Tag: Human Resources
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Inside Expert: How to Hire an IT Professional
Q: How do I make sure my full-time IT hire knows his or her stuff? A: From your question, I assume that the days of enlisting everyone to jump in and help each other figure out hardware and software issues, from setting up a network to hooking up the printer, has become a waste of time. Or…
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NLRB Slams Costco On Social Media Use Policy: What It Means For Your Business
A ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in a case involving Costco earlier this month makes it clear that employers who want to avoid labor disputes would be well served to schedule a sit-down with their legal counsel and take a close look at their existing social media use policies. What prompts this…
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Think It’s OK to Ask for Employees’ Facebook Logins? Think Again
Proponents of free speech say no employer should have the right to ask job applicants or employees for their private social utility passwords, any more than they have the right to ask to inspect personal diaries or someone’s bathroom medicine cabinet. Such demands by employers could set a precedent for personal and online privacy, a…
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10 Gifts Entrepreneurs Can Give to Staffers
Even though there are less than two weeks remaining on the clock until Christmas, it’s very possible you forgot to order gifts for your staff. Not to worry. Here’s a quick and dirty list of simple business-appropriate delights that should fill the bill. And rest easy. I took it upon myself to personally test each…
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Employees’ Facebook Pages Are Private, Until They’re Not
Even businesses that have an air-tight social media policy can run afoul of the law when employees post on Facebook and other social media platforms. Last week, an appeals court in New York determined that there are limits to how much proof of employee shenanigans a business can legally gather from social media utilities such as…
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Employees’ Facebook Posts Give Businesses Heartburn
Ever since social networking took root in U.S. offices, disgruntled employees have lodged more than 100 complaints with the National Labor Relations Board claiming their bosses have stifled their online freedom of expression. What was once contained to gossip and gripes around the office water cooler has evolved into punitive postings by employees on their…
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How to Create a Jobs Page for Your Company’s Website
If it’s true that a company is only as good as the people it keeps, you’d think more business owners would realize the importance of the career section on their website. With most companies, however, I find the career section–if it exists at all–the most neglected. Avoid repeating this mistake. Spend some time and effort…
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How To Smooth a Rejected Job Applicant’s Feathers
To follow-up on my recent article about do’s and don’ts of using social media to screen new hires, when your company uses social media channels to both source and screen new talent, you must consider that your applicants can turn right around and use those same channels to your disadvantage. In other words, if you…
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Do’s and Don’ts of Using Social Media to Screen New Hires
Using social media to find new employees is one thing, but making a prospect fork over their Facebook credentials as part of a background check is something else entirely. More than one half of employers use social media sites to recruit potential candidates, up from just over a third in 2008, according to a June…
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Settlement Reached in Employee Firing Over Facebook Commentary
There’s been a settlement in the case of an ambulance service employee who was fired last year for posting some pretty caustic comments about her supervisor on her Facebook page (read Can Complaining About Your Boss on Facebook Get You Fired?). The regional office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Hartford, Conn., announced…
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Can Complaining About Your Boss on Facebook Get You Fired?
Here’s a question for the water cooler crowd: Can complaining about your supervisor on Facebook get you fired? Can a status update change the status of your employment? I’ve opined in the past about the dangers and drama of authoring and then posting job-related commentary on Facebook or other socially engaging online properties (see Pitfalls…
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Pitfalls of Using Social Media as an HR Tool
On the surface, one would think job applicants wouldn’t want their prospective new bosses to know how drunk they got at a party the night before the job interview. But just how could a potential employer discover such things? Easily. It’s written all over the applicant’s Facebook wall for everybody to see and comment on.…