerful tool.

Conflict happens in all corners of the workplace. But if issues aren't settled, bad things can happen: Good people quit, morale can plummet and, sometimes, violence can erupt. But managers don't need to become certified mediators to engage in workplace conflict resolution. Here are nine insights from Improvisational Negotiation.

India’s business leaders have aimed a laser-like focus on workforce development, rapidly making the country a global R&D hub in several industries, despite the fact that it has a much smaller pool of highly educated graduates than the United States. Here are a few of India’s best practices.

Employees who work in a union setting often cannot take temporary assignments into management without losing the benefits of their union membership. One such benefit is often seniority. Employees must sue right away if they lose seniority.

Unscheduled absences can throw production into a tailspin. Often, those absences occur when an employee’s child care arrangements fall through. But increasingly, workers also must stay home to care for spouses or parents who need help after surgery or because a regular caregiver is unavailable ...

Everywhere you turn, something or someone is being promoted as “environmentally friendly.” U.S. employers are no different; they’re jumping into all kinds of green practices in a bid to improve their public images, boost employee morale/loyalty and potentially cut costs ...

President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act on Jan. 29, making it easier for women and others to sue for pay discrimination that may date back decades. Drafted in response to a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said employees had at most 300 days to file pay discrimination complaints, the new law counts each unfairly low paycheck as a fresh discriminatory act.

On Jan. 16, the U.S. Department of Labor’s new FMLA regulations became effective. The most significant changes were to the regulatory scheme for handling employee leave certifications and medical documentation.

Next time you’re preparing for a moment in the spotlight, rehearse in front of a video camera. Then view the video, staying as objective as possible. “People will judge you by your appearance and your body language. And they’ll do it quickly,” says Carol Kinsey Goman, executive coach and author of The Nonverbal Advantage.

Applicants can get creative in their job-hunting efforts, especially in a tight job market. Here are some of the more unusual come-ons seen by readers of our HR Specialist Forum.

Errors can turn into disasters. Your job as a leader is to wipe the veneer of shame away from mistakes so employees can speak openly and learn from them.

Lawsuits by employees against their employers have grown tremendously in the past decade. Sometimes those lawsuits have merit, sometimes they don’t. Here are 12 of the biggest manager mistakes that harm an organization’s credibility in court. Use these points as a checklist to shore up your personal employment-law defense.

The same tactics you use at work can help you get everything done at home. Some people, however, leave their work skills at work. What they should be doing, experts say, is setting goals, outsourcing tasks and reviewing performance, just like a workplace manager.

From surveys of employees' lifelong dreams to alumni reunions to baby showers for moms-to-be, here's a rundown of seven innovative benefits practices employers are using to reward and retain the staff they need. They're compiled from the popular "What's Working" pages of HR Specialist's Compensation & Benefits newsletter.

It’s important for employers to plan to prevent workplace violence and respond to it if prevention fails. While every employer needs a customized plan that fits its particular workplace, good violence-prevention strategies share common elements.

When faced with a poor-performing or disruptive employee, it’s easy for supervisors to play the wait-and-see game and simply hope the situation will improve. But problems rarely solve themselves. And that’s especially true with problem employees.

“I have some difficult news that affects you and your position with the company.”  Hearing those words is enough to send anyone into panic mode. But landing a new job after a layoff, downsizing or company unraveling takes thoughtful planning. Here’s how to rebound from a job shake-up.

Union-free employers should consider acting now to keep their operations union-free, given the nature of the changes that are likely to come with enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act. The law would make it more difficult for employers to oppose union organizing, and would limit employers’ bargaining power if they do become unionized.

Too many HR people close the book on harassment investigations too early. By failing to check if harassment has flared up again, you open the organization to further liability ...

Your employees are more likely to take their prescribed medicine and choose generics over more expensive name-brand drugs if they have prescriptions delivered to their homes, two new studies show.

You've been put in charge of planning team-building exercises for your eight-person team. To get you started, here are a few ideas from readers of the Admin Pro Forum.

Change. America voted for it, and small businesses will certainly receive their fair share in 2009. Here are the five most important workplace issues on President Barack Obama’s agenda.

In uncertain economic times, employers sometimes have to cut staff and redraw org charts to stay competitive. Employees often know far in advance that change is coming—and that they may lose their jobs. And some already may be looking for ways to “get back” at their companies via lawsuits ...

You may not need a license to practice HR or benefits administration, but earning an HR certification tells your employer (and potential employers) that you know your stuff ...

As you gain more responsibility at work, knowing how to delegate comes into play. Here’s the smart way to delegate work.

You may feel like holing up with your organization’s top minds to strategize your way out of tough times. But to draw creative thinking and deep examination from a group, stay mum.

If your child is in college, he or she may be planning to move off-campus at some point. At the same time, you could be looking to buy real estate to shelter your income. Here’s how to kill two birds with one stone.

Layoffs are in the news. With a recession looming, this necessary evil is on agendas throughout corporate America. A layoff—or RIF—is a tricky, painful process for management, those who lose their jobs and even employees who remain afterward. Here are four critical and often overlooked RIF potholes that can make the route more treacherous than it needs to be ...

Employees who suffer reprisals after complaining about possible discrimination or harassment can sue for retaliation. But they can do so only if they can show they “engaged in protected activity”—that is, that they told their employer about the alleged discrimination or harassment.

Fairmont-based MowMar Farms has fired six workers at its newly acquired farm near Bayard, Iowa, after a videotape revealed that some employees routinely abused pigs there. The footage, shot by PETA, showed workers slamming piglets on a concrete floor...

The family of Jdimytai Damour, the temporary worker who was trampled to death by shoppers at the Valley Stream, Long Island, Wal-Mart on Black Friday, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company.

Q. We have an employee who has a history of clashing with others at work. Her supervisors have addressed this with her many times. Recently, she sent an e-mail that was unprofessional and insulting to co-workers. If we fire her, could she successfully sue us for sex discrimination or harassment?

Employees who take intermittent leave can wreak havoc with work schedules. Because their conditions can flare up at any time, their absences are by nature unpredictable. But there are ways you can legally curtail intermittent leave. One way is to use the calendar-year method to set FMLA leave eligibility.

Don’t make one of the most common mistakes HR managers do when classifying employees as exempt—by relying on the so-called “executive exemption” for employees you call managers and supervisors. Unless you can back up your claims with solid proof, your organization could be on the hook for an expensive jury award.

Does your handbook and employment policy specify that supervisors and subordinates shouldn’t develop personal, romantic or sexual relationships? If not, consider adding such a provision. It can go a long way to avoiding potential lawsuits when those relationships go bad.

Ever wonder whether your boss is looking over your shoulder as you write e-mails? Your boss just might be. Forty-three percent of employers store and review employees’ e-mail messages, reports the American Management Association. Here’s how to e-mail without worry.

The stakes just got higher for employers that fail to provide appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) or give employees the necessary safety training. For every PPE and training violation, multiply the OSHA fine by the number of employees affected.

If you’ve ever visited YouTube.com, you may have clicked on videos showing an assortment of office meltdowns. Laptops get smashed, desks are overturned. While some of these are funny to watch, each one probably made you think, “Man, I hope nothing like that ever happens at our office.” Sad to say, it could ...

The 111th Congress wasted no time signaling its intention to enact employment law legislation that dramatically favors employees, quickly passing both the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. They promise equal pay for equal work. Find out why business and HR groups oppose both measures.

LA Weight Loss, which was renamed Pure Weight Loss in 2007, has settled a lawsuit filed against it by the EEOC. The agency had alleged a nationwide pattern and practice of sex discrimination at locations across the country ...

Employees do the darnedest things, and HR frequently winds up trying to undo the damage. One of the highlights of HR Specialist’s upcoming Labor and Employment Law Advanced Practices Symposium will be a session on “The Most Bizarre Recent Workplace Cases—and What You Can Learn from Them.” Here’s our take on the topic, with cases pulled from the pages of HR Specialist newsletters.

When President-elect Barack Obama chose Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, he did what a senior executive does when choosing an assistant: He selected a person who would help him get things done. Are you like Rahm Emanuel?

The year that the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) predicts will carry “the most sweeping HR-related changes in 30 years” starts with a bang this month as HR pros must adapt to important changes to two key employment laws: the FMLA and the ADA.

Even in a good economy, about one-third of new small businesses don’t survive the first year. The No. 1 reason: poor financial management, which is often preventable. So how can a business survive in a bad economy? Smart cash-flow management is vital.

The global financial meltdown has workers fearful and downright angry. If you plan on surviving the recession, your managers must acknowledge the fear and anger employees may feel. Don't let these seven gripes pollute your workplace.

If your business pays nonemployees for services, you have only until Jan. 31 to give copies of Form 1099 to recipients of certain payments. That includes independent-contractor compensation, dividends, interest, real estate transactions, attorney fees and retirement plan distributions.

In the real world, hurling insults at workers is a recipe for disaster, as the catering company that provides food service at the Comcast Center in Philadelphia recently learned ...

An admin stumbled over how to recognize and reward employees on her team, so she turned to our Admin Pro Forum. Here’s what other admins are doing.

To do your job well, you probably need to remember a gazillion things —and the same goes for the others on your team. Wouldn’t you love to share all that knowledge and expertise? One idea: an e-mail newsletter just for your admin team.

Boosting your benefits communication during troubled economic times can help your organization retain good employees and ease their worries so they can focus on work. The key: Show employees the value of their benefits.

The union representing employees at the Pontiac Correctional Center has stalled closure of the maximum-security prison, at least temporarily. Livingston County Judge R. Michael Travers issued an injunction in November barring layoffs at the prison pending arbitration of grievances filed ...

Here’s a tale of workplace terror so harrowing that one of the characters even used a pseudonym when he filed for workers’ comp … for injuries he had yet to receive.

Before a crisis causes things to blow up, train yourself for the first response. Heed these lessons from Detective Kevin Barry, who spent 16 years as a bomb-squad technician in the New York Police Department.

Here’s something to keep in mind when you find yourself having to terminate an employee who may later sue for race or other discrimination. Past positive evaluations and promotions can be used as solid evidence you didn’t discriminate against the employee.

Sometimes, it makes sense to settle an EEOC complaint rather than risk a lawsuit and all the costs that go along with litigation. Of course, that settlement probably will come out of some department’s budget. Warn the department manager to take the hit with grace and resist the temptation to show anger or resentment.

The worst-case scenario for a large company with operations in many locations: A class-action lawsuit alleging discrimination against an entire class of employees. One way to discourage such massive lawsuits is to let managers at separate locations keep substantial control over setting salaries and raises.

It’s easy to understand why supervisors and managers get upset when one of their subordinates files an EEOC complaint. After all, how can you not take it personally if someone says you discriminated based on race or sex or for some other illegal reason? But the worst thing those managers and supervisors can do is punish the subordinate.

Luther Spears worked for the Kroger Company for 24 years. He repeatedly applied for management positions in the produce department, but was never promoted. Meanwhile, Spears, who is black, trained younger white employees who were promoted over him. Spears finally filed a complaint with the EEOC ...

Don’t think that employees who take their retirement benefits in a lump sum can’t sue for alleged fiduciary breaches. A recent federal appeals court decision says although retirees are not technically employees anymore, they still have standing to sue ...

Here’s another good reason to tell all managers you’ll tolerate absolutely no ethnic, religious or racial comments: Just one or two comments followed by an adverse employment action may be enough to establish a hostile work environment. And those later acts can extend the time the employee has to file his claim.

Employees are protected from retaliation for filing discrimination claims such as a complaint with the EEOC or the DOL. That protection starts as soon as the employee lets someone in authority at the company know he’s going to contact the agency.

Q. What can or can’t we say about a lousy former employee?

Q. Several employees at our manufacturing facility on the coast are volunteer firefighters and medics. What obligations do we have to those employees who have to miss work to respond to a hurricane or other emergencies?

The year that the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) predicts will carry “the most sweeping HR-related changes in 30 years” starts with a bang this month as HR professionals must adapt to important changes to two key employment laws—the FMLA and the ADA—and replace their I-9 forms.

Studies show that one in four employees suffers from bullying at work. Judy Fisher-Blando of the University of Phoenix offers these rules on handling the situation.

What do the nation’s top 25 small business employers (those with 50 to 250 employees) have in common? Great communication. The top 25 put into play an “open communication” concept, says Deb Cohen, chief knowledge officer at the Society for Human Resource Management.

In June, Gov. Ed Rendell signed into law the Clean Indoor Air Act (CIAA), which regulates smoking in places across the commonwealth (except the city of Philadelphia because it already has a similar smoking ban in place). The CIAA prohibits smoking in indoor areas such as enclosed public places, restaurants, nightclubs and workplaces ...

As the impact of the global economic crisis takes hold, a quarter of U.S. employers expect to make layoffs in the next 12 months. Find out how employers nationwide are hunkering down—and the HR lessons you can apply to your organization.

You wouldn't haggle over the price of a used car without first referencing the Kelley Blue Book. And you wouldn’t want to talk to your boss about pay without first knowing what other people with similar responsibilities earn. Here’s where to start your research before asking for that raise.

Say your CEO tasks you with cutting HR department costs. You know technology can help slay that cost dragon, but you have no idea where to start. Instead of combing through hundreds of vendor web sites, use these nonbiased resources to search for the right HR tech products.

The 9/11 terrorist attacks, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the current fiscal crisis all were predicted years ahead and could have been prevented, says Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “We have an inefficient system for managing risk.”

Money is great. Benefits are nice. But there’s one key thing that keeps good employees from walking away: knowing that management appreciates them and their work. Here are 12 low-cost ways that your organization can show gratitude to your employees all year ...

A class of television writers reached a $4.5 million settlement in an age discrimination lawsuit it brought against International Creative Management (ICM), one of Hollywood’s “Big Five” talent agencies.

For the past 15 years, complying with the FMLA has been complex, but at least the law stayed the same. On Jan. 16, that all changed. That’s the day the first major overhaul of the FMLA took effect. Here are the details.

Any organization, regardless of size, will do better in most instances by cultivating leaders from within. Employees who are properly engaged, developed, promoted and compensated will be poached less often, and if they’re well trained, they will have knowledge and instincts no one from the outside can match ...

What's the most fun you've had at work? We posed that question to our readers, and you responded. A few of your morale-boosting answers: “We had a department-wide contest to see which team could build the best race car out of office supplies in two weeks" ...

To build a positive workplace culture, you must deal with negativity and energy vampires head on. CEO Dwight Cooper dealt with the negativity problem by creating a company policy he called “The No Complaining Rule.”

Do you want a brainstorming session to generate one great idea or several above-average ones? A new study looked at two different models for generating ideas: by a group of people and by individuals working on their own. Who came up with better ideas?

As U.S. companies struggle to weather the recession, many are cutting back employee hours. In fact, part-timers now make up 5% of the workforce. Using part-timers may make economic sense, but it can give supervisors fits. Here are five ways to get the most out of part-time workers.

One admin directed this question to peers on our online forum, hoping to find top-notch suggestions to fit a tight budget (www.businessmanagementdaily.com/APF). Here are a few creative responses.

The EEOC has filed a lawsuit against a Sonic drive-in restaurant located in Kingwood, alleging that several female teen employees were subjected to sexual harassment.

Pennsylvania quickly became a go-to state for class-action lawyers after retail giant Wal-Mart lost a big case here last year. Don’t be vulnerable to high-dollar claims—have your attorney review your wage-and-hour rules now to avoid getting slammed by a class-action suit.

Public employees are protected from being fired for exercising their right to free speech—but government agencies still have the right to manage their workforces. Those rights may clash when a public employee complains about how she is supposed to do her job ...

The U.S. Department of Labor has awarded the state of Texas a $15.8 million grant to help the Texas Workforce Commission with Hurricane Ike recovery efforts.

Could a stressed-out employee who makes veiled threats be a danger to himself or others? It’s the kind of quandary that keeps HR pros awake at night. And because the stakes are potentially high, it’s hard to know what to do. The most prudent course of action: Suspend the employee until you can sort matters out.

If you have employees or operations in New York City, your sexual harassment and discrimination policies must reflect the strict rules employers are required to follow under the New York City Human Rights Law. It all adds up to a challenging HR environment. Your best bet in New York City—adopt a zero-tolerance policy for any sort of sexual, racial or other harassment.

Sometimes, you find out pretty quickly that someone you hired isn’t going to work out. While the final decision to terminate may take some time, many supervisors naturally start giving the cold shoulder to bad hires. Such a blow-off may be crass, but it’s not the kind of behavior that commonly puts an employer on the losing end of a lawsuit.

Anxiety about the economy and job prospects may adversely affect some employees, especially those prone to stress-related illnesses or whose physical problems flare up when working long hours. As a result, you may see an increase in requests for FMLA leave. Be careful not to criticize employees for trying to exercise their FMLA rights ...

You don’t have to ignore a sudden and shocking deterioration in an employee’s performance and behavior. You can and should ask for a fitness-for-duty exam. Just be prepared to discuss possible accommodations if it turns out the employee is disabled.

It takes more than a written policy to avoid liability for sexual harassment. But if you back up your policy with regular training and reminders and quickly fix any harassment problems that come to your attention, chances are you won’t be liable unless the harasser was a supervisor and the employee suffered an adverse employment action ...

A recent study by Michigan State University and Hope College found that employers perceive overweight workers as lazier, more emotionally unstable and harder to get along with than their “normal weight” counterparts.

Show others that you attach a high value to your time, and they won’t squander it. That’s the advice of productivity coach Laura Stack, author of Find More Time, who recommends using availability management.

If you want support from the C-suite for work/life benefits, tout flexible schedules and telework as tools that do more than aid recruiting and retention. In a recent survey, CFOs said that for flexibility to succeed, organizations have to perceive it as more than an employee perk.

If their mortgage is paid off — or close to it — your parents can’t squeeze much tax juice from their home other than property-tax deductions. Strategy: Consider buying your parents’ home, then lease it back to them at the going rate. That way, they can tap into the built-up home equity without moving away.

Due to the wide variety of organizations located in the Washington DC area, we have an opportunity to review and test a number of products each year in search of solutions for our customers’ unique business requirements.One resource we often consult is Computer Reseller News (CRN). 

Managing the stream of email that gathers in your inbox every day can feel like an impossible task. Slim down your filing system into this “trusted trio” of action-based folders.

With the Employee Free Choice Act on the Congressional front-burner, organized labor is poised for rapid expansion. Now is the time to audit your vulnerability to union organizing. How can you tell if workers might be eager to become union members? Ask yourself these questions.

Your company probably put up a Christmas tree to brighten the workplace during the holidays. Don't be surprised if an employee suggests putting up other symbols of the season, such as a menorah. If you reject that suggestion, should you worry that you’ll be ringing in the New Year with a religious discrimination lawsuit?

Some employees have chips on their shoulders—everything is always someone else’s fault, not theirs. They constantly pester supervisors and higher-ups with complaints about discrimination, retaliation and general unfairness. How is an employer supposed to deal with such constant whining? ...

In case you were clinging to the idea that leaders fly solo, new evidence indicates they don’t. Research shows that leadership teams are four times as important as individual leaders in developing strategy.

You know the saying: One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. If you’re a manager, you may occasionally encounter a bad apple. So what does a leader do to stop “problem” employees from spreading their negative influence?

At Cascade Asset Management in Madison, Wis., foreign-born employees take English as a Second Language (ESL) classes on site at no cost. A local literacy network evaluates employees and conducts the classes ...

The ADA requires employers to provide disabled employees with reasonable accommodations if those accommodations allow disabled employees to perform the essential functions of their jobs. Flat-out ignoring an accommodation request is the absolutely wrong thing to do. Instead, carefully consider every request ...

Both the ADA and the FMLA have strict requirements for how employers must handle employees’ confidential medical information. HR professionals need to know these rules to comply with both acts—and to avoid expensive legal liability for failing to do so.

Google at age 10 still fans the flames of creative fearlessness. Here are a few morsels from the bosses who drive innovation.

The long-awaited revised and updated final rules of the U.S. Department of Labor interpreting the FMLA will go into effect on Jan.16. HR specialists should read the new regulations and then review them with an employment attorney. Also, they should promptly develop special training on new rules and procedures for supervisors and employees alike.

President Obama has put forth a significant employment and labor agenda. If he and the Democratic-controlled Congress succeed in passing proposed legislation, the next several years will see the creation of new protected classes, more family leave rights and the re-emergence of labor unions.

As the impact of the global economic crisis takes hold, a quarter of U.S. employers expect to make layoffs in the next 12 months—if they haven’t already done so. However, most companies are focusing on increased employee communication and smaller cost-saving measures.

When you think of a sexually hostile work environment, the scenario usually involves crude sex talk, bawdy photos and other prurient activities. But those aren’t the only markers of a hostile environment. In fact, a pervasive anti-female attitude that has nothing to do with sex can lead to a lawsuit, too ...

There’s no excuse for anyone to be confused about his or her exempt or nonexempt employment status. Make sure every position description clearly labels the job either salaried or hourly. Otherwise, employees will turn to the courts to figure out whether you owe them unpaid overtime or whether you have violated the FLSA ...

Some talk doesn’t belong at work. Period. If you don’t ban racist comments, you’ll probably face an EEOC lawsuit ...

The general rule in California is that when an employer engages an unlicensed person to perform work that requires a license, that person is considered an employee, not an independent contractor. Essentially, the law puts the burden on those who want work performed to check to make sure the person doing the work has the appropriate license. Otherwise, the employer may be liable for any on-the-job injuries that occur.

Talk about expensive propositions: A simple lawsuit brought by one or two employees with a gripe can blow up big time if they try to sue on behalf of every other employee who may have been harmed by the same alleged wrong. Fortunately, some judges are clamping down on class actions, reserving them for rare cases.

When discrimination charges go to court, both sides are entitled to copies of all relevant evidence. That includes memos, notes and e-mail (with some exceptions for confidential, trade secret or attorney-client privileged communications). Don’t think you’ll be able to avoid liability by getting rid of some documents ...

A report released in September by U.S. Inspector General Earl Devaney revealed a “culture of substance abuse and promiscuity” at the Royalty in Kind (RIK) division of the federal Minerals Management Service in Lakewood ...

Gov. Bill Ritter recently signed into law the 2008 Professional Employer Organizations Modernization Act, which promises greater security for small businesses that rely on PEOs to provide outsourced HR management, employee benefits, payroll and workers’ compensation services ...

If you’re contemplating a layoff, you’ve no doubt given some thought to which employees you want to let go—and which ones you absolutely must retain. But know this: Every time an organization lays off even a few employees, voluntary turnover jumps in response ...

Front-line managers are often dropped into management roles without knowing how to manage people or where to turn for advice. Yet, these are the people tasked with making customers and employees happy, and carrying out the organization's mission ...

Chiefly, you learn how to make decisions by doing. But you can also learn, says Michael Useem, director of Wharton’s Center for Leadership and Change Management, by approaching people who are good at it, watching how they do it and asking them to reconstruct the process.

Both the ADA and the FMLA have strict requirements for how employers must handle employee’s confidential medical information. HR professionals must know these rules to comply with both laws—and to avoid expensive legal liability for failing to do so. Here are the details you need.

You expect your managers to possess basic values, communicate clearly and act like responsible adults. But sometimes, you get a bad apple. If you’re regretting a management hire, first judge the degree of badness. A “continuum of badness” has been developed to help you.

Want to avoid needless lawsuits from disgruntled applicants? Adopt some basic rules for handling the selection process, and pay special attention to the all-important job description and interview. As the following case shows, employers that follow some simple rules probably won’t lose a hiring discrimination lawsuit ...

Michael Silvey, property management coordinator for the Department of Public Works in Hernando County, was fired for phoning and asking for sex from two women he formerly worked with at the Southwest Florida Water Management District ...

Former Tampa Police Department (TPD) Capt. Marion Serious Lewis forfeited his law enforcement job when he ran to unseat Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio in 2007, a Florida appeals court has ruled. The city sought to enforce Tampa’s “resign to run” statute ...

Some employees have chips on their shoulders—everything is always someone else’s fault, not theirs. They constantly pester supervisors and higher-ups with complaints about discrimination, retaliation and general unfairness. How is an employer supposed to deal with such constant whining? ...

HR can never know for sure exactly what’s going on in other parts of the organization. That means it’s easy to be blindsided by a sudden lawsuit. For example, co-workers sometimes spread unfounded rumors about who is up for promotion and who will be bypassed. Such gossip may give some employees an excuse to find a reason to sue ...

Raise your skepticism a few notches. Résumé fudging is on the rise again.The percentage of applicants who falsify their educational credentials and job experience typically goes up when the economy heads south. Here are six ways to root out résumé fraud.

It takes more than having a written policy to avoid liability for sexual harassment. If you back up your policy with regular training and quickly fix any harassment problems that come to your attention, chances are you won’t be liable unless the harasser was a supervisor and the employee suffered an adverse employment action ...

A recent federal appeals court decision shows how risky it is to ignore the interactive accommodations process spelled out in the ADA. In Talley v. Family Dollar Stores of Ohio (6th Cir.), the court held that the breakdown of the interactive process can, in and of itself, constitute a constructive discharge of an employee.

Sway others by framing your issue with catchy words. Bridge the “knowing-doing gap" by understanding where you need help in making your vision a reality. Go against the grain like Warren Buffett ...

Q. We are a startup company seeking investors, and we currently have limited cash flow. The company’s founders own the company on a 50/50 basis and are serving as the company’s officers. We can’t afford to pay them, and they are willing to work for free as part of their investment in building the company. Can we do that?

If the people in your organization groan when they read one of your "To all employees" memos, it's because they think of HR as causing problems, not solving them. You can turn that perception around.

Teams often succumb to the perils of one-upsmanship. Imagine, then, the rigors of coaching a Ryder Cup team. Paul Azinger, captain of this year’s 12-member U.S. team, used a group-dynamic philosophy to pull the best performance from each player.

Terminations are the spark to many employment lawsuits. And for each of the six kinds, there are some common steps employers can take to make sure they defend themselves if the termination is challenged in court ...

Performance reviews shouldn't be paper-moving programs that return zero value. Here are five symptoms that warn of trouble in a supervisor's appraisal process.

Are you downsizing your holiday party this year? A Watson Wyatt survey says 37% of firms are scaling back end-of-year festivities—or canceling them altogether! Here’s how some businesses are coping, according to our sister e-newsletter The Admin Pro Forum. PLUS! News about a holiday party legal problem you might never suspect.

In a bid to improve employees’ fitness and reduce health costs, some U.S. employers are going far beyond subsidizing health-club fees or hosting lunchtime walking clubs. They’re taking their wellness initiatives to the edge. Three examples ...

Before you hand out cell phones, laptops and BlackBerrys to everyone on your staff, understand that such tech tools may expose your organization to legal liability. Two legal minefields are particularly worrisome ...

It is an unwritten rule in polite society that anyone who feels compelled to guess a person’s age should always guess down. That’s why it’s hard to sympathize with an investor with Unitek USA, who reportedly asked a 55-year-old applicant seeking an HR director’s position, “How old are you, 78?” ...

There’s no substitute for boots on the ground when it comes to protecting employees from supervisors with hidden discriminatory agendas. If you ignore the warning signs of supervisor bias and leave the “bad boss” in place, it’s probably just a matter of time before you find yourself responding to a lawsuit ...

An Elkhart employer is off the hook for retaliatory discharge for now—but maybe not for long. Lisa Lubarsky was reportedly a good employee of INOVA Federal Credit Union in Elkhart. But then she sued in a South Bend federal court for retaliatory discharge under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ...

Eighteen workers filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) against retail hardware supplier Crown Bolt in August to protest racist graffiti in the Carlisle warehouse where they worked ...

Trying to come up with a reasonable accommodation for a disabled employee? Need more information on her limitations before you can look for possible open positions that may allow her to work? Make sure someone takes charge of coordinating the process so nothing falls through the cracks ...

Employees may think of “their” desks as their own private domains—safe places to keep their own things literally under lock and key. However, employers do have the right to open that locked drawer. When the desk is in an open area shared with other employees, the employee with the key doesn’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Q. How do I make my manager understand that I want more responsibility?

When a big tech company raised the monthly price of its day care program by nearly 75%, employees wept. If the current economic slump is leading you to rejigger your company’s perks, consider this advice ...

Employers must prepare themselves for the very real possibility that the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) will become a reality next year. If passed and signed into law, the EFCA would dramatically change the way unions organize workers and how unions and employers negotiate initial collective bargaining agreements.

Your interview with a top candidate goes well. At the end, you toss out the obligatory, “Are there any other questions?” The candidate asks, “What’s the turnover rate in the department where I would work? What are the main reasons employees leave and where do they go?” The question catches you off guard ...

If your organization has plenty of employees, but not enough of the skilled workers critical to surviving a down business cycle, you’re going to have to change your compensation plan. Three changes pave the way—finally!—for a pay-for-performance system that works.

Every product needs a marketing plan … even you. Learn how to “brand” yourself to show what you can offer and how you can grow within the company.

On Nov. 17, the U.S. Department of Labor finalized the first major overhaul of the FMLA regulations in 15 years. Some changes favor employers, but others will make FMLA compliance trickier than ever. Here's what's in store. BONUS! HR Specialist will hold an audio conference briefing to help you comply with the new regs.

No matter how careful employers are, they still can be sued. Recognizing the risk, more employers are choosing to protect themselves with employment practices liability insurance (EPLI), which covers your organization if it’s hit with an employment lawsuit. But it’s important to know which coverage is right for you ...

Many employers looking for ways to deal with the financial hardships of today’s tough economy are considering reductions in force (RIFs), layoffs and other forms of organizational restructuring. But how you conduct a RIF may spell the difference between a fresh start for the company and a nightmare of litigation ...

You’d never discuss how much money you make, right? Dude, that attitude is so 20th century! The 20-somethings you work with eagerly dish about salaries, bonuses and other work topics you might consider taboo. Managers tempted to forbid such talk? Don’t let them! Here's why.

If your organization has plenty of employees but not enough of the ones with the skills you need to survive the economic downturn, you’re going to have to change the way you pay them. Make three changes to weather the tempest ...

Can you write a strong opening sentence? Are you a ravenous newspaper reader? Then try your hand at writing a press release. If an editor picks up the story, you’ll have scored a major victory for your organization, and you’ll gain a new marketable skill.

The fourth quarter is here, and if your company’s sales reps are behind on their numbers, it’s make-or-break time. Luckily, it’s not too late to turn things around. To win the sales revenue game, business owners must respond “like football coaches whose teams are behind at the start of the fourth quarter,” says George Ludwig ...

It’s tough to keep up on all the latest changes in employment law. Busy HR professionals have to handle day-to-day problems and make sure new rules and regulations make their way into that routine. But it's vital to be up to date on new regulations relevant to your industry. Otherwise, you could face extensive, expensive and needless litigation ...

A California commuter train engineer may have been distracted by a text message seconds before he crashed into a freight locomotive in September, an accident that killed 25 passengers. The accident is a powerful reminder that employers must restrict texting (and talking on cell phones) while employees on duty drive vehicles or operate dangerous equipment.

The FMLA limits leave eligibility to those employees who have worked at least 1,250 hours in the previous 12 months. Employers are perfectly within their rights to stick scrupulously to that 1,250-hour benchmark. They don’t have to round the hours up if the employee comes up short ...

When Barack Obama takes office in January, get ready for the most sweeping employment-law changes the HR world has seen in years. Attorney Mike Fox walks you through the legislation likely to reshape HR, possibly even in the first 100 days of the Obama administration. Here’s how to prepare.

The U.S. Labor Department is set to implement the first major revision of the FMLA since the law was passed in 1993. If approved, the proposed changes could help employers administer the complex 15-year-old law and avoid lawsuits. But the proposal carries a few extra burdens for employers, too.

Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University professor who died of cancer in July at age 47, earned a devout following after delivering his “last lecture” in 2007. He later gave another lecture, this one specifically about time management. Here are a few of his simple, yet powerful tips.

Turn co-workers into die-hard supporters who will watch your back and help propel your career. These three tactics can help you build workplace friends who go the extra mile for you, says management consultant Margaret Morford.

People who fail come from all walks of life. A handful of people, regardless of education, intelligence, manners, appearance or other obvious factors, rise steadily through the ranks and stay on top through fat and lean times. They are the types who, either consciously or instinctively, know the art of political survival.
 

“I hate taking minutes. What do I write down? How do I know what’s important?” Streamline your minute-taking by recording notes as bullet points. Distill any conversation down to its essentials.

An important—but often overlooked—step in performance appraisals is to ask employees to grade themselves. But don't just give them the same appraisal form used by supervisors. Instead, use a separate form that allows them to recap their achievements, identify shortcomings and initiate discussions regarding their development.  A good self-evaluation form asks these three core questions ... 

The Department of Homeland Security has, for the second time, issued a final rule on what employers must do when they receive "no-match" letters questioning the employment eligibility of their workers. Immigrant-right groups are preparing to oppose the rule. Next stop: a federal court in California, where a judge will decide whether the new rule is constitutional.

The California Supreme Court has ruled that when and how state employees can file whistle-blower lawsuits depends on which agency they work for. For example, regular state employees can sue if they first ask for a ruling from the State Personnel Board ...

The presidential campaign has everyone talking politics, and inevitably a lot of that talking takes place at work. As the campaign season moves toward the general election, many employers are re-examining their workplace policies concerning political activities and speech. Evidence suggests employers must educate employees concerning workplace political speech ...

Employment terminations fall into several categories. Whether the situation involves new hires who didn’t work out, firings for cause or performance issues, or voluntary resignations, terminations often lead to litigation. For each type of termination, there are some common ways employers can make sure they can defend themselves if challenged ...

Even though most business property must be depreciated over a period of time, you can still speed up write-offs if you’re armed with tax knowledge. That’s because your not-so-secret weapon—the Section 179 expensing allowance—lets you write off most or all of the cost of most business assets in the very first year of ownership! Here are the ground rules.

Disputes between employees are common and inevitable. But if left unresolved, they can disrupt your department’s productivity, sap morale and even cause some good employees to quit. Supervisors and managers don’t need to become certified mediators to settle disputes. They just need to understand some basics about human behavior, practice the fine art of paying attention and serve as a neutral party who wants to resolve the problem.

A comprehensive document management system can help your business boost productivity, improve the bottom line and stay out of legal trouble. Here are three ways to organize files for easy retrieval, establish a record retention schedule and tame your wild email inbox.

When an employee sues over an alleged discriminatory firing, courts typically make a beeline for one piece of evidence: the employee’s performance evaluation. The problem: Supervisors are notorious for giving overly kind evaluations, even to poor performers. That’s why it’s wise to get another opinion: the employee’s own ...

When an employee announces she’s pregnant, her employer had better be aware of the federal pregnancy discrimination law, state maternity leave laws and the employee’s right to FMLA and pregnancy disability leave.

For managers, reviewing employee performance is a daunting yet critical function of their job. Yet you need not look upon it with dread. Instead, approach the performance appraisal process as a golden opportunity to give your staff feedback, listen to employee comments, review the job description, and discuss and correct performance problems.

Demonstrating best-practices leadership means finding new ways to reinvigorate your team and boost their performance. Here are four techniques for boosting your team management skills and maximizing your team’s performance.

Congress gave final approval on Sept. 17 to legislation that will bring more Americans under the umbrella of “disabled” under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). President Bush said he’d sign the bill. The bill reverses several court rulings from recent years that had limited the scope of ADA protections ...

Employers and HR professionals should make it their policy never to hire a candidate without a comprehensive background check. But, they also must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which regulates how employers perform employment background checks on job applicants. Contrary to popular belief, this federal law doesn’t cover just credit checks.

Congress is considering legislation that would create a new mandatory electronic employment eligibility verification system to replace the current, widely criticized E-Verify program. HR groups are applauding, in part because 90% of employers already use the software on which it is based. Learn more about a proposal that could greatly simplify a cumbersome process.

Employees can save between 5% and 20% on their home and car insurance if they buy it through your organization’s voluntary benefits program. That can be a welcome relief to an employee whose health insurance premiums are steadily increasing, and a way for employers to give workers a break on another necessary expense ...

In their zeal for short-term company goals, an increasing number of U.S. organizations are allowing  managers to wallow in daily routines instead of preparing them for the next job. As a result, the next job is often with another company.

UPS uses a tuition assistance program to attract part-time employees to work the graveyard shift. Much of the $300 million the firm has spent on tuition assistance programs over 10 years has paid for its trademarked Earn and Learn program for part-time employees ...

If you’re planning to attend next week's Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) conference in Chicago—or any business conference for that matter—think about this: The work you do before the conference is just as important as what you do while you’re there. Here are five proactive steps you can take to maximize your conference experience.

A reader of the Forum section of HR Specialist posed this question: “We’re going to be incredibly busy this summer. What’s the best way to schedule vacations without employees complaining?” Here’s how some HR professionals replied ...

You know turnover is expensive; it forces your organization to recruit and train new employees. And while not all turnover is undesirable, a growing number of organizations are starting to focus on the management of turnover as a strategic business issue, both in terms of controlling bottom-line costs and driving top-line results ...

Even if your HR department has only two or three employees, it can still incorporate some of the best approaches to HR management used in the country’s top HR departments. “You don’t have to be well-funded to focus on what’s good for your employees or the right thing for your business,” says Charles Tharp, co-director of the HR management department at Rutgers University ...

HR often writes vague and uninspiring mission statements that exclude business goals. Take the following steps to create a mission statement that lays out HR's practical vision for contributing to the company's strategic plans ...

Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University professor who died of cancer in July at age 47, earned a devout following after delivering his “last lecture” in 2007. He later gave another lecture, this one specifically about time management. Here are a few of his simple, yet powerful tips ...

Even if you already have a policy that bans chatting on cell phones while driving on company business—or at least requires hands-free devices—you should prohibit texting or surfing the web while driving, too. Train your staff and use e-mail reminders ...

Resolve to make 2008 the year you successfully manage your schedule. Here are five tips from time management expert Patricia Hutchings: 1. Start by keeping a time log ...

A reader of the Forum section of our free HR Weekly e-letter posed this question: “We’re considering using the big job boards, but I worry we’ll be buried in résumés from every unemployed person. How can we advertise most effectively?” Here’s how some HR professionals replied ...

Once you know your people, you can design individual motivators that really work, and armed with this you will now become incredibly empowered as a motivator.

Retirement plan administration and health and wellness programs lead the list of functions HR departments ask outside firms to perform ...

 As the prices of gas and groceries continue to climb, your organization’s hourly employees might be having a hard time making ends meet—a problem that could create stress and distraction at work. Consider adding some inexpensive extras for employees who have to choose between buying quality food and filling their gas tanks so they can drive to work ...

People who send text messages while driving are three times more likely to crash than other drivers, and distracted driving accounts for 80% of all accidents. You need a policy that prohibits employees from texting while driving on company business. Here's why it's important and how to craft your policy.

Congress gave final approval on Sept. 17 to legislation that will bring more Americans under the umbrella of “disabled” under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Here's what the bill means to HR professionals and U.S. employers ...

Health fairs teach employees about your organization’s wellness programs and encourage them to practice healthier habits—but only if they show up. To get your employees interested in blood-pressure screenings and dieting information, think of a hook that will draw them in ...

Georgia-based insurance firm Aflac is helping its employees buy their first homes through a program with a local agency. Aflac works with NeighborWorks, which teaches employees how to purchase a home and offers sessions on financial and debt management ...

Employees love company cars, especially if they frequently drive to client sites and are allowed to drive the cars home. Whether your organization supplies the sought-after sedans to staffers who drive around for business—such as sales reps and IT repair techs—or as a perk for valued employees, the road will be smoother if you set down clear policies in writing ...

Issue: After a round of layoffs, remaining employees will wonder "Who's next?"
Risk: That insecurity can cause layoff survivors to "fire themselves" and seek greener pastures elsewhere.
Action: Don't ...

Help employees cope with the sudden death of a co-worker.

Sometimes, an HR internal investigation reveals that, although harassment occurred, it didn’t rise to the level of illegal harassment. Don’t let that finding lull you into ignoring the complaint—and certainly don’t allow anyone to punish the person who complained ...

Managers who raise potential discrimination claims to upper-level managers and then tell affected employees about the problem are protected from retaliation under the Ohio Revised Code’s employment discrimination sections ...

Here’s a way to create management problems and encourage potential lawsuits: Just tell minority managers and supervisors that they can expect their subordinates to harass them and ignore directives because of prejudice in the ranks.  The correct approach: Have a solid anti-harassment policy in place and enforce it ...

Some employees—confronted with their own shortcomings—insist on deflecting blame. Perhaps they try to argue that so-and-so—who doesn’t belong to the same protected class—always gets away with the same poor work and conduct that they’re being criticized for. If you truly believe there is no merit to such an employee’s allegations, you probably don’t need to sweat it ...

Q. We use a full-service employee leasing company. Are we exposed to liability for employment claims brought by leased employees? ...

Question: “My team recently got a new boss who is very green as a manager. Although I have 20 years’ experience, she makes it abundantly clear that she feels superior to me in every way. She talks incessantly about her credentials and all the 'important' tasks she has been given.  I find her condescending, unapproachable and inflexible. Staff meetings have become a painful experience because they accomplish nothing.  Our new boss will not discuss projects in detail nor take any direction from ‘subordinates.’  I have known her manager for a long time and have a good relationship with him.  He’s a fair guy, and he respects my opinion. Should I tell him how I feel about my new boss?” — The Underling

When the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) surveyed employers about their biggest FMLA administrative challenges, dealing with leave for employees’ own chronic conditions ranked number one. But, surprisingly, not far behind was FMLA leave taken for “caring for a sick parent." With more “sandwich generation” employees taking care of children and parents at the same time, it’s wise to be consistent about requesting certification for all types of FMLA leave, including care for elderly parents.

Question: “After only five days in my new management job, my boss says I’m changing things too fast and need to slow down. But I haven't changed anything. I’ve just been asking a lot of questions, yet people still seem upset with me. This is a small company, and they’ve never had a manager in this department. The company hired me to implement new policies and procedures. I’m confused about how to handle this situation. What should I do?” — Ready to Take Over

Question: “Our department head refuses to allow telecommuting. He will not accept that people can work productively at home even though other department heads occasionally permit it. My commute is an hour each way, so eliminating drive time one or two days a week would greatly improve my quality of life. My immediate supervisor favors the idea, but she knows the department head won’t approve it, and if he does it for me, he’ll have to do it for everyone. I would like to offer myself as a telecommuting test case. How should I present the idea?” — Tired of Driving

Question: “My boss is promoting me to supervisor, but several co-workers are unhappy about it. Ever since he told them, a few people have been very nasty to me. None of these co-workers showed any interest in the position, yet they now find fault with everything I do. I feel like I’m under a microscope. I don’t go to work every day to make friends. My goal is to do a good job and earn a living. After I’m promoted, should I talk to these people about their behavior or should I act like it never happened?  How do I squash this jealousy and nip this behavior in the bud?” — New Supervisor

Employers doing business with Uncle Sam will soon have to begin using the government’s E-Verify Internet-based employment eligibility verification system. Critics say the system is already inaccurate and overburdened. If you're a federal government contractor, you need to know about this big change. If you're just generally concerned about increasingly complex employment eligibility rules, we've got the info you need.

Question: “My boss hired his ‘good friend’ as a top-level manager. This woman has no qualifications for the job, and she’s making costly mistakes.  She also pawns her work off on others and treats everyone rudely. We’ve tried talking to the boss about this woman’s inexperience and offensive behavior, but he refuses to listen.  Some long-term employees are considering leaving.  How can we explain this without putting our jobs on the line? This woman’s behavior has had a major impact on our work and may do long-term damage to the company.” -- Afraid to Speak Up

If employees ask for Sundays off from work for religious reasons, must they attend services in an actual church or synagogue that day? A new court ruling clarifies that the answer is “no” ...

Q. Our company policy requires an employee’s supervisor to approve all overtime. However it’s common for employees to work overtime that has not been approved; time they then record on their time sheets. Since the overtime was never approved, our management takes the position that it does not need to pay for this overtime. My understanding is that all hours worked must be paid. Which is correct? ...

Poor communications with employees isn’t just bad for business. It also creates a work environment that’s ripe for legal trouble. Stay out of the courtroom by taking time to explain your actions and make the workplace seem rational to employees. Here's how.

The alphabet soup of federal HR laws—ADA, ADEA, FMLA and so forth—comes with a side order of compliance headaches. But some of those laws apply only to some organizations. Don't waste your time worrying about compliance if you don't have to. Here's the skinny on which laws you might be able to ignore—and which you absolutely must not ...

If you want to avoid needless failure-to-promote claims, create an automatic application process, and make sure managers and all employees understand how the new system works. Courts have said that if employees let their supervisors know they may be interested in a promotion, those employees don’t actually have to apply to claim they were discriminated against in the process ...

HR Law 101: Under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, employers with 20 or more workers can’t engage in personnel practices that discriminate against individuals age 40 and older. Most age discrimination cases grow out of wrongful discharge and mandatory retirement policies, but they can involve any adverse change in working conditions ...

Disabled employees who receive ADA accommodations expect those accommodations to continue even after an unrelated minor injury. If you suddenly remove the accommodation, you may find yourself facing a “regarded-as-disabled” lawsuit ...

Employees who belong to a protected class often sue for discrimination if they feel they have been denied training and education opportunities. That’s why you should carefully track what training courses or experiences you offer, the minimum qualifications for each opportunity and who ends up taking advantage of each one ...

The U.S. Labor Department yesterday took a big step toward clarifying some of the most confusing aspects of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The agency issued a series of proposed changes to the law that, if finalized, could help employers administer the complex 15-year-old law and avoid lawsuits. But the proposal carries a few extra burdens for employers, too.

You think you're under pressure at work? Executives may have it even worse, according to Liberum Research, a New York-based firm that tracks the upper-management job market.

To avoid losing essential and talented employees, some organizations make promises about continued employment that later turn out to be hard to keep. It’s especially common in organizations going through transitions, such as mergers or moves to outsource internal functions. But the tactic can backfire ...

Darryl Hall, a black warehouse worker for Detroit Forming Inc., will have his day in court after the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s ruling on his race discrimination case. Hall testified that company owner Leigh Rodney told workers at a shift meeting that if they didn’t like the way he ran the company, they could “go back and pick cotton.” ...

Even with the best sexual harassment training, it’s hard for some employees to grasp exactly what constitutes sexual harassment and what’s merely horseplay or roughhousing—especially when the behavior is directed at the same sex. But that doesn’t mean that an employee who comes forward with that sort of complaint isn’t engaged in protected activity ...

A former treasurer of Local 900 of the Federal Independent Texas Union (FITU) was recently ordered to serve a 21-month prison sentence for embezzling $164,268 in union funds. The FITU represents employees at Lockheed Aerospace Corp. in Fort Worth ...

Thirty-five percent of organizations offered retiree health benefits in 2007, up from 29% the year before, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. Even so, benefits analysts say organizations are under pressure to drop the coverage to save money and to lessen a costly liability line on their financial statements ...

Just about everyone with an ounce of ambition wants to be promoted. But in most organizations, there’s only so much room for managers and supervisors. Still, failure to win a promotion is one of the most frequent triggers for discrimination lawsuits. That’s why HR should carefully track every employee’s performance and progress ...

Do you suspect an employee may have a mental or psychological disability that may need accommodation—even though he hasn’t mentioned it? Tread carefully. If you assume the employee is disabled and he’s not, he’ll be able to sue you for regarding him as disabled. Here’s the best way to handle the matter ...

Q. When making demotion decisions—especially those involving employees in protected classes—what factors should an employer take into consideration to avoid legal backlash? ...

In day-to-day business, companies have every right to demand that employees follow the chain of command. They can require workers who have complaints about work processes or disagreements with co-workers to take up their issues with supervisors, and not go over bosses’ heads. If employees defy those rules, that can be insubordination—and it can justify termination ...

Q. May a former employee sue me for giving a bad reference? ...

Sexual harassment cases continue to plague employers. Whether the harassment allegations involve a co-worker or a supervisor, the bottom line is simple: You need a two-part defense ...

A seven-week strike by United Auto Workers (UAW) against Warrenville, IL-based truck and engine maker Navistar International Inc. ended in December. The union’s contract expired on Oct. 1, but employees worked through Oct. 23 before walking out on the company’s engine plants in Illinois and Indianapolis ...

Q. Our IT manager wants to install software onto our company computer system that will allow us to monitor Internet and e-mail usage on company equipment. Our employee handbook prohibits the use of company equipment or the Internet to surf inappropriate web sites, but does not specifically warn staff that management may monitor their use. Do we need to amend our computer-use policy before installing the monitoring software? ...

Some managers, especially those with extensive military training, may rely on techniques straight out of boot camp. Under the right circumstances, they can be very effective trainers, who get results and create an effective team. But loud, intimidating and in-your-face behavior comes with a huge risk ...

Over the course of a 16-year career, Ronnie McNorton found himself on the receiving end of many disciplinary actions by his employer, the Georgia Department of Transportation. But McNorton hung on and won several promotions. In 2002, that advancement stalled, ironically because McNorton helped another state employee get her career off the ground. If only he could have kept his stories straight ...

If your boss's micromanagement interferes with your ability to do your job, quit casting yourself as a victim. You can't change the boss, but you can influence many of the situations you face, says Harry Chambers, a trainer and author of My Way or the Highway: The Micromanagement Survival Guide.

Employees who take their 12 weeks of FMLA and California Family Rights Act leave don’t lose the right to reinstatement once their time off expires. In fact, additional time off may be a reasonable accommodation under both the ADA and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. What’s more, that additional medical leave would have to be accompanied by the right to reinstatement ...

Lately, the Centers for Disease Control regularly warns about the danger of the next super bug or pandemic flu outbreak. That’s one reason it’s no surprise that health care facilities want to inoculate staff against contagious illnesses. But in a union environment, it may not be enough to simply order employees to get shots ...

Does your organization use an employment contract for some employees? If so, does that contract specify that either party can terminate the agreement for any or no reason at all? If not, insert that language right away. It will help you retain maximum control over the work force while benefiting from having the other terms and conditions in writing ...

What seems like a joke to members of the majority can be deeply hurtful to members of a minority. These days, that’s a particular issue in areas with a large concentration of people of Middle Eastern heritage—such as Michigan. As the “war on terror” shows no signs of abating, it makes sense to remind managers and supervisors to stay away from any comments on ethnicity ...

Are your managers giving you only half the story when recommending a termination? Watch out! As a new court ruling says, this kind of “willful ignorance” on your part is no defense to discriminatory conduct ...

Employers naturally want to reduce their workers’ compensation claims—it means lower insurance costs, less lost time and higher productivity. But be careful how you frame the issue. Don’t discourage legitimate claims or retaliate against those who file claims ...

A seven-week strike by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union against truck and engine maker Navistar International, based in Warrenville, ended in December ...

When an employee takes leave to deal with a serious health condition, be sure to inform her that you plan to charge the time against her allotment of unpaid FMLA leave. If you fail to do so and the employee later runs out of leave and loses a benefit, it will be relatively easy for her to sue and show she was somehow harmed by the lack of notice ...

The IRS has issued a long string of regulations and rulings on “cafeteria plans” over the past 20 years. Even expert tax practitioners have trouble keeping up with all the stops and starts. But a new comprehensive set of proposed regulations look like the real deal. (NPRM REG-142696-05)

Consider yourself warned: The IRS has said it will crack down in 2008 on organizations that misclassify workers as independent contractors when they actually should be considered employees. It’s a tricky problem for HR pros, who don’t typically play a role in classifying independent contractors ...

If you don’t have one, consider adding a general honesty or misrepresentation clause to your employee handbook. Such a clause can come in handy when you are looking for a solid reason to discharge someone who just isn’t being upfront and honest with the company, but technically may not have violated a specific work rule ...

Businesses must stay abreast of an alphabet soup of federal laws—ADA, ADEA, FMLA and so forth—each with its own requirements. Further complicating matters, most states have their own laws that override the federal requirements. To comply, you first must know which laws apply to your business, based on the number of people you employ ...

When it comes to promotions, be sure that management team members in charge of interviews are all on the same page. That means ensuring they ask all candidates exactly the same questions and make thorough notes about each applicant ...

Jane Roberti worked as a loan officer for Allentown’s Becker Subaru. Her live-in boyfriend, Mark Wynne, also worked there as a salesman. Roberti’s responsibilities included funneling Internet sales leads to the salespeople. When employees began to complain that Roberti routed the best leads to Wynne, management counseled both to keep their personal and professional lives separate ...

When an employee with an unidentified infection came to work at the Liz Claiborne Outlet Store at Lighthouse Place in Michigan City, management feared it might be MRSA and closed the store to disinfect it ...

A white environmental services attendant recently sued St. Vincent Carmel Hospital, claiming racial discrimination and retaliation. He was fired for violating the hospital’s anti-violence policy ...

HDG Mansur, a multinational property company based in Indianapolis, is poised to launch the first global real estate investment fund compliant with Islamic sharia law. But the firm has drawn complaints from a U.S. imam, Indiana clergy and unions ...

A Mexican woman has been granted permission to serve as the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against a company that recruits and places temporary agricultural workers on farms and other agricultural operations in North Carolina and other states. The woman claims that International Labor Management Corporation purposely placed women in less lucrative temporary visa programs than men ...

Both the ADA and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination make it illegal to retaliate against disabled employees who engage in what the law calls “protected activity.” Filing an EEOC complaint, testifying against an employer or cooperating in a government investigation are protected activities. So are more informal activities, such as discussing accommodations with a supervisor or HR ...

What’s one of the quickest ways to a California Labor Code whistle-blower lawsuit? Discourage an employee from reporting to the government or law enforcement what she sees as possible illegal activity. If disciplinary action against a formerly good employee closely follows your discouraging words—watch out! Litigation won’t be far behind ...

If you receive a discrimination complaint, conduct a prompt and thorough investigation. Then have an independent party decide on any discipline. If the investigation was independent and the decision-maker was not the same person who allegedly discriminated against the employee, it won’t matter if the decision-maker was wrong—just that he or she believed the reason was genuine ...

Here’s a test that measures your broad knowledge of the HR field. From the FMLA to comp and benefits to employee behavior you’d rather not know about, we’ve got the questions. Do you have the answers?

For the first time since it became law in 1993, the FMLA is on the verge of being amended. The House and Senate approved broad leave protections for the family members of miltary men and women, and the president is expected to sign the legislation into law. Will the amendments open the floodgates to further changes? How will that affect employers?

Q. We are considering applicants for a management position, including several internal applicants. Our policy is to obtain background checks on all candidates from a consumer reporting agency. If the internal applicants signed consent forms when we originally hired them, do we need to get new consent forms from them? — J.P. ...

Some employees claim they are ultrasensitive to scents commonly found in detergents, perfumes, deodorants and other products. It’s not clear how far employers have to go to create a fragrance-free environment, but smart employers are willing to take at least some measures to help employees bothered by the scents of co-workers ...

Nothing will fuel a lawsuit more than management’s poor behavior. While discharging an employee for any reason is stressful for everyone involved, there is a right and a wrong way to do it. The wrong way is to get emotional, to shout and unceremoniously throw the employee off the premises ...

“Is it ‘Crop input prices have been raising rapidly’ or ‘Crop input prices have been rising rapidly’?”

When illness strikes a family member, worry and stress can hurt job performance. Xerox helps employees manage complex diagnoses with a patient advocacy program. Employees who use the company’s Health Systems Management (HSM) program can get information about conditions ...

Five United Airlines workers needed medical attention for nausea and vomiting after partaking in the airline’s holiday peace offering—a full Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings. The feast was supposed to be United’s way of restoring goodwill after the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association criticized the airline ...

Question: “We’re updating our employee handbook. Does anyone have advice on setting a policy regulating employees’ personal use of our electronic equipment and resources, such as PCs and the Internet?”—David, NY

(Feel free to post policy language if it’s relatively brief. Web links to your handbook are welcome too—if your own policies permit it.)

Sometimes employees who know they are in trouble at work will try to set up lawsuits. That way, they reason, if they get fired, they can sue for “retaliation.” It’s up to HR to ferret out such sneaky tricks and prevent those lawsuits. The best way is to make absolutely sure that you can justify any eventual discipline ...

When a supervisor recommends discharging an employee, resist the temptation to simply agree with her assessment. Here’s why: If the employee is being targeted because she took FMLA leave or engaged in some other form of protected activity, blind adherence to the supervisor’s recommendation to fire opens up the company to a retaliation claim.

When illness strikes a family member, worry and stress can hurt job performance. Xerox helps employees manage complex diagnoses with a patient advocacy program ...

It may be a busy, hectic and crazy workplace, but that doesn’t excuse supervisors and managers from providing updated and accurate job descriptions and documenting job performances. Workplaces that neglect those essential duties face huge lawsuit risks ...