Training New Managers

Most managers get that role because they're the hardest worker; the best salesperson; or the smartest person in the office.

But those traits don't translate into being an effective manager.  That's where screening, development, and - most importantly - training - comes into play.

A new article in HR Executive Online discusses how and why to get managers properly trained as well as establishing metrics for success.

And yes, I'm quoted in the article.

Thanks to Scott Westcott and HR Exec Online

Nevada Wage & Hour Lawsuits

We've been warning employers for several months that wage & hour compliance issues will result in numerous lawsuits this year - especially in Nevada.

It's starting to happen.

Wells Fargo & AutoZone have been sued (class-action status is currently pending) for mis-classifying employees.

With Wells Fargo, business banking specialists were allegedly mis-classified as exempt (from overtime, meal and rest breaks) when they were required to be 'on-call' on certain evenings.

In AutoZone's case, Assistant Managers were not compensated for working overtime (this is a case very reminiscent of the Long's Drugstore case in 2004).

The federal government is taking Wage & Hour violations seriously: Labor Secretary Hilda Solis recently announced plans to add 250 field investigators, increasing staff by 33%. The DOL believes 7 out of 10 businesses are not in compliance with Wage & Hour laws.

Garry Mathiason of Littler recently wrote:

No employment-law trend is more certain, universal or important than the total wage-and-hour compliance initiative and stopping the epidemic of wage-and-hour class-action (lawsuits)...

More ominous and prescient are these words from Mathiason (and, I believe, completely true):

With thousands of plaintiffs' attorneys examining every aspect of the payroll process, employers must expect maximum scrutiny..."Every employee who is terminated or demoted, or who experiences an unpleasant workplace event, is encouraged by Internet and television advertising to seek the advice of counsel. In almost every intake interview, the attorney's questioning turns to wage-and-hour issues in an attempt to find additional claims. Inspired by the prospect of turning a small individual claim into a multimillion-dollar class-action, the organization's wage-and-hour compliance goes under the microscope."

Thanks to Las Vegas Sun.

Businesses Taking Action Against E-mails, Linkedin, Facebook

In its 6th annual survey, the security firm Proofpoint reveals some new information regarding social media and e-mails by employees - and it's almost always resulting in bad news for the employees:

• 43 percent of US companies surveyed have investigated an email-based leak of confidential or proprietary information in the past 12 months. Nearly a third of them, 31 percent, terminated an employee for violating email policies in the same period (up from 26percent in 2008).
• US companies are also experiencing more exposure incidents involving sites like Facebook and LinkedIn as compared to 2008 (17 percent versus 12 percent). US companies are taking a much more forceful approach with offending employees -- eight percent reported terminating an employee for such a violation as compared to only four percent in 2008.
• Even short message services like SMS texts and Twitter pose a risk. 13 percent of US companies investigated an exposure event involving mobile or Web-based short message services in the past 12 months.

Read the entire survey here.