Perhaps it can be said that staff meetings are a necessary evil. It is important for teams to communicate, and a well-designed staff meeting can foster that communication. But, in my experience, staff meetings are rarely well-designed, and in fact,…
Termination
Reduce the Trauma of a Layoff Or Firing With an Offboarding Plan
Staff reductions involve multiple moving parts. You make gut-wrenching decisions about who’s being let go, HR drafts severance agreements, and your legal department assesses compliance with federal labor regulations. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. You make all these…
Why You Shouldn’t Fight Unemployment Claims
Business owners, especially small business owners, are constantly concerned about keeping costs down — and rightfully so. But there are some scenarios in which culture and costs clash — and employee departures is one such area. If you have too…
Stop Shooting Your Defense Lawyer in the Foot
It might be hard to believe this, but employment defense lawyers are not as amazing as they would like you to believe. Trust me, I would know. I’m an employee rights lawyer in California and I battle employer-side attorneys all…
It’s Your Job to Keep Company Data Safe So Talk to IT
Terminating employees is never a fun task for HR, but it’s sometimes a necessary function that must be handled properly. Ensuring the organization’s sensitive information remains secure even as internal personnel are let go is a vital part of that…
The Cost of Fantasy Football and Other Odds and Ends
Paul Gumbiner is an executive search consultant specializing in the advertising industry. He writes an entertaining blog — View From Madison Avenue — that at times can make you believe Mad Men was a reality show. He recently recounted Ten…
Without Consequences Managers Send the Wrong Message
Ryan Lochte certainly did realize severe consequences to his childish actions in Rio. They hit him where it really hurts – in the pocketbook. One hopes that Lochte learns from this experience, grows up and becomes a responsible adult. Maybe….
What Does the ADA Require For a Mental Health Episode At Work?
My skin crawls thinking about the Google search terms that will land some HR professionals on this post, which involves a failed suicide attempt. Hopefully, this is not a practice tip upon which you’ll need to draw in the course of…
3 Reasons Your Former Employees Are Bitter (And How to Change That)
Let’s face it — bitter former employees are a lose-lose for everyone because they can outright ruin the reputation of a company. In fact, 38% of laid-off or fired employees out of 1,300 job seekers and 218 HR and talent…
It’s Unfair to NOT Fire People
Firing people has a bad rap in business. But sometimes, firing someone is the greatest gift you could give the individual impacted, as well as the remaining team members and yourself. Leading well requires having the right people in the…
The No. 1 Reason For Making Bad Job Hires
A while back, I interviewed a lady that would make a great recruiter. She was high energy, great on the phone, could source and an HR degree. She applied for the job we had open for a recruiter, and I…
Can Paying People to Quit Actually Drive Better Employee Engagement?
What do you do with an “adequate” employee — the type of person who puts in just enough effort to get the job done, but is clearly only in it for the paycheck? The answer, as strange as it may…
Fired For Heckling — and, For Posting It on Twitter, Too
By Eric B. Meyer I was going to start the week with this story from TheLedger.com. But then, that whole HR getting sued for FMLA violations thing caught my attention, and now has most of you refusing to come out…
Art Of The Layoff? No, More Like the Art of Sounding Like a Jerk
Editor’s Note: As I wind down my stint as Editor of TLNT — I’m leaving in the next few months — I wanted to share some of my favorite TLNT posts. Here’s one from October 2011. Anytime you see a story with a…
Is There A Good Way To Fire Someone? No, But Don’t Ever Do It By Phone
Editor’s Note: As I wind down my stint as Editor of TLNT — yes, I’m going to be leaving next month— I wanted to share some of my favorite posts. Here’s one from September 2011. If there’s one thing that struck…
In Real Life HR, an Employee Who Punches a Fellow Employee Gets Fired
The world of the NBA brings us the real live HR Game Show – What Would You Do? I know most of you could care less about professional basketball, and I promise, this post isn’t about basketball. In case you…
Carefully Navigating, and Managing, the End of the Employee Relationship
Companies often spend lots of time and money on the beginning of the employment relationship — onboarding — and this investment makes sense. You want to recruit the best talent, and make sure they have the tools and training needed…
The Power of Departing Employees, or Why Offboarding is Critically Important
Though most companies today are laser-focused on the onboarding process, many overlook the importance of offboarding. In fact, Aberdeen research finds that only 29 percent of organizations have an offboarding program in place. In many ways, offboarding — the strategic…
Onboarding Red Flags: How to Tell if Your New Hire is a Bust
Onboarding new hires, when done right, is one of the best parts of the hiring process. Who doesn’t like introducing a new worker to all of their fellow employees and showing them around the office without having to worry about…
How an Intern Got Fired For an Offensive Tweet – Then Made Things a Lot Worse
By Eric B. Meyer On Tuesday, a Fox affiliate in Arizona reported that an intern at a health and wellness company was fired for an offensive tweet. Specifically, the intern tweeting a photo showing her and a friend in a…