| FIND THE RIGHT EMPLOYMENT LAW ATTORNEY
1. Experience. Don’t hire an attorney who does employment law less than half of the time or has less than five years in the field. 2. Expertise. Ask what type of cases the attorney handles and what results they’ve obtained. Find out if they’ve worked with companies such as yours and then follow up on these referrals. 3. Professional associations. Learn if they belong to the local bar association or local, state, or federal employment law committees. 4. Extent of operations. If you do most of your business in one state, choose a local firm. However, if you operate in several states, using a nationwide firm might be justified. 5. Likeability. Make sure you that you like your attorney — and that potential jurors will like them. 6. Billing arrangements. Get the firm’s rates and find out if they work on a flat-fee or retainer basis. 7. Related services. An experienced employment lawyer should conduct compliance audits, compliance training, policies and procedures reviews, employee handbook creation, and other “risk mitigation” services. 8. Publications. Read the attorney’s books and articles to garner their compliance philosophy, expertise, and knowledge of your business. 9. Current caseload. Find out if they have the time needed to attend to your concerns. 10. Legal services agreement. Make sure that you understand all of the terms and conditions of the agreement. 11. Insurance policy. Check the extent of their Professional Liability coverage. You might even want to obtain a copy of the Declaration page. 12. “Client Bill of Rights.” This month’s Form of the Month is the Client Bill of Rights (PDF) (Word). If they won’t sign it, consider going elsewhere. Your next newsletter will discuss the questions you should ask to make sure that you and your attorney communicate throughout the litigation process. |
| ONLINE RECRUITING: THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Many businesses get their best candidates through job listings on their own corporate Web sites, which attract people who were motivated enough to go directly to the company. Nearly 60% of all Internet hires come through company Web sites, according to a 2002 study by online-recruiting consulting firm CareerXroads (Kendall Park, NJ) That compares with 21% for niche job boards that cater to specific professions (such as Dice.com or Techies.com for information-technology careers), 14% for Monster, 5.7% for CareerBuilder and 1.9% for HotJobs.com. Although applicants might feel their resumes go into a black hole after they hit the “submit” key, hiring managers can more easily handle and inspect resumes that come through the Web, because they can be archived and indexed electronically. “It may feel impersonal, but the reality is that it’s being more heavily searched than a paper resume,” says John Dooney, human-resources manager with the Society for Human Resource Management (Alexandria, VA). However, like Internet dating, the process can only go so far online; eventually the two parties will have to meet in person to be sure that they fit. “It’s about the technology and having the computer do as much as it can to keep track of all this,” says Diana Meisenhelter, vice president of staffing and talent acquisition for Wyndham International Inc. “But we don’t want to lose the personal interaction.” |
| GO, B TEAM!
Says Harvard Business School Professor Thomas DeLong, “Long-term performance depends far more on the contributions of B players than many firms have come to realize,” DeLong describes B players as the middle 80% of a company’s work force, employees who are neither hotshots (As) nor weaker links (Cs). Bs can be the caretakers as businesses go through the upheavals of CEO shuffles, corporate mergers, and abrupt strategy changes. Because B players tend to think of the company as a family, they often take the time to nurture and train inexperienced employees. Bs can save companies from disastrous oversights and unethical corner cutting, since their ties to the firm tend to be stronger than those of free-agent job hoppers. And they know how to un-jam the copier. Microsoft’s decision to replace stock options with stock grants to its 50,000 employees reflects a concern with keeping its B workers. Says University of Southern California Business Professor Ed Lawler, “The company needs to attract more people who aren’t as risk oriented.” Experts warn companies to think twice before they try to cut costs by scaling back such family-friendly perks as flexible work hours and on-site day care. B teamers value these benefits, which have helped ease the pain of pay cuts. At the same time senior managers need to keep lower level employees informed about how they mesh with the company’s overall strategy. And little things still count. With their resources stretched thin, senior managers often fail to write a simple thank-you note to an employee for a job well done, one of the highest ranking motivators of all. |
| TOUGH TIMES TEST HIGH-LOYALTY COMPANIES
For workers, the rewards extend beyond their earnings. “Money doesn’t motivate,” says Jon Katzenbach of Katzenbach Partners, a Manhattan-based strategic and organizational consulting firm. Instead, personal connections and the pride employees feel about their jobs power their loyalty. “Your mom probably didn’t reward you with money,” says Katzenbach, “but she made you feel proud when you got better grades.” Companies also benefit from strong cultures. Workers usually require little supervision. Employee turnover also tends to go down: The average tenure at Southwest Airlines, for example, stands at about seven years. However, high-loyalty cultures also tend to be cyclical. For one thing, they depend on the personality of the leadership group. If a leader leaves or is forced out of the company, the culture can weaken. When an industry falters and stock prices plummet, the culture can suffer. Problems can also arise when incentives, which are linked to stock and stock prices, fall and employees are asked to work longer hours. Consistently high-performing companies continue to recognize employees through good and bad times, according to Ann Rhoades, president of People Ink (Scottsdale, AZ). That’s how they survive, she says, “and probably exceed expectations” in difficult times. During Desert Storm, for example, Southwest continued its recognition programs for employees so it could keep its customers by keeping them happy. “Employees become part of the solution rather than part of the problem,” notes Rhoades. Companies that cut training programs and staff during crisis periods are shortsighted, warns Rhoades, because the reductions trigger a vicious cycle: Service declines and customers become dissatisfied, making the firm a less enjoyable place to work and hurting the quality of service even more. But cultivating this culture isn’t easy. “You can’t convert it, acquire it, or wave a magic wand and create it,” says Commerce Bancorp Executive VP John DiFlorio. “They just don’t sell that kind of pixie dust to make people become service-oriented. This is a result of a lot of people with a lot of passion and energy to get it to where it is.” |
9/11 + 2
“In your opinion, what lasting changes, if any, have taken place in the workplace as a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks?” The results: |
A
quality attorney can go far to reduce and perhaps even eliminate
your exposure to the cost, time, and hassles of employee litigation.
Use this checklist to find a good employment lawyer and to structure
your relationship with them:
Although
such job boards as Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com attract thousands
of job postings a month, they aren’t always the best places
to find candidates. The reason: Companies get buried in resumes,
making the winnowing process even harder.
Starting
in the early 1980s the steady-Eddie performers in the work force
gradually lost status to “A-list” corporate hotshots.
Yet it was mostly the A players who failed at firms such as Enron,
WorldCom, and countless “dot-gone” wonders. Nowadays
companies are starting to regret overlooking their B players.
Businesses
from Microsoft and GM to mom-and-pop stores have focused on building
high-loyalty, worker friendly corporate cultures that benefit
employer and employee alike.
During
the week of September 2-September 9, 2003, a nationwide survey by
the Society of Human Resources Managers asked:| “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence." Martin Luther King, Jr.
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| This issue discusses: •
Find the Right Employment Law Attorney We’ve also provided hyperlinks to a free Form
of the Month. |
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| VIOLENCE: FROM HOME TO WORK Employers can’t afford to believe that the devastating effects of domestic violence stop at the office door — and they don’t need to feel helpless. That’s the message in a new public-service ad from Altria, the parent company of Kraft and Phillip Morris and a founding member of the Safe@work coalition. The group’s Web site (www.safeatworkcoalition.org) includes statistics, legal information, sample workplace policies, and success stories showing how co-workers support can help people break free from victimization. Homicide is the leading cause of death for women in the workplace, and intimate partners commit 16% of those murders, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Safe@work reports that domestic violence costs businesses $3 billion to $5 billion a year. Among battered women, it says: • 74% are harassed at work, either by phone or in person. In late August, a business in Nashville TN experienced the lengths to which abusive partners can go. A man on bail awaiting trial for raping and kidnapping his ex-girlfriend came to the video rental store where she worked and asked for her. After finding out that she wasn’t expecting anyone, the receptionist turned him away. The man then pulled a shotgun and headed toward her office. By the time police arrived, he had killed a co-owner of the company and himself. The woman and other employees had taken refuge in a locked office. No matter how secure your workplace, such extreme situations are difficult to prevent. But companies can take steps to protect victims and their co-workers. Says Greg Bujac, Altria vice president of corporate security, “We’ve walked folks to the subway and given them emergency numbers to call.” Brochures about domestic violence placed in the restrooms at Altria have become models for other firms. Managers and supervisors are trained to identify employees who might be experiencing domestic violence and reach out to them gently. Notes Bujac, “That’s the most difficult part in any of these situations, because victims want their privacy.” Although some might decline help, others will see it as a lifeline. Says one woman on the Safe@work Web site “My co-worker screened my calls when my ex-husband was harassing me. She volunteered to change her shift so that I could go to a support group ... The support I got at work made the whole process so much easier for me.” What are you doing to protect your workers? |
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| GETTING DOWN TO CASES Our legal staff offers this review of two top cases
that might affect your business. (PDF)
(WORD) |
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| For more information on the contents of this newsletter E-mail us or give us a call (e-mail: [email protected] or visit www.employeradvisorsnetwork.com). Ó Copyright Employer Advisors Network, Inc.2003. The material presented here is general in nature. Due to local and state laws and ordinances, an individual article might not apply in every jurisdiction. |
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