Employment screening and hiring practices often include background screening of applicants’ credit reports and criminal histories.  These background checks have recently come under increased scrutiny from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the U.S. Congress.

Acting EEOC...

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Regular attendance at work is an essential function of most jobs. However, there are many legitimate reasons why employees cannot be at work every day. In order to help control absenteeism, employers should have a policy that addresses issues associated with attendance. These issues include...

Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. March 14 when clocks are set ahead by one hour across most of the country. A few areas, such as Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa do not observe the time change. This change may prompt employees, particularly overnight...

Turnover can be expensive, and have a significant impact on a company’s profitability. Although many factors could be involved, poor hiring decisions often result in high turnover.  Unless each candidate is properly evaluated, chances are that, if hired, he/she will either become dissatisfied and...

Employers often wonder what human resource policies they should implement.  The topics range from discipline, to employee medical benefits, to how long they should retain employee records.  Developing these policies can be a time consuming, difficult task, especially for small employers who are busy...

An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a company-sponsored program for employees that provides counseling and referral services to employees with substance abuse or other personal problems that could negatively affect their job performance. These problems can include:

• stress, anxiety,...

The Federal guidelines that protect consumers from deceptive endorsements and advertising may pose liability issues for employers if their employees use social media to talk about their employer's products or services. When employees comment on the products or services their company provides in...

All too often, performance appraisals are viewed as a “necessary evil” that must be dealt with once a year. Little real effort is put into them by either supervisors or employees, and the goal is to just get them done. Small businesses without human resource departments often ignore them altogether....