Author: Site Staff

Are you thinking of instituting an ethics/compliance program?

Arthur Andersen surveyed more than 2,800 employees of six large U.S. companies with ethics programs in place. It found that the key factor in the success or failure of the program is employees’ perceptions of management’s motivation for the establishment of the program.

When employees perceive that the program was created to help guide behavior and establish or reinforce company values, it is more likely to be successful than if employees perceive it to be created to prevent, detect and punish violations of the law, or to improve the company’s image.

In fact, the study found that if employees believe the program was set up to protect top management, the program can result in more unethical conduct than if the company had no program.

SOURCE: Arthur Andersen, New York, February 1, 1999.

While many claims of harassment and discrimination are legit, there are quite a few chronic suers out there. Michael D. Karpeles, a partner and head of the employment law group at Chicago’s Goldberg, Kohn, Bell, Black, Rosenbloom & Moritz, Ltd, offers this advice to employers to protect them from such plaintiffs.

Be suspicious of job candidates who have work histories that reflect a series of job changes every one or two years.

To learn more about a job candidate’s past, let the applicant do most of the talking and schedule successive interviews, if necessary, to dig out the history you are seeking.

After screening for job skills and experience, base your final selection of a job candidate on how well his or her work-related values match those of your company.

While some past lawsuits can be taken into account by a prospective employer, be aware that employers may not retaliate against a job applicant for past charges of discrimination with the EEOC or state or local human rights agencies.

As a way to minimize frivolous claims against the company, write employment contracts that spell out, in detail, the conditions of employment and the basis for termination.

Do not agree to settle every claim out of court.

SOURCE: Goldberg, Kohn, Bell, Black, Rosenbloom & Moritz, Ltd., Chicago, February 19, 1999.

Sooner or later, everyone experiences disappointment, discouragement, anxiety, frustration, fear … and the list goes on. All of these contribute in some way to a heightened stress level that impacts negatively on sales performance and results. Here are a few tips to consider the next time you feel emotionally out of control.

1. Evaluate the conditions/circumstances in light of your long term experience, goals and/or results.

2. Keep a journal of these situations and how they turned out. Most of the time there are positive lessons if you will just look for them.

3. Recognize that life and people are not perfect.

4. Just suck it in and get over it.

5. Look for the positive in the perceived negative.

6. Develop a mentor or coaching relationship to help you through these difficult times.

7. Stay focused in the present.

8. Expect a positive outcome.

9. Do something. Take some positive action.

10. Remember stress is an inside-out reaction to outside-in circumstances, events and people.

SOURCE: Tim Connor, Connor Resource Group, Davidson, NC

Here are some steps you can take to avoid or resolve retaliation claims:

1. Implement a stand-alone anti-retaliation policy. An explicit policy that announces that unlawful retaliation will not be tolerated should contain internal reporting mechanisms similar to those in unlawful harassment policy.
2. Train employees on anti-retaliation policy and document that the training has occurred.
3. Identify and document when statutorily protected activity, such as claims of discrimination or harassment, have occurred. Retaliation occurs in response to these.
4. When retaliation complaints are made take them seriously and conduct a separate investigation. Finding for the plaintiff on charges of retaliation when the underlying charge of discrimination has been dismissed is a classic compromise by a jury. Retaliation complaints must be handled as carefully as the original complaint.
5. Consider using an outside investigator for major retaliation complaints. The ability to show that a neutral investigation was conducted can be crucial to a defense.
6. Don’t become a victim of Litigation Fear. Don’t let fear cast a lifetime protective shield around a complaining employee. Such employees must still be disciplined for workplace offenses, but documentation must be airtight.

Source: Sheshunoff, Austin, TX, February 17, 1999

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Here are some strategies from experienced managers on how to let go of an employee:

• Make thorough preparations before firing an employee.
  Document a new hire s performance from the beginning. Don’t focus on the negative, but don’t ignore the negative.

• Make sure they’re not surprised.
  No one should be shocked to be let go. You should be offering feedback and criticism along the way. Other options must be explored first before firing.

• Offer a “Career Decision Day.”
  Give them a day off with pay to decide whether they should 1) leave with severance or 2) improve in all areas. Set specific deadlines for improvement.

• Don’t mix the good and the bad.
  Don’t be so nice when letting someone go that they are confused about why it is happening.

• Don’t talk about it.
  Don’t look for support, and to try to rationalize it with other managers or employees. It’s unprofessional, and could pave the way for a libel lawsuit.

• Be ready to be angry.
  Emotions are likely to surface if the employee questions your decision. Don’t argue with him/her.

SOURCE:Positive Leadership, newsletter, Ragan Communications, Chicago, IL.

Do you want to be a “success”? According to Doris Lee McCoy, Ph.D., Author of Mega Traits, successful people have these traits in common.

• They enjoy their work.

• The have a positive attitude and plenty of confidence.

• They use negative experiences to discover their strengths.

• They’re decisive, disciplined goal setters.

• They have integrity and help others succeed.

• They’re persistent.

• They take risks.

• They’ve developed good communication skills and problem-solving skills.

• They surround themselves with competent, responsible and supportive people.

• They’re healthy, have high energy levels, and schedule time to renew themselves.

• They believe in a higher power, or, sometimes, just plain luck.

• They have a sense of purpose and a desire to contribute to society.

SOURCE: Doris Lee McCoy, Ph.D., Author of Mega Traits

Do you consider the potential for age discrimination when downsizing? The concern is becoming more and more of a problem, especially at high-tech companies.

High-tech companies concerned over whether their policies and procedures treat older employees fairly should note the terms a Massachusetts computer firm recently negotiated with an anti-discrimination agency.

The January 14, 1999 agreement reached between Bull NH Information Systems Inc. and the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) settles charges that the company discriminated against older workers during layoffs of 2,000 employees in the early 1990s.

The MCAD ruled against the company in 1996. Both the state and the EEOC continue to press a separate case in federal court, alleging that the company illegally forced older workers to waive their rights to file discrimination claims as a condition of receiving severance pay.

The settlement includes no monetary payments or admissions of wrongdoing. Its importance for employers is in the new policies and procedures it establishes for avoiding age discrimination in the future. The ranks of older workers employed by high-tech companies likely will expand as companies learn to value their expertise and experience. At Bull NH, for example, the average age of the workforce is nearly 50, above that of most other high-tech firms.

Under the settlement, the company agreed to the following six items. These six points are good ones to consider for your organization.

1. Give notice to former employees of future job vacancies and the right to file a discrimination complaint if not rehired.
2. Treat seniority as a tie-breaker when making rehiring or termination decisions among equally qualified individuals.
3. Train supervisors on age discrimination law and require them to report suspected violations to the company’s EEO officer.
4. Require senior management to review any decisions to lay off workers older than age 40 to ensure that age is not a factor in the decisions.
5. Review voluntary layoffs of workers age 40 or older to ensure that coercion or duress is not involved.
6. Change the internal complaint procedure to require prompt and thorough investigations of complaints.

Source: AlignMark, January 1999. 258 Southhall Lane, Suite 400, Maitland, FL, 32751. 800/652-4587.

Here are three ways to make the most out of your work today — and enjoy it.

• Pay attention to your thoughts. Steven Covey quotes in his bestselling Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, ” Reap a thought, sow an action. Reap an action, sow a habit. Reap a habit, sow a lifetime.” Don’t let your ideas go unused or unspoken.

• Share your success strategies. Think about one or two things you do that contribute to your success and share them with someone else in an e-mail, or tell someone about them over lunch. You’ll be seen as someone who cares about other people’s success as well as your own — which is what success is really about anyhow.

• Do something you wouldn’t normally do. Break up the lunch routine by going somewhere different. Take a different way to work, for no reason at all. Talk to someone at work you don’t know very well. Take longer to do something you normally knock off in a few minutes; spend less time on something that usually drags on.

SOURCE: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1887166416/hrheadquartersA, 101 Ways to Have a Great Day @ Work,” Stephanie Goddard Davidson, 1998.

Because Hughes Aircraft Company’s contributory defined benefits plan had a substantial surplus, the company amended the plan in 1991 to establish a non-contributory benefits structure for new participants and provide an early retirement benefits. Hughes transferred the $1 billion plan surplus to the new non-contributory structure, and suspended its own contributions to the amended plan, based upon the surplus. A class representing 10,000 retired beneficiaries filed suit under the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), claiming the surplus assets were their vested benefits.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit determined Hughes violated ERISA because the new structure was so different from the original plan that it was a separate plan. Hughes terminated the original plan, using surplus assets for its own benefit without distributing the residual assets to the plan beneficiaries.

Upon appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held Hughes’ actions did not violate ERISA because members of a defined benefits plan have no claim to the plan’s general asset surplus, and these beneficiaries were never deprived of their accrued benefits as provided by the plan. Hughes Aircraft Co. vs. Jacobson, U.S. Sup. Ct., 97-1287, 01/25/99.

Impact:
An employer may amend a defined benefits plan as long as the beneficiaries receive their originally designated accrued benefits.

Source: D. Diane Hatch, Ph. D., a human resources consultant based in San Francisco, and James E. Hall, an attorney with the law firm of Barlow, Kobata & Denis, with offices in Los Angeles and Chicago.

AchieveGlobal asked trainers and managers in a variety of industries why many of their workers do not have a knowledge of basic workplace skills and behaviors.

Among basic skills and behaviors that are lacking are the ability to manage interpersonal relationships and differences; communicate to co-workers, supervisors and customers; and maintain self-esteem and a work ethic. Overall, workers do not know how the workplace operates or what their employers’ basic expectations are.

The company then developed the following questions to ask supervisors, managers and HR professionals in order to assess your employees’ skill levels and the impact of that deficiency on the workplace.

• What competencies and skills do you look for in hiring line and staff employees?
• What role do fundamental workplace skills play in your hiring profile?
• Do you have to make compromises in selecting job candidates or in expectations of job performance?
• Do these compromises affect the length of time for the employee to become productive?
• What impact does employee “ramp-up time” have on the performance of your organization or service?
• How many line or staff employees do you hire in a year?
• How is your retention of such employees? Are you hiring repeatedly for the same position?
• What are the main causes of turnover in your organization?
• What are the effects of turnover on productivity and on team morale?
• What are the effects of turnover on your customers?
• How much and what kind of training do new line and staff support employees go through?
• How are your line and staff support employees’ listening skills? Ability to ask questions and clarify?
• How do your line and staff support employees accept and learn new tasks?
• How do your support employees handle problems with peers? With supervisors and managers?
• How are your organization’s absenteeism rates?
• Can your employees articulate problems and work with others in a constructive manner to solve them?
• What role will your line and staff employees play in your organization’s growth?

What are some of the barriers you face to promoting from within?

SOURCE: AchieveGlobal, Tampa, FL.