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Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Astronology - Retaining Talented and High Performing Management Staff
Be Careful How Much Data Your Employees Can Access
Sensitive data hoards inevitably attract attempts at unauthorized access. Whether it's hospital employees peaking at celebrity medical records or federal workers abusing their wiretap access 100 times in two tears (dubiously claiming it was an "accident"), people confronted with a pile of information feel compelled to start digging.Sometimes it's important to trust employees with massive amounts of data but the key is to place strict controls over personal data and limit access to only select individuals with terms of use of that data. Facebook is lucky that this problem seems to be handled in house, but lax controls on employees like Facebook seems to employ leaves the company way to vulnerable for lawsuits should this information be abused in a way which harms the user. Tempting employees with unrestricted access leaves the company in this position.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Sarcastic Praise
Report: 70 Percent Of All Praise Sarcastic
Thursday, January 07, 2010
How To Get Fired and How To Fire Someone Else
-The first is from Career Solvers and gives a lesson on how to get fired. Although the author is talking about firing her phone company, many of these same principles apply to the workplace. They are:
- Not showing up for work
- Coming to work unprepared
- Blaming others for the team's errors
- Not communicating with others
- Telling the boss (me) you couldn’t get a project done because it was understaffed.
- Asking for a raise before you have proved your value.
According to CareerBuilder’s 2010 Jobs Forecast a trend for 2010 may very well be replacing lower performing employees and taking advantage of the large percentage of top talent in the labor force to strengthen their work force. Because in this economy, employers have choices…and there are plenty of job seekers out there that would love to be employed by them.-On the flip side, Easy Small Business HR has Do's and Don'ts (or is it "don't's"?) when firing employees. Some of those:
Don't:
- Leave the task to someone who does not have direct supervision of the worker being fired.
- Fire an employee on the spot unless the actions are so egregious that it requires immediate removal from the workplace.
- Fire workers who have crossed the line of what is considered egregious inappropriate behavior if you are absolutely certain based on the facts that the employee is guilty of misconduct.
- Respect the privacy and confidentiality of everyone involved by meeting with your employee(s) in a private area
- Tell your employee the reason for the termination.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Here's to a Great 2010
-Since one of our themes this past year has been layoffs, let's take a look at the way the Washington Times is saying goodbye to people they're letting go from the Washington City Paper:
...the individuals hustled with great dread to a couple of tables where lots of letters were waiting. People walked away carrying word of their fate. Those that are getting laid off are being asked to finish up their shift tomorrow and then depart. The letters come with a list of open positions at the paper, just in case the departed want to try their luck with a different department.Ouch. Does not sound like a good way to do this. Especially over a holiday weekend. The blog article quips "Is the paper going to raise those individuals on their cell phones and say, Hey, come back from Vail and pick up your letter to find out whether you've been sacked or saved?". Not the best idea by management. Many companies need to meet personnel numbers by year end but this isn't the best way to do it.
-Another big theme in 2009 was the use of social networking for job searches--especially the ever-growing Twitter. Well Career Solvers has some great advice as we close out 2009 about how you can use Twitter in your job search as they interview someone who has written a book about it.
-Lastly, looking ahead to 2010, Yahoo! HotJobs has a list of the most secure jobs in 2010.
Wishing a Happy and Healthy New Year to you and your loved ones from all of us here at Astron Solutions!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Astronology - 'Tis the Season...for Employee Relations Nightmares?
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Thursday, December 24, 2009
Happy Holidays from Astron Solutions
Thanks for all your support. Make sure to check out the Astron blog in the New Year for great Human Resources coverage and check out the Astron Solutions website for our many great products.
-Andrew
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Buying References
They even highlight their ability to provide references from bankrupted companies (I'm not kidding here), saying: "Bankrupt companies make a great previous employer. We have created a management company with dozens of bankrupt companies that are ready to provide any inquirer your desired reference information."
This company is pretty despicable but may not be illegal as Monster reports:
Surprisingly, the legal framework of CareerExcuse’s business is solid- except for their fake diploma offerings. According to law, falsifying information on a resume is not illegal unless you’re lying about your educational credentials.
Falsifying your work experience could, however, almost certainly get you fired, not to mention the fact that your lack of experience might lead to incompetence at a new job that would be telling and risky in and of itself.
We researched the matter and came up with a 2001 legal study on lying on the employment resume, which stated:
The study concludes that it is illegal to commit résumé fraud only if the job seeker (1) is claiming an educational credential from a “diploma mill,” a bogus institution and (2) is using the résumé in a state that has enacted legislation to discourage the activities of these schools. However, an employer may be within its legal rights to terminate an employment relationship based upon misrepresentation of qualifications, depending upon the state and the nature of the falsification."
And that's not all they offer!
* Fake Resume - FREE GUIDE!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Complying With The Rooney Rule
First, let's define the "Rooney Rule". From Suite101.com:
The Rooney Rule is named after Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney and was established in 2003. With an eye towards balancing minority candidates with other hires, the rule mandates that all coaching searches interview at least one minority candidate. As of 2009, there are almost four times as many African American head coaches in the NFL than there were prior to the rule.Seems pretty straightforward on the surface. In 2003 there was a lack of minority head coaches in the NFL and the league decided to institute a rule that every team must interview at least one minority candidate for head coach. Since then, the amount of African American head coaches in the NFL has grown, and the Rooney Rule, as ESPN.com wrote in 2007, was credited with opening the doors.
In June, the NFL extended the Rooney Rule to include openings for "general manager jobs and equivalent front-office positions" according to the Washington Post who explains this isn't always the case: "[The Rooney Rule] will not apply to a case in which a team's top front-office job is held or filled by the franchise's owner or a member of his or her family, or in a case in which a team has an existing contractual obligation to promote a member of its front-office staff."
So that's how we got to our headline today. Pro Football Talk Daily taped a segment that said they were concerned the Rooney Rule could not have been followed because the resignation and hiring of personnel chief Vinny Cerrato and hiring of Bruce Allen as the Redskins General Manager occurred within an hour. Now here's where the rule gets tricky. The Redskins say they have complied with the rule and cannot divulge the minority candidate(s) interviewed because it would not be fair to them. And the Commissioner Office has backed them up. So they will not face a fine for this infraction as other franchises have.
Some criticize the rule like the National League Policy Center calling it "Pro Football's Affirmative Action Deception". But many laud the rule like Brian W. Collins for the NYU Law Review and some are trying to extend the rule even further, especially to the college football ranks where minority head coaching hovers around 6%, as Michael J. Nichols writes in the Virginia Sports & Entertainment Law Journal. Many of these leagues are worried they may face lawsuits if they do not do more to consider hiring minority coaches but they are getting push back about implementation from many levels.
Do you think that this is a good way to go about promoting minority hiring? Do you think a "good-faith interview" is enough or do you think that too many token candidates get passed over because of that? And how could this apply to other venues besides sports?
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Fired Because Of Fantasy Football
Said Fidelity spokesman Vin Loporchio: "We have clear policies that relate to gambling. Participation in any form of gambling through the use of Fidelity time or equipment or any other company resource is prohibited. … We want our employees to be focused on our customers and clients."
We would also like to point out – in our professional capacity as fantasy gurus, not as legal advisors – that laws have been passed which define the terms "bet" and "wager," and fantasy participation has been excluded. Here's a link to a million-word legal definition. Whatever else he did, Pettigrew wasn't gambling. Back off, company spokesman.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Astronology - Online Networking and the Workplace
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Thursday, December 10, 2009
When Personal Information Gets Out
Now that the damage has been done, what can the company do to make it right? The benefits administrator is sending a letter home to all of us explaining the mistake and also offering one free year of credit monitoring. But is that enough?
One co-worker who had learned about this type of situation in her past job said that this was insufficient: "Thieves sit on the information for a while due to the fact they know people will be monitoring and then start using when they think the coast is clear--usually after one year."
Now "luckily" this information was only sent to a another Human Resources department and the e-mails were supposedly all deleted without being read. But what if this was accidentally (or purposefully) sent to people who were not as honest? Not only is the associates' information at risk, but their families who are enrolled in the benefits are at risk as well.
This just goes to the heart of the issue: make sure that all safeguards are in place to assure that your employees' personal information never gets into the wrong hands. And if it does somehow get into someone else's hands, you need to make sure there are measures in place to correct the situation.
Do you think that our benefits administrator has done enough in this situation? What do you think they could do more (another year of monitoring, etc.)? What measures does your company have in place for this type of situation?
Friday, December 04, 2009
College Gap vs. Racial Gap
Well I'm back with some good articles:
First, from the New York Times, an interesting look into the fact that a college degree can't close the racial gap and how some candidates try to scrub their resume for anything that gives away race to a potential employer. As far as we think we've come in this country (Black President, major women candidates, etc.), we still have a long way to go in some respects.
SmartMoney asks if Wall Street is in hiring mode? Forbes answers by saying that while the economy is recovering meaning layoffs have slowed, hiring hasn't exactly started up at a large pace yet (it's also a tough time of year to hire). New York Magazine says (maybe tongue-in-cheek) that this is proof President Obama's job summit is already working.
Have a great weekend! Many more links next week!
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
What I'm Hearing...Today's a Special Birthday!
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Astronology - Winter Blues: Motivating Employees
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Losing Disability Benefits Because of Facebook/Chippendales
A 29-year-old Canadian woman who says she’s too depressed to do her job claims that her employer’s insurance company stopped paying her disability benefits because she posted some photographs of herself on Facebook in which she appeared to be happy.
Nathalie Blanchard, who has been on sick leave from an IBM office in Quebec since “she was diagnosed with major depression” 18 months ago, called her employer’s insurance company, Manulife, to ask why she had stopped receiving her monthly check. Ms. Blanchard says that an insurance agent informed her that photographs she had posted on her Facebook account — showing her apparently enjoying a Chippendales show, her birthday party and a beach vacation — proved that she was not depressedNow I can't see how this can stand (but then again I don't know the Canadian court system that well). I'm not sure an insurance agent is qualified to tell if a woman is depressed or not based on photos she posted on Facebook. And if she was enjoying Chippendales, her birthday and a beach vacation, isn't she a normal human being. Let's just say things got worse for Blanchard after this...
[Her lawyer, Tom Lavin] told The Gazette, a Montreal newspaper, that his client’s mortgage insurance was cut off because someone alerted her financial institution to the supposedly damning Facebook photos. “That forced her to sell her house because she can’t afford to pay her mortgage,” Mr. Lavin told The Gazette, “her credit has gone down the tubes and her reputation has been damaged. She’s not having a good time.”If she wasn't depressed before...Ouch.
Friday, November 20, 2009
A Few Restaurants in Park Slope You May Not Want To Work For
When Marc Murphy testified against a proposed bill mandating that restaurateurs provide paid sick leave, his director of operations made sure to point out that Landmarc treats its employees very well, thank you (among other things, they get five sick days after they’ve worked there a year). But here’s something interesting — another restaurateur who testified against the bill on Tuesday, Irene Lo Re, also happens to be the owner of one of 25 Park Slope restaurants that were busted by the state Department of Labor for underpaying workers.
Though the eateries weren’t named in yesterday’s press release from the labor department, the NY Daily News today revealed that the restaurants include Olive Vine Café, Sotto Voce, Sweet Melissa Patisserie, Baluchi's, Sette Enoteca e Cucina, and Aunt Suzie’s. And a call to Christine Quinn’s office reveals that Aunt Suzie owner Irene Lo Re spoke against paid sick leave. To make matters more interesting, Lo Re is president of the Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District and she has also been a chairperson of Community Board 6. We’ve called Lo Re to find out what, exactly, it is that she doesn't like about the bill.
That's not good news. One usually thinks of restaurants as places where labor laws are a gray area (many New York restaurants have undocumented workers and the wages paid aren't always "fair"), but there are still consequences for violating the law even within the food services industry. Mama Mexico faced a lawsuit earlier this year and the question of paid sick leave has become a hotly debate topic. Those are just two examples but it shows that no matter what industry you are in, you need to treat your workers right.
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