MARCH 4, 2014
WHAT’S ONLINE
If you haven’t been to our website
recently, here’s exclusive online
content you’ve been missing:
www.WhatsWorkinginHR.com
Employment Law
for Managers
for common legal issues
that supervisors face daily.
Compliance Checklist
to ensure you’re
in compliance with
employment law.
Simplify, simplify, simplify: 5
uncomplicated engagement tips
■ Quick but effective strategies to help your managers
G
etting a handle on what keeps
employees engaged is no walk
in the park.
That’s why author Todd Patkin’s
approach to boosting engagement is
welcome advice for managers.
Three words: Keep it simple.
Patkin argues that happiness is
connected to simple things in life. So
why not apply that principle to work?
Here are Patkin’s uncomplicated
engagement strategies for managers:
Catch people doing things right
WHAT’S INSIDE
Not only can praise improve
staffers’ perception of supervisors, but
it’s also a morale and motivation
booster. Why? Praise, especially when
it comes from an authority figure, is
very fulfilling.
Something like, “Steve, I’ve noticed
you always double-check your reports
for errors, and I want to thank you
for your commitment to quality,”
takes five seconds to say, but can
pay off big for everyone.
Praise publicly (and praise more)
Managers shouldn’t stop with a
“mere” compliment when they catch
an employee doing something right –
(Please see Engagement … on Page 2)
2 Sharpen Your Judgment
Did customer harass staffer
– and was company responsible?
3 Employment Law Update
Employees ‘liked’ Facebook post:
Should they have been fired?
4 Effective Communication
Tips for managers: Tricks
to keep conflict manageable.
6 News You Can Use
More good news about healthcare
reform’s employee mandate.
8 What Would You Do?
Another applicant turns down
offer due to salary: What to do?
Retaliation is the most common claim – again
■ EEOC releases latest discrimination stats from 2013
T
he Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
received more than 90,000 charges of
bias in 2013 – and you can probably
guess which claim was most popular.
For the fifth year in a row,
retaliation was the most common
complaint – 38,539 claims in total,
or 41.1% of all claims.
Almost all other types of
bias charges decreased, but the
number of retaliation charges grew.
Race bias (35.3% of all claims)
and sex bias (29.5%), which includes
sexual harassment and gender
discrimination, had the secondand third-most claims, respectively.
Top offenders
The EEOC received 5% fewer
claims in 2013 than they received
in 2012.
And for the fourth consecutive
year, the agency resolved more
charges than were filed.
Info: tinyurl.com/2013EEOC
ANSWERS TO TOUGH HR QUESTIONS
Experts give their solutions to
difficult workplace problems
HR professionals like you face new questions every day on how to deal with
workplace conflict and employment law. In this section, experts answer those
real-life questions.
and recording hours worked.
Why do that? For a variety
of reasons: ensuring exempt
decision-makers are available
to address operational concerns
throughout the day, for client
billing purposes, to determine
employees’ eligibility or accrual
of certain benefits, etc.
The better question:
Should you?
Some exempt people may
feel micromanaged when you
set their work hours.
Depending on your corporate
culture, keeping a closer eye on
employees’ hours may not be
such a hot idea.
FMLA medical certification:
Employees pay for that, right?
Q
: One of our employees is refusing
to return medical certification
for FMLA leave because
she doesn’t want to foot
the $50 bill quoted by her
physician for completing
the certification form.
She says we need to pick up
the tab.
Is she right?
: Nope, says Jeff Nowak
([email protected]) on
the FMLA Insights blog
(fmlainsights.com).
FMLA regs make it clear that
an employee is solely responsible
for obtaining the initial
certification.
If you want a second opinion,
however, it’s on you to pay.
And finally, if you ask a
staffer to be examined by
a physician chosen by you, the
EEOC says it’s also on you to
pay for all costs that come with
the exam.
A
Exempt workers and schedules
Q
A
: Can we require our exempt
staffers to work certain hours?
: Technically, yes, says Joanna
Vilos ([email protected])
on the Employers’ Lawyers blog
(employerslawyersblog.com).
The Fair Labor Standards
Act permits you to require
exempt staff to comply with
scheduling and tracking
procedures, such as working
certain days and times, being
available by phone, email or text
Is that a ‘real’ religion?
Q
: We have an employee who’s a
member of a religion I’ve never
heard of. Can we ask for proof
of membership before granting
him a religious accommodation?
: Nope, according to the Equal
Employment Opportunity
Commission (tinyurl.com/
EEOCReligion).
A request for religious
accommodation doesn’t need
to be supported by proof of
membership.
The law doesn’t just cover
people who belong to traditional
religions but it also covers those
who have “sincerely held religious,
ethical or moral beliefs.”
A
If you have an HR-related question,
email it to Dan Wisniewski at:
[email protected]
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
■ Tips for supervisors: Tricks
to keep conflict manageable
Conflicts will pop up in the
workplace – and if your managers
aren’t prepared to handle them the
right way, you could see some
serious productivity issues.
2 sound conversational cures
You know how important it
can be to face workplace conflicts
directly, but your managers
might not.
Author Judith Glaser offers
some practical conversation-based
techniques to help supervisors with
employees’ inevitable conflicts:
• Managers should encourage
workers to talk through their
issues to clarify what’s really
going on.
This can shine a light on each
person’s thoughts and opinions –
and clarify if there have been any
misunderstandings.
• Come to some point of common
ground to focus and redirect
your conflict management
around. This can help managers
refocus the conversation.
This way, supervisors can
tell workers to leave certain
disagreements aside and
approach the core issue
from another angle.
Ounce of prevention
According to attorney Michael
P. Maslanka, planning for conflicts
ahead of time can further keep
conflict management productive.
Writing down any possible
conflict “triggers” and challenges
that managers may encounter
during disputes can help supervisors
avoid messy scenarios with their
workers.
It can also be helpful for
supervisors to think about their own
attitude and how it may influence
their interactions with staffers.
Info: tinyurl.com/TackleConflict
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March 4, 2014