HR Management

As an HR professional, you’re in a unique position to guide your organization to a culture that causes less worry and stress for employees—and better health and productivity. Here are 12 ways to get started:

It happens all the time: An employee approaches someone from HR to ask for help. But occasionally, HR pros find their work conversations veering dangerously toward inappropriately personal topics—from how to handle retirement investments to life-and-death health care decisions.

Starting Feb. 1 each year, many U.S. employers are required to post a summary of the number of job-related injuries and illnesses that occurred in the workplace the previous year. The posting must typically stay up until April 30.

Do you know for sure that your supervisors equally punish em­­­­ployees who break the same workplace rules? If not, it’s time to conduct an internal audit. Check disciplinary records against your employees’ protected characteristics.

Smart employers carefully track performance over the long haul—not just when a manager decides he’s had enough and wants to terminate an employee for poor performance. It’s important to lay the groundwork early on, especially if a new hire has obvious performance problems right after coming on board.

The U.S. Supreme Court and federal agencies look askance at employers that don’t train employees and supervisors how to prevent, detect and report harassment. As a practical matter, such training is essentially required.

Federal labor law requires HR professionals to do a lot of different things. Writing job descriptions is not one of them. Because this arduous task is optional, many organizations skip right over it. That’s not wise. There are many practical and legal reasons to draft (and up­­date) job descriptions.

Hurricane Sandy ... the derecho last June ... employers must be prepared for a variety of disaster scenarios. Two very practical matters employers must deal with in the aftermath of a disaster: workplace cleanup and paying workers. Federal law affects both.

HR Law 101: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination based on race, national origin and religion. The law applies to all employers that have at least 15 full- or part-time workers and includes U.S. companies that employ Americans abroad ...

HR Law 101: Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Courts are increasingly taking a dim view of employers that don't take decisive action to prevent sexual harassment ...