What are Ethics Statements? They are attempts by companies to spell out the ethical standards that they expect their employees to live by. Sometimes they are confused with Values Statements, but a list of values tends to include characteristics such as excellence, compassion, and good humor, in addition to integrity, … Read More
Handling confidentiality during investigations is a moving target while the NRLA is sorted out. The reasons for maintaining confidentiality are clear: maintain privacy for accused and accuser protect witnesses, keep evidence from being destroyed, prevent stories from being synchronized, and prevent cover-ups. The competing interest, which the NRLB takes seriously, … Read More
Like so much about social media, using it to screen candidates is an area in flux. It seems like a good way to learn more about a candidate, but it is easy to learn too much. What you learn may not be true: you may have someone else with the … Read More
When people post to social media like Facebook or Twitter, they usually feel that they are talking to a few friends, but in fact they may be opening themselves and their employer up to potential liability. Companies may be tempted to ignore social media, but there are times when they … Read More
So often an owner is too busy working in the business to work on the business, and a strategic growth plan is one of the first things to get lost in the shuffle. It just takes too long to get all the pieces together: vision statement, mission statement, values, objectives, … Read More
Social media is providing challenges to employers who are concerned about their employees’ posts about their workplace. The immediate instinct is to ban those comments, but this quickly runs afoul of the National Labor Relations Act. The NRLA applies to even non-union workplaces and protects “concerted activity” such as forming … Read More
It is one of the odd truths of life that no matter how well we plan to do everything right, the world doesn’t always listen. Frequently this leads to a small problem, but sometimes it precipitates a major problem for a company. This is where risk analysis comes in: it … Read More
Every major new product takes time to really incorporate into our lives well enough to develop the appropriate etiquette and boundaries. Gin was the problem in 18th Century England, when poor people spent all their money on bottles and ended up in the gutter, mothers neglecting kids and fathers neglecting … Read More
Conducting an HR investigation, such as one for a harassment claim, has gotten a lot trickier recently. In the past, investigators usually told everyone involved not to share information about the investigation with anyone else while the investigation was pending, in order to protect the privacy of the people involved … Read More
Onboarding of new employees should be a process, not an event. It starts when the new employee walks in the front door and doesn’t end until they are fully integrated into the company. New employee orientation, no matter how well done, is only one small part of the process. Successful … Read More