RAMSEY, N.J. - Staying on the right side of employment law is never an easy task for small- and medium-size companies.
A small company's personnel or human resources "manager" may be the owner, and at a larger company it may be the general manager or the office manager.
And for them to keep up with changing employment regulations, court decisions and laws is a formidable - if not impossible - task.
A company that specializes in publishing newsletters, booklets and loose-leaf manuals on human resource issues and employment law has a number of special reports available that may help companies improve their personnel operations, as well as help owners, managers and supervisors avoid mistakes that could lead to fines and lawsuits.
Perhaps best of all, the reports are free via the company's Web site.
Here's a list of the special reports that are available from the Alexander Hamilton Institute Inc. of Ramsey, N.J.:
Effective Exit Interviews is a step-by-step guide for getting employees to "open up" during an exit interview and provide you with valuable information on what your company needs to do to improve operations and retain top performers. Plus, you get an exit interview checklist for both voluntary and involuntary terminations.
State Reference Regulations offers a quick overview of the parameters and guidelines that various states have implemented to provide a measure of immunity to liability for employers who want to give truthful, good-faith references about former employees.
New Fair Labor Standard Act Rules addresses compliance issues employers face under the Department of Labor's new FLSA regulations. There is detailed information on the new salary test and the new standard duties test for the executive, administrative and professional exempt categories, as well as an overview of the new pay docking allowances for exempt employees.
State Personnel File Access Laws provides you with a state-by-state summary of the statutes under which employees are allowed to inspect their personnel files.
Termination Pay: What and When To Pay Terminating Employees provides a revised state-by-state summary of vacation pay upon termination, plus an updated chart summarizing each state's final pay laws.
Know Your Notification Obligations explains the new notification rules under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, as well as the essential requirements of three other notification-heavy federal laws: the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
Discipline Interviews: The Right to Representation has been updated to alert you to the latest decision of the National Labor Relations Board in which it reverses its earlier pronouncement extending so-called Weingarten rights to non-union employees facing discipline investigation interviews.
Providing Appropriate Meal and Rest Breaks provides a state-by-state summary of each state's law on the length and compensation of meal and rest breaks. It also touches on breaks as an accommodation for religious or disability-related reasons, and the always-hot debate between smokers and non-smokers.
Turning Negativity Into "Positivity" provides strategies for encouraging job satisfaction; suggestions for dealing with negative employees, and steps for preventing a negative attitude from becoming a legal issue. You also get a sample behavior-at-work policy, and an employee satisfaction survey to measure your employees' satisfaction at work.
When Work and Family Obligations Collide gives employers practical and legal advice on how to help employees handle work and family demands, while balancing the bottom line with retention and morale efforts. You also get a state-by-state look at which states require school visitation or parental leave.
Are Your Documentation Ducks in a Row? lays out the do's and don'ts of creating, maintaining, and retaining the forms you work with every day, from both a legal and practical perspective.
Overcoming Attendance Problems focuses on mistakes managers can make - and how to avoid them - when dealing with absenteeism and tardiness problems, especially regarding Family and Medical Leave Act and workers' comp requirements, along with pitfalls that exist when absenteeism decisions bump up against other anti-discrimination laws.
Family & Medical Leave Act Confusion Continues helps alleviate some of the extensive confusion that has arisen concerning how to apply the regulations and guidelines for the Family and Medical Leave Act, including case examples and advice on what certification demands you can make, when you have to reinstate a returning worker, what ailments qualify under the FMLA and more.
Investigations 101 provides legal and practical basics for conducting the most common types of internal investigations, including sexual harassment, misconduct and background investigations.
Discipline Done Right offers legal and practical advice for doling out discipline, crafting and polishing a discipline policy, dealing with a problem employee, and adopting progressive discipline techniques. Plus, there is a sample discipline documentation notice you can use to document your disciplinary efforts.
HR Audit provides a step-by-step guide for systematically reviewing all aspects of human resources within your company, and ensuring all government regulations and company policies are being followed. Plus, there is a sample HR audit checklist to help you identify potential problems, pinpoint areas that need improvement, and address compliance issues.
Preparing for Performance Appraisal Interviews provides a step-by-step guide for conducting appraisal interviews successfully and legally, plus includes a form you can use to rate your performance appraisal interview technique.
Your Blueprint for Avoiding Discipline Disasters provides a discipline training toolkit that will help prevent costly and time-consuming lawsuits alleging discriminatory disciplinary decisions. Test your discipline knowledge with a quick quiz, read real-life discipline-related lawsuits, and print a copy of a sample Employee Warning Notice Form you can put to use at your organization.
Workplace Etiquette explains where to draw the line in situations where a manager's seemingly innocent remarks can cause lawsuits from offended employees. It will also teach you how poor workplace "manners" can lower employee morale and cause negative impressions among customers, clients and potential employees.
Navigating the Legal Minefield of Recruiting, Interviewing and Hiring identifies legal and practical pitfalls in the hiring/interviewing process, and offers expert guidance on how to make sure you and your company don't accidentally stumble into court.
Top Tips for Avoiding Performance Appraisal Mistakes helps you stay out of subjective territory during a critical evaluation review; enables you to create your own action checklist for appraising your appraisal process, and has a workshop Q&A to point you toward consistently successful performance evaluations.
Conducting an Employment Law Audit is step-by-step guide for finding your company's vulnerable spots and turning them into lawsuit-proof policies and procedures. You'll learn which areas need to be audited and how to go about this task. You'll get a list of more than 75 questions which need to be answered in order to ensure your company's protection against employee lawsuits.
Records: Identifying Vulnerable Spots protects your company from vulnerable record-keeping mishaps with: a case-by-case account of legal record-keeping requirements; 10 steps for avoiding record-keeping liability, and 8 areas that you should never collect information on. Plus, there's a record-keeping policy which all your managers must follow to prevent legal firestorms.
The reports are in PDF format.
To have the free reports e-mailed to you, go to www.ahipubs.com; mark the box next to the report(s) you would like to receive; enter your e-mail address in the box at the bottom of the page, click on "submit."