People Management

During a busy period, your key operator, Heather, is called for jury duty. You tell her that the company may be able to get her excused from it. But Heather refuses, saying that she con­­siders it her civic duty. What would you do?

Problem: Jack has become a minor ­celebrity with other employees ever since he filed an OSHA complaint about an alleged hazardous condition. He spends so much time talking about safety, that his job performance is declining. It reaches the point that Jack needs to be disciplined.

Conducting job interviews is one of the most legally dangerous tasks performed by managers. That's why every question should relate to this central theme: "How are you qualified to perform the job you are applying for?”

Giving feedback is an important management task but certainly not an easy one—especially when the feedback isn’t all sunshine. Fortunately, it’s a skill that can be learned. Follow this seven-step method whenever giving negative feedback:

How to avoid the two most common pitfalls in writing performance reviews.

While most managers don’t deal directly with ERISA, you may be your company’s “communication voice” for benefits. Warning: Don’t make promises the company isn’t in a position to keep.

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:

In a recent survey, The HR Specialist asked readers whether they’ve been sued by employees and, if so, what single piece of advice would they give to other HR professionals to help them avoid (or respond to) an employee lawsuit. Here are some of their suggestions:

Set A, B and C goals for your employees’ performance expectations. C goals are Comfortable. B goals are Believable. A goals are Awesome.

Employees are often the best sources of ideas because they are closest to the daily details of the organization. But too often, employees are sitting on great cost-saving, business-generating ideas because they’ve never been specifically asked. Here are five strategies to help encourage their input.