Imagine the workplace as an ecosystem and at its heart, lies a community of living, breathing organisms. In an ecosystem, how you work is just as important as the work you do because even seemingly small actions in this environment can have…
Behavior
How the ‘D’ Word Can Improve Performance
Sometimes saying that you are “disappointed” is a very powerful statement. Several years ago, I watched a hospital president speak with employees who messed up. It could have been a med error, tardiness for a shift, or poor treatment of…
9 Ways the NLRB Is Making It Easier to Revise Your Handbook
If you’re new to the field, you’ll have to take our word on it, but HR-compliance professionals know that drafting a 100% compliant employee handbook got a lot tougher over the past several years. Let’s forget about paid-sick-leave laws, ban-the-box, and…
4 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Smoking Cessation Program
Tobacco use is the most common substance use disorder in the U.S. Between 8% and 18% of healthcare expenditures, depending on smoking prevalence, are attributable to smoking. Most smokers want to stop, and each year about 50% of all smokers…
NLRB Issues New Guidance on How It Will Interpret Handbook Rules
Last week, NLRB General Counsel Peter Robb issued a lengthy 20-page memorandum (GC 18-04) providing detailed guidance regarding enforcement of “Handbook Rules Post-Boeing.” In The Boeing Co., 365 NLRB No. 154 (Dec. 14, 2017), the Board established a new standard governing…
What Facebook’s Data Issues Mean for Your Employee Data
With the news that a data firm was given access to the personal information of 87 million Facebook users, the ramifications were widely felt. For many, this was a wakeup call about how easily social data can be accessed without…
Speaking Truth to Power: HR as the Employee’s Advocate
Once upon a time, the Human Resources Department was known as Personnel. Now it has changed again and is being called things like Talent, Talent Resources, Human Capital and a dozen other things. The problem is that it is all…
HR’s Role When Divorce Impacts Performance
Despite the general pattern of the divorce rate declining, there are still plenty of married couples who untie the knot. Doing so is obviously life-changing, but it can also have a severe impact on your career and ability to work…
Shedding Light On Workplace Abuse
For decades, an executive at a movie production studio engaged in predatory behaviors against women who worked for and with him. When allegations came to light it was revealed that dozens of women were his victims. Worse, the organization he…
HR Roundtable: Bad Behavior and What to Do About It
To kick off a new year, the (Cincinnati) HR Roundtable ventured into an area that is often mumbled about in hallways, but is rarely discussed in the open. Bad behavior. It’s amazing that all of the recent “discoveries” of people…
Avoid EEOC Trouble By Smart Hiring, Sound Procedures and Soft Skills
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) resolved 99,109 employment discrimination claims in fiscal year 2017, resulting in $398 million in compensation paid to claimants. Of the claims resolved, 47% were for retaliation by an employer against a complaining employee. These…
NLRB Overturns Rules On Joint Employer and Neutral Policies
On 3-2 votes, the NLRB Republican majority today overturned two precedent setting cases. One involved the standard it adopted just two years ago to determine joint employer status. The second set aside a 13 year-old standard governing whether facially neutral…
Is an Employee’s #MeToo Social Media Post a Harassment Complaint?
Dear Littler: I work in HR and have a very modern-day dilemma. An employee (Lauren) told me about a social media post by another employee (Jane). I don’t follow Jane on social media, but a few days ago she posted…
How to Have a Recovery-Friendly Workplace
Substance abuse in the workplace is a serious liability for employers. Every year in this country, drug and alcohol abuse are major contributors to workplace injuries and fatalities, plus they drain employee productivity and costs employers billions in lost productivity…
The Exciting New World of Employee Handbooks
Every business needs an employee handbook, right? This contains all those fun legal things like the fact that you’re an at-will employee, that you need to comply with a code of conduct, and what the dress code is (among other…
Drones Are Coming. Here’s How to Be Ready
A new employee may be joining your workplace soon – the drone pilot. “Pilot” may seem like a grandiose name for someone who operates a gadget the size of a toaster, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) considers them pilots…
Yes, You Can Fire Someone For What They Post Online
Juli Briskman was out riding her bicycle last month when she was passed on the road by Donald Trump’s motorcade. So, she showed ’em the middle finger. And, it was at that precise moment that a White House photographer traveling…
You Can Take Action Against Employees For Their Political Activism
After white supremacists descended upon Charlottesville, Virginia, social media lit up in response. In the days that followed, several marchers were identified and lost their jobs in the process. As the events in Charlottesville showed, political extremism in the US…
Halloween: The Scariest Time of the Year for HR
There are two times a year I can think of that scare the bejesus out of HR people: Halloween and December. December because there’s a good chance someone — fingers crossed it’s not a boss — will party too hearty…
Hire Well, Treat People Right and You Too Can Have 100% Retention
I was recently asked the question, “What should I do to keep an employee that has quit from leaving.” I was happy to answer the question because I have a perfect batting average as CEO of keeping employees from quitting….