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Showing 23 posts in Employee Contracts.
Workplace Politics: Cooling the Debates... Continued
As discussions about the first Presidential debate swirl, we continue our discussion of politics in the workplace. More >
EMPLOYEE TERMINATIONS: A PRACTICAL CHECKLIST
Terminating an employee is rarely, if ever, a comfortable process. Personal feelings - not to mention the concerns relative to potential legal ramifications of a termination - often cause employers to retain an employee who should otherwise be terminated. The following guidelines include several of the most important practical tips to assist employers in the termination process and to help ensure that the employer is protected. More >
Employee Manuals – Updating is the Best Defense continued…..
Rolling out policy changes appropriately is a necessary part of updating policies. A company can write and update its manual and have the most effective policies ever, but if they are not presented to the workforce in the proper way, policies are ineffective and just another stack of papers on everyone’s desk. Whatever your detailed course of roll-out, from individual meetings to a company-wide email, you have to go beyond announcing policy changes. Get written acknowledgements from every employee on every change. It is often common practice to issue updates and send out each policy change-by-change, like an addendum to the manual every few months. This is necessary to keep your employees aware of the changes occurring in the workplace policies. However, all those loose papers might get lost in the minutia of daily business and never actually make it into an employee’s manual. So the reality is employees may not be operating with an updated version of the manual. Re-issuing the employee manual in its entirety is the best policy to ensure that employees have the most up-to-date version; once a year should be sufficient, unless significant changes occur. This can be a mitigating factor in unemployment hearings – if an employee was terminated because of a policy violation and the employee had notice and acknowledged changes to the policies and procedures, the company generally has a better chance of justifying the termination for misconduct. More >
Employee Manuals – Updating is the Best Defense
An employer’s best defense to ever increasing employment claims is an employee manual, and more importantly an up-to-date manual. If your company does not have a manual or has not updated its manual in several years, your company could be at risk. Kentucky does not require that an employer have an employee manual. However, the main advantage to issuing such a document is to create expectations and boundaries that are clear and consistent for your workplace. A good employee handbook goes further than merely outlining policies and procedures that pertain to conduct and safety in the workplace, it promotes positive employee relations. As well, adopting an employee manual substantially reduces the legal risks that often arise – especially surrounding discrimination, harassment or termination. Even in an at-will state, a manual gives an employer more leverage with agencies, commissions and state boards who regulate employment concerns. A strong employee manual coupled with proper documentation of employee offenses safeguards against a “he said, she said” situation when serious issues arise. More >
After-hours Supervision Policies
Do you need to have a supervisor present when associates are working after hours or on the weekends? There is no law that requires that all work be supervised. So, it is perfectly legal and acceptable to have employee’s work after hours or on the weekends on company premises. However, doing so raises some legal concerns. More >
How to be Prepared: When an Employee’s Misconduct Leads to Termination
Terminating an employee can be one of the most difficult tasks for a business owner or human resource manager. It is however the responsibility of both positions and a necessary part of doing business. Termination is difficult under most circumstances because of the personal information an employer may know about an employee. After an employee becomes part of the workforce supervisors often discover personal information, such as an employee’s financial hardships or family difficulties, which makes difficult decisions uncomfortable. More >
Vacation Pay at Termination: What’s your Policy?
For many employers, the summer season brings with it an increase in employee vacations. With that in mind, now may be a good time to re-visit vacation pay policies as they pertain to employee separation. In particular, how does your company handle accrued, but unused, vacation pay at the time of separation? More >
If it is not written down, did it happen?
An all too common issue we see in working with businesses is a lack of diligence in requiring hourly employees to fully document their time. Most do a good job of requiring their employees to document when they first get to work and when they leave. However, employers must also be diligent in requiring employees to document the time they take for lunch. More >
The Professional Overtime Exemption
Earlier this month, Wal-Mart agreed to pay over $4.8 million in back wages and damages to employees across the country for failure to pay overtime wages as a result of an investigation of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Department of Labor found that Wal-Mart misclassified over 4,500 managers as exempt from federal regulations requiring overtime wages to be paid for work over forty hours per week. More >
School’s Out for the Summer!: Important Employment Law Considerations when Hiring Interns and Graduates
Spring is here, and along with the change in season comes a flurry of graduation announcements, parties, and for employers, a flurry of applications and resumes from recent high school and college graduates. Recent graduates and interns provide a wealth of talent for many employers, and often become a core part of their operations and strategy. However, there are a few employment law considerations that must be understood by a company’s HR representative, and really, everyone involved in the hiring process, when advertising, hiring and determining wages for your Spring hires. More >
