A template for handling tricky workplace investigation interviews

by Tim Gould

You may have a lot of experience interviewing candidates for open positions, but interviewing employees as part of a workplace investigation is another animal entirely.

Bernard J. Bobber of Foley & Lardner LLP authored a guide for HR pros to follow when they need to interview a staff member following an employee complaint.

Starting the process …

His three tips for getting each interview underway:

1. Lay out the purpose of the meeting — without giving away info you might already know. Identify why you’ve asked to speak to the employee in general terms.

Click here for entire article.

OT lawsuits: When signed time sheets aren’t enough to protect you

by Christian Schappel

When is asking employees to sign off on their time sheets before they’re submitted to Payroll for processing not enough to protect you from an overtime lawsuit? When this happens. 

Here’s when you can get nailed: A manager knows or should’ve known that an employee worked more hours than he or she claimed to have worked.

A recent lawsuit shows just how hard it can be to defeat employees’ claims that they weren’t paid proper overtime.

Click here for entire article.

People are strange: 14 incredible things employees were caught doing on the clock

by Tim Gould

One of the great things about writing about HR is the unbelievable range of stupid stuff that human beings do during work time. Here’s a small sampling.  

If you’re thinking, “Oh, I bet this is another one of those CareerBuilder surveys,” you’re right. This one asked 2,175 hiring and human resource managers for examples of the most bizarre things they caught employees doing while they were supposed to be working, and the most common productivity killers in the workplace.

First, the most outrageous behaviors:

1. Employee was taking a sponge bath in the bathroom sink

Click here for entire article.

Tip Tuesday! EEOC slaps two employers for mishandling disability accommodation requests

by Tim Gould

When an employee asks for an accommodation for a disability, the EEOC expects management to go through the full process of determining whether or not a reasonable arrangement can be made. Two health-related firms recently learned that lesson the hard way.  

Brookdale Senior Living Communities, Inc. of Denver will pay $112,500 and furnish other relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit, the agency announced.

Bernadine Adams worked for Brookdale as a health and wellness director.  After Adams took leave from work due to symptoms of fibromyalgia, Brookdale refused her request for a temporary modified work schedule, an ergonomic chair, and adjustments to the lighting in her office, the EEOC alleged.


Brookdale also required Adams to remain on leave until she was able to return to work without any restrictions or accommodations.  After further requests for accommodation and a discrimination charge, Brookdale fired Adams via letter.

Click here for entire article.

10 unforgettable lies HR has discovered on resumes

by Christian Schappel

More than half of HR pros (51%) said they’d automatically dismiss a candidate if they found a lie on a person’s resume. So it’s likely these applicants are still job hunting.


In a recent Harris Poll on resumes conducted on behalf of CareerBuilder, 2,188 HR pros and hiring managers were asked to provide the most memorable lie they’ve ever caught on an applicant’s resume.

Here are the highlights:

Click here for entire article. 

Threatening to blow off supervisor’s head: Covered under the ADA?

by Christian Schappel

A man fired for making “extreme” threats to kill his supervisor sues, claiming he was a disabled individual protected by the ADA. A federal court ruled he may indeed have been disabled, but … 

… that didn’t necessarily mean his job was protected by the ADA.

Planned ‘to take out management’

Timothy Mayo was a welder for Oregon-based PCC Structurals, a superalloy, aluminum and titanium casting company. He suffered from major depressive disorder. Medication and treatment allowed him to work without significant incident for several years — until a supervisor started getting under his skin.

Click here for entire article.

Now your office thermostat setting may be discriminatory

by Christian Schappel

In HR, we’re constantly preaching that everyone should be treated equally. So why, then, are women constantly freezing in the office wearing parkas and Snuggies, while men can relax in polo shirts? 

It’s because some employers’ thermostat settings may unintentionally be biased toward males.

Now you may be asking: We make everyone work in the same facility, at the same temperature. How can that be bias?

Here’s how: Many building thermostats follow a “thermal comfort model that was developed in the 1960s,” and one of the variables used in their thermal comfort equation is the resting metabolic rate (how fast we generate heat) of a 40-year-old man weighing roughly 154 pounds.

Click here for entire article. 

Tip Tuesday! Obama drafts Executive Order on paid sick leave: Who it’ll affect

by Christian Schappel

Executive Orders are becoming the hallmark of President Obama’s second term. His latest seeks to provide workers with paid sick leave. But it won’t affect all employers? 

The latest order, which the DOL is currently reviewing, would require federal contractors and subcontractors to provide their employees with a minimum of 56 hours (seven days) of paid sick leave annually.

Workers could use the leave for their own illness or to take care of sick relatives.

Some of the other notable Executive Orders of Obama’s second term as president include:

Click here for entire article. 

Benefits industry declares war on ‘Cadillac Tax': Is a repeal coming?

by Jared Bilski

We’ve already seen legislation introduced with the sole purpose of getting Obamacare’s controversial “Cadillac tax” tossed. Now an impressive alliance has come together to put pressure on Congress to make sure that repeal actually takes place.

The group, which consists of more than two dozen public and private employers, insurers and unions, calls itself the Alliance to Fight the 40, a reference to the 40% excise tax imposed by the ACA.

Under the ACA’s Cadillac tax provision, employers will be required to pay a 40% excise tax on the value of any healthcare coverage that exceeds $10,200 for single coverage or $27,500 for families in premium costs starting in 2018.

Click here for entire article. 

Watch out for these 8 workplace bully personality types

by Tim Gould

Workplace bullies have always been on the scene. But they’re now being recognized as productivity killers and potential legal threats to employers.

Some researchers claim one in every three employees will experience bullying at work. And the experts say bullying costs businesses more than $200 billion a year due to decreased productivity, increased absenteeism and high turnover.

A partial rundown of the corrosive effects of workplace bullying:

• reduced productivity, efficiency and profitability
• higher absenteeism, sick time and employee turnover
• decreased morale and loyalty
• increased costs due to recruitment and retraining
• increased workers’ comp claims
• indirect costs though time spent dealing with bullying situations
• negative effects on the company’s image
• potential fines for not abiding by occupational health and safety laws
• legal costs from employees who bring lawsuits, and
• potential increases to insurance and workers’ comp premiums.

Click here for entire article. 

Heads up: ‘Cadillac Tax’ could cost you more than 40%

by Christian Schappel

The IRS just issued its second set of guidance on the ACA’s “Cadillac Tax,” and it’s sure to get mixed reviews from employers offering decent health benefits. 

As you know, the ACA’s so-called “Cadillac Tax” will impose a 40% non-deductible excise tax on the value of health insurance plans exceeding $10,200 for individuals and $27,500 for family coverage.

The IRS’ latest guidance — Notice 2015-52 — is a follow-up to guidance it issued this past winter addressing future rules governing the calculation and payment of the excise tax.

Both sets of guidance is meant to give plan sponsors and insurers an idea of how the “Cadillac Tax” is to be enforced and administered — but they don’t set forth any concrete rules that must be followed. That comes later via the proposed/final rulemaking process.

For now, the IRS is simply asking employers to review and comment on this guidance to help it shape the final rules.

Click here for entire article. 

Tip Tuesday! DOL forcing everyone to change remote work policies: Pitfalls to avoid

by Jared Bils

If the DOL’s new overtime regs go through as written — and there’s every indication to believe they will — employers of all stripes will have much more than just classification issues to contend with.

The passage of the regs will add to a perfect storm of events that has made employers everywhere prime targets for pay lawsuits and government fines.


HR Morning recently attended the SHRM Conference & Exposition in Las Vegas, and sat in on attorney Christine D. Hanley’s sobering presentation, “Working Remotely, Connectivity and the FLSA: The New Bermuda Triangle.”

Click here for entire article. 

Is a candidate’s commute too long to hire them? 4 red flags

by Julian Lopez

You probably know that hiring a worker with a long commute can be a risk — but you may not realize just how badly a commute can impact retention. 

According to research by Evolv, an employee engagement software developer, workers with commutes longer than 30 minutes were 92% more likely to jump ship.

Factors you must weigh

But of course, you don’t want to rule out a good candidate just because he or she has a long commute.

To help you in the decision-making process, Dr. John Sullivan an HR and talent management consultant, in an article he penned for TLNT.com, noted steps employers should take to evaluate if a commute should factor into a decision to hire a person:

Click here for entire article. 

Don’t do it: 5 costly hiring mistakes employers are making

by Tim Gould

Some analysts are predicting 2015 will be a big year for hiring. That’s good news. But the bad news is some employers have glaring holes in their hiring processes. 

Every organization has some turnover, concedes a recent post on The Resourceful Manager. So, to stay ahead of the turnover curve, constant hiring and recruiting is essential.
Not paying attention can cost you big, the website points out. First, there are the direct costs:

• recruiting ads
• fees paid to headhunters, professional recruiters or placement firms
• training costs for having sent the employee to job-specific training seminars, and
• severance costs when the employee is let go.

And the indirect costs:

Click here for entire article.

Court draws the line on what is — and isn’t — a disability

by Christian Schappel

The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act expanded the definition of a disability so much that just about anything’s considered a disability these days. Just not what this employee was trying to sell to a California court. 

Meet Michaelin Higgins-Williams. She was a clinical assistant at Sutter Medical Foundation.

About three years into her employment, Higgins-Williams visited her doctor complaining about stress caused by interactions with her manager and Sutter’s HR team.

The doctor diagnosed her with adjustment disorder with anxiety.

As a result of the diagnosis, Sutter granted Higgins-Williams a stress/disability-related leave of absence under California’s Moore-Brown-Roberti Family Rights Act and the FMLA.

When Higgins-Williams exhausted her leave allotment, she returned to work. But all was not rosy.

Click here for entire article. 

Tip Tuesday! The 5 most disastrous benefits communication mistakes to avoid

by Jared Bilski

Almost as important as the benefits offerings you use to drive retention and attract talent are, equally as important is how you communicate those benefits to your staff. Yet, this is an area in which it’s easy to fall short — and to help ensure that doesn’t happen to you, wellness and health management software maker Keas has offered up the five biggest mistakes it sees employers making — as well as tips on how to avoid them. 

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Over the past decade, we’ve seen a trend of HR departments diversifying their benefits vendors in an effort to mitigate rising costs and give their employees the choice and flexibility they crave. This diversification definitely provides value, but it also leads to significant communication challenges.

Click here for entire article.