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There is an unfortunate lie being spread in corporate America.  The lie goes like this…all employees are incentivized with monetary rewards.  This is a widely held belief amongst business owners and corporations, despite previous research disputing its effect to promote motivation.  Going as far back as the 1940s, psychologists and experts in organizational development discovered ...

The stress in these sorts of situations can often be immeasurable, thus preparation helps avoid common mistakes managers make during the process.  Review the following suggestions to create your own process for terminations: Always have a witness Do not misclassify the termination as a “layoff” to ease the pain Remember the FLSA (the Fair Labor ...

Here are what our clients say are the Top 5 challenges of finding a PEO: Each PEO needs so much information just to give a quote that it becomes a massive time drain, when ironically the purpose of outsourcing to a PEO is to save time. Every PEO seems to have a unique way of ...

Investment HR was recently quoted in the Denver Business Journal article "Not Everything is by the Book" By Weston Gentry. Here is an excerpt from the article: "Process mapping" is another way for companies to adapt to post-recession employee relations, said Patrick Johnson, human resources consultant and co-owner of Investment HR of Denver. Process mapping ...

Company Policy Series – HR Records and Retention Policy Sample The purpose of the HR Records and Retention Policy is to define the Company’s procedures related to employment records, confidential benefit information, and Company compliance reporting. The following is what an HR Records and Retention Policy could look like: “The Human Resources Department retains and ...

Company Policy Series – Progressive Discipline Policy Sample The purpose of the Progressive Discipline Policy is to establish consistent guidelines to follow for addressing behavior that requires disciplinary action, and to provide a structured corrective action process to improve and prevent a recurrence of undesirable behavior, violations of company policies and procedures, and performance issues. ...

Bona fide occupational qualifications are generally a safe harbor for any type of topic, including age, conviction record, and so on.  Otherwise, here are some basic do’s and don’ts: Typically, age is not an appropriate topic for questions on pre-hire, but it is appropriate when it is a bona fide occupational qualification. Employers are allowed ...

Hostile Workplace Environment Harassment.  People who learn about this type of harassment are often surprised about what can constitute it. This type of harassment may be direct or indirect, intentional or not.  It exists whenever the perpetrator’s words, actions or body language contribute to creating an uncomfortable working environment for its victim.  Again, it is ...

More FMLA caveats to consider for businesses required to comply with FMLA: The Department of Labor may issue a new regulation requiring businesses with employees eligible for FMLA protection to extend those benefits to gay employees.  A decision is pending as of late June 2010.  More to come…. Businesses can determine whether or not Workers Compensation ...