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Tough talks for tough situations at work: How to keep calm, get success
Maybe an employee’s performance has gone downhill or someone’s prickly personality is making coworkers miserable. Or maybe a personal hygiene problem requires action. Any number of situations that land...
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Getting medical excuse policies right: Know what kind of note you can require
Determining when an employee’s medical condition requires time off from work can get tricky. No one wants to require a worker too sick to be productive to come to work, but employers also have to be on...
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Emphasize exempt duties in your job descriptions for exempt positions
by Tareen Zafrullah Job descriptions are important for several reasons, including providing evidence of the exempt nature of positions classified as exempt under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act...
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New methods + new thinking = new day for performance management
Nearly everyone has opinions—and complaints—about performance management. The annual performance review in which employee and supervisor fill out a form and sit down for a talk is rapidly going out of...
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10 steps to take before responding to a charge of discrimination
by Susan Hartmus Hiser After the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) receives a discrimination complaint from an employee, it begins gathering information about the allegations of...
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7 things I learned while practicing labor and employment law
by Tom Daniel I have had the privilege of practicing labor and employment law in Alaska for 31 years. Over that time, the law has become more complex, and more laws than ever before now apply to the...
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Time to prepare for new EEO-1 reporting requirements
by Billy Hammel The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently announced that employers with 100 or more employees must include employee pay data in their EEO-1 reports beginning in March...
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You’re fired! Softening the blow of a termination
by Lauren E.M. Russell Employment attorneys are frequently left to clean up the mess after a difficult termination. But engaging with your employees in a professional and respectful manner can go a...
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5 common myths about the FLSA
by Tareen Zafrullah The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is a federal law that imposes minimum wage, overtime, record-keeping, and child labor requirements. Although the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL)...
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Employment verification nightmares: fake I-9s, bad Social Security numbers,...
by Jacob M. Monty No one looks forward to an I-9 audit from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). I-9s are notoriously problematic because not only does the law dictate which types of...
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Prevent discrimination against immigrant workers with sound I-9 practices
No employer wants to be the target of federal regulators on the hunt for workers not authorized to hold jobs in the United States. And no employer wants to be vulnerable to a national origin...
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Writing effective workplace investigation reports
by Karen McAndrew When a lawsuit alleging discrimination, harassment, or retaliation arrives at your door, will you be prepared to defend it? Why documentation is important We all hope, of course,...
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Reeling from recordkeeping? Sound strategy makes the task manageable
A seemingly vast array of laws requires employers to create and store an equally vast array of records, and keeping up with the task is enough to make anyone’s head spin. The chore is less daunting,...
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New I-9 does not change sticky compliance issues
by Lori Chesser and Elizabeth Van Arkel On July 17, 2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released an updated I-9 employment eligibility verification form to replace all prior...
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Employers need to make preparations as DACA sunset nears
President Donald Trump’s announcement of an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has prompted uncertainty not only for those benefiting from the program but also for their...
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5 reasonable accommodation pitfalls to avoid
by Brent E. Siler Litigation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been on the rise in recent years and will likely continue to increase. One area of ADA compliance fueling the increase...
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10 traits of an effective workplace investigator
by Ryann E. Ricchio Workplace investigations are of critical importance to employers for many reasons. Done correctly and thoroughly, an investigation can, among other things, resolve ongoing and...
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Conducting unbiased investigations: tips from the Russia probe
With the recent indictments of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election is front-page news once again. While most of the...
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Heaps of paper or storehouses of data? Exploring ways to keep HR records
No one disputes the importance of proper recordkeeping in the workplace. But what’s the best way to keep that information? In bulky paper files kept on-site or maybe entrusted to a vendor to be kept...
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Who’s lying? Avoiding retaliation claims can be tricky
It’s tough to make employment decisions when you can’t be confident that the facts are known. And facts are often hard to figure out with absolute certainty. Recently, a group of attorneys focusing on...
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