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Happy New Year—It’s Time for the Dullest Job in HR

In HR, sometimes the dullest jobs are the most important. Even HR has essential functions, and one of them is updating job descriptions. It’s not exactly the thrilling part of HR, but it can’t be overlooked. It’s the beginning of the new year—bite the bullet. No HR manager has time to just sit down and […]

Workaholics Anonymous: Relax and Recover from Burnout

HR executives and many senior leaders recognize that working significant overtime hours regularly can cause employee stress and burnout, negatively impact an employee’s personal life, and frankly, is just plain unhealthy. An internet site now addresses the problems: www.workaholics-anonymous.org. According to a statement on their site, “Workaholics Anonymous is a fellowship of individuals who share […]

10 Tips to Making Telecommuting a Success

Do you have employees requesting to telecommute to work a few days a week over the summer, or are you looking at telecommuting as part of an emergency response plan? New York City’s CommuterLink (www.commuterlink.com) offers these tips for teleworking success: Present helpful info. To get approval to telework, show your boss the benefit for […]

Are Your Employees Helping Cut Costs?

Every business has to watch expenses carefully. A successful business needs employees who do their best to cut costs, avoid waste, and make do when they can’t afford better Many workers may think there’s not much they can do about costs—that these decisions are made in the accounting office. But that isn’t true. The company’s […]

Customers Are Royalty!

Satisfying customers is the secret of business success. And the secret of satisfying customers is for you and your co-workers to do high-quality work and provide excellent service that gives customers their money’s worth. That builds sales, profits, and job security. The key to treating customers like royalty is for you to remember that your […]

Do Your Business Manners Stack Up?

Too Much Information Is Simply Too Much Information: Be polite, express interest in the basic elements of your co-workers’ lives, but never share too much—and never pry. Keep Your Workplace Clean and Uncluttered: Keeping things order ensures you’ll never crucial lose information or get bogged down looking for something. Prioritize: Decide what is most important […]

Investigating an Employee’s Formal Complaint

When an employee initiates a complaint to HR of unfair treatment or sexual harassment, the best thing to do is to move immediately to start an investigation. Choose an objective, outside investigator, attorney, or HR professional to conduct the investigation. Prepare a summary statement of the complaint that the interviewee agrees with and signs. Interview […]

Are Your Employees Stressed Out?

The first step in tackling any problem is to understand it. Henry Neils, who heads an organization known as the International Assessment Network, has identified 13 signs of work-related burnout: 1. Chronic fatigue (exhaustion, tiredness, a sense of being physically run-down) 2. Anger at those making demands 2. Self-criticism for putting up with the demands […]

Week in Review—February 4 , 2011

Note to Readers: This newsletter appears daily, but we know some of you don’t always have the time to read it everyday. For your convenience, here’s a re-publication of what we covered this past week. Daily, weekly, or anything in between, we’re pleased to keep you informed with the latest tips, news, and advice on […]

Friday Fun: Lawyers Acting Silly

We’ve just uploaded the video footage of our “ERI Players” skit – A Day in the Life of HR – from November’s California Employment Law Update conference in San Francisco. The “ERI Players” are lawyers and HR experts who spoke at the conference, joined by John Young, a BLR employee – the skit covers a […]