Tag: hiring

Grease Lightning

Litigation Value: allowing office staff to take over the warehouse and invent a new loading method = several bizarre Workers’ Compensation claims; Andy asking Oscar about his “wildest fantasy guy” while choosing new warehouse personnel = yet more fodder for Oscar’s potential claims; and controlling your own destiny = priceless. This week’s episode started off […]

Top 10 Hiring Mistakes Made By California Employers

Given the recent state of the economy, most employers have been more concerned with how to conduct effective layoffs than with avoiding mistakes in the hiring process. Yet as the economy gradually (if fitfully) shows signs of improvement, companies need to prepare to hire again. Are you ready?

Quick Hiring Decisions Can Backfire

Are you a buyer rather than a shopper? You may fit this mold if you know precisely what you want, go directly to it on the store shelves, grab it, and head immediately for the cash register. While this strategy may make for efficient purchasing, it can also make for disastrous hiring.

Despite Phony Divorces, Pension Plan Must Pay Spousal Benefits

Retirement plan administrators do not have the authority to conclude that a domestic relations order (DRO) is not qualified because it is based on a “sham” divorce, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided July 18, 2011. The 5th Circuit stated that a key ERISA section “does not authorize an administrator to consider or […]

Starbucks/EEOC Consent Decree Includes $75k Payout and ADA Training to Remedy Dwarf’s Firing

One of America’s most visible corporations was taken to task for an Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) violation that stemmed from one branch’s poor management actions. Starbucks Coffee Co. last week agreed to pay $75,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC had charged that […]

Should You Offer Trainees a Bonus to Quit? Zappos Does

Special from SHRM Las Vegas Focus on your culture, and the profits will follow, says Zappo’s CEO and author of Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose Tony Hsieh. And the culture at Zappos is all about customer service. The company, known primarily for its Internet shoe business, does very little advertising, Hsieh […]

Special Issues in Conducting Workplace Investigations

The truth is rarely pure and never simple (Oscar Wilde once said), and nowhere is that more true than when investigating workplace allegations of harassment, theft, discrimination, safety violations or substance abuse. Here are a few tricky situations that pose challenges investigators need to understand so as not to let the process derail. The Reluctant […]