If you have a strict grooming policy or are considering implementing one, make sure you first understand what you can and cannot require employees to wear or what grooming standards you can legally enforce. Employees can and do sue when their employers try to impose rules that interfere with religious beliefs, reflect sexual stereotypes or are simply demeaning.
When you're thrust into working environments, you deal with all sorts of people on a daily basis. If you don't get along with some of them, the hours can drag on. If these people are your bosses, the days can seem like torture. Here's how to manage your manager.
Older employees who believe a supervisor is trying to get rid of them because they're too old can voluntarily retire—and then turn around and sue their former employer. By citing the so-called constructive discharge theory, they can show they had no choice but to quit.
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 input from employees.
A New York City broker of apartment rentals and sales may face legal liability for alleged age bias—not because it discriminated, but because its independent contractor did. It's a cautionary tale for any organization that outsources hiring.
Some disabilities require the use of medications with side effects. If one of those is sleepiness and fatigue, employers may have to accommodate those. That's why it's crucial for you to begin the interactive process as soon as you learn that an employee is having trouble because of the medication he uses. The worst thing you can do is to simply terminate him because he nodded off.
Did the entire first decade of the 21st century pass without your company getting serious about online marketing? If your organization doesn't have an online strategy to speak of—no web site or a skimpy one, no social-media strategy, no e-mail list, no e-newsletter—you can still catch up. Marketing expert Seth Godin recommends venturing forward with these strategies:
It's time to take a fresh look at the health questionnaires you hand out to employees as part of your wellness program. New federal regulations that prohibit discrimination against people with congenital medical conditions mean you must review health risk assessments to make sure they don't ask employees to reveal protected information.
Test your knowledge of recent trends in employment law, comp & benefits and other HR issues with our monthly mini-quiz ...
As the economic downturn trudges on, many workers are struggling with household budgets. In fact, six out of 10 recently surveyed workers said they live paycheck to paycheck. Savings rates are dropping and retirement funds are drying up. Here's how HR can provide genuine help—without adding budget costs.
What does it take to reach the top of your game professionally? Women, at least, can learn much from a new book, How Remarkable Women Lead, by Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston. The authors spent five years on research and 100 in-depth interviews with women leaders from around the world. They discovered that women who excel share these five qualities:
When employees say they're having trouble completing their job duties because of their ADA-qualifying disabilities, employers are required to enter into an "interactive process to find accommodations that allow them to perform the job's essential functions. That's where the newly updated, redesigned Job Accommodation Network (JAN) site can come in handy.
Fortunately, most admins have strong partnerships with their managers or see ways to build that bond. But some admins are still struggling through their relationships with lousy bosses. Is the solution to quit? Not with unemployment rates above 10%. Here's another option: Negotiate with your boss, the way the FBI negotiates during a hostage situation.
The cost cutting and staff reductions may not be completely over, but as the economy begins its recovery, HR will be dealing with new challenges in 2010. Here are 10 trends to expect in the coming year, plus tips and tools to help you respond to each.
Using transitions in your writing is like taking readers by the hand and guiding them exactly where you want them to go. Transitional words such as "however, "meanwhile or "likewise create relationships between your sentences and paragraphs so that readers can understand why you've written sentences in a particular order.
To help an audience tune in to your PowerPoint presentation instead of zoning out, stick to these four cardinal rules from communications coach Carmine Gallo when creating a presentation: 1.Stick to three or four themes. 2.Type should be no smaller than 30 points. 3. Use charts sparingly. 4. Divide the number of minutes you're allotted to speak by two—that's how many slides you should have.
You may not realize it, but many small business owners adopt war principles to lead their companies to higher profits. Think about it:
The end of the year came and went without formal approval of the "Tax Extenders Act of 2009. But once enacted, the new law would retroactively extend a bunch of key tax provisions that expired after 2009. Generally, it will preserve these tax benefits for one more year. Here are the main tax winners for individuals and businesses:
The latest "Stress in America Survey confirms that work is stressing out people. One stress solution that works, according to the American Psychological Association: wellness programs that offer incentives to employees who trade overeating, smoking and other harmful habits for healthier behaviors.
Imagine being at the top of your career, then very publicly and unceremoniously fired. It happened to Jeffrey Katzenberg, when, as a studio head at The Walt Disney Co., the company forced him to resign. As painful as it was, though, it was one of the most valuable lessons of his career. Why?
