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6 Tips to Improve Workplace Communication

To better communicate with bosses, colleagues and customers, match your message to your audience, and don’t forget the nonverbal skills, says a new DVD plus book program. A recent Daily Advisor listed the ability to communicate effectively as one of the secrets to success in any organization. We discussed it in terms of reaching senior […]

Get a Seat at the Executive Table … and Know What to Do With It!

To win HR a place in senior management, career experts say learn the overall business … and express yourself in the language that senior executives speak. If there’s anything HR professionals have asked for again and again over the years, it’s that elusive “seat at the executive table.” Well, guess what? With more organizations realizing […]

Playing at Work and Working at Play

by Boyd Byers Every office has at least one. The guy who stockpiles Star Wars action figures in his cubicle. Or the gal with the Hello Kitty screen saver who jams to the same music as her teenage daughter. Twenty years ago, they would have been considered immature and unprofessional. Today, they’re more likely to […]

Dwight on SNL

Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) is hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend. I’m looking forward to watching it. I’ll post early next week if there’s anything on the show that relates to the blog.

Conducting a Good-Faith Workplace Investigation

Employers all know the importance of investigating allegations of misconduct, discrimination, and harassment in the workplace. But even so, that practice sometimes falls by the wayside when times get busy. Here’s a look at a recent Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision on workplace investigations. Workplace Investigations: The HR Manager’s Step-by-Step Guide Making mischief […]

Paid FMLA Leave: Our Readers Talk Back!

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady Bob’s support of Family and Medical Act (FLMA) leave paid for by … somebody … generated a lot of heat … and several proposed solutions. Bob Brady is off covering a conference this week, so we thought we would give you a taste of the e-mails he’s received […]

Cocktails

LITIGATION VALUE: $75,000 Nothing says “I love you” quite like a detailed legal contract acknowledging that you were neither coerced nor were promises made to entice you into entering into a relationship with your boss, and if the woman of your dreams becomes a nightmare, that you won’t sue your employer. Yes, love contracts actually […]

Sexual Harassment: An Interactive Tool to Keep You Out of Trouble

An engaging program uses interactivity to help keep your employees from crossing that oh-so-important line into the danger zone. A recent Daily Advisor explained the concept of “preventive law,” which, like preventive medicine, seeks to avoid workplace legal trouble before it happens. There’s a lot of trouble to prevent. As the story noted, defending the […]

Discrimination: EEOC Says Job Bias Complaints Are Up

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has reported that it received 75,768 discrimination complaints against private-sector employers in 2006, up from 75,428 complaints in 2005. The increase is the first since 2002, and complaints alleging pregnancy discrimination and sexual harassment of men hit all-time highs. All charge categories edged up from 2005 figures, with […]