More than ever, employers are now faced with being creative, protecting their investments, and gaining market share while competitors falter.  The most important resource to a company is human capital so now’s the time to invest.  There’s a highly-qualified segment of the population underrepresented in employers across the US that delivers huge ROI.  Be an enabler….

Employees with disabilities deliver:
• Low absenteeism
• Low turnover
• Unique skills, perspectives, and work ethics to the workplace that help reduce costs♥

Question: 
An anonymous employee provided me with a print out of Facebook entries and “tweets” of another employee which clearly showed the employee was engaged in social networking during working hours.  There were at least twenty entries on one day alone and close to fifty for the week.   She is a great employee and I’ve never had to discipline her.  What should I do?
a. Nothing.  She’s doing her job and any criticisms could lower her morale and decrease her productivity.
b. Nothing.  You cannot conduct a thorough investigation if the complainant is anonymous.
c. Speak with the employee who made the Facebook entries and “tweets” as she may have violated company policies.
d. Both (a) and (b).
Answer:    (c) Speak with the employee who made the Facebook entries and “tweets” as she may have violated company policies.

 We’ve all been there… you have an employee who didn’t work out, they were dismissed appropriately due to job performance issues, drugs, violation of company policy, and now you’re faced with an unemployment claim.  Consider following these steps to appropriately respond and prepare for the hearing. 

1)    Upon receipt, be sure to read the notice you have received in its entirety.  There may be a lot of erroneous information included, but it will give you an indication as to the timeline you need to observe to turn in exhibits in support of your case. 

When employment terminates, at either party’s decision, the matter of final pay is often complicated by the employer’s desire to recoup funds from the employee for a variety of reasons. 

• Do you suspect the employee’s cash drawer was short the last few times she worked?
• Does the employee owe you gas money for having used a company vehicle for personal use over the course of a week?

Whatever the reason, employers feel they are entitled to deduct these funds from the employee’s final paycheck to recoup the money they are due.

Are you in compliance with the federal pumping law that went into effect in March 2010? 

Under Section 7(r) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers must provide nursing mothers with pumping breaks and a clean, private location for expressing milk during the first year of a child’s life. 

However, Section 7(r) does provide for two exemptions.  First, employers with less than fifty employees are not required to grant pumping breaks if doing so would cause undue hardship.  An undue hardship is determined by looking at the difficulty or expense of compliance in comparison to the size, financial resources, nature, and structure of the employer’s business.  Second, the regulations only apply to hourly employees.