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The Latest HR Issues

Guest post by: Betsey Nash

Article Overview: Workers Comp - Dress Codes - Social Media - Misunderstandings... oh, the pleasures of HR. Here are Betsey's suggestions on handling these issues.

The Latest HR Issues

As an HR Generalist who assists 100's of clients from myriad industries it's always interesting for me to see what topics transcend the business and show up everywhere. Here are the latest that crossed my desk.

Workers Comp claims: Businesses experienced a rise in workplace accidents as last years' lay-offs were taking place. Crafty (or paranoid) employees, thinking they might be laid off, were hurting themselves on the job, to be assured of income whether they had a job or not. As employees are coming back to work we see a rise again. Why? This time it's because many returning employees are out of shape. Not that everyone laid off became a couch potato, but after a long lay-off, even muscles once tuned to well-known tasks are weak. The greatest risk comes from those returning to something with which they're familiar. They think they can be as productive as they once were and their supervisors are pushing them to be that productive. Warning: Let them work into it slowly or they run the risk of injuries. Have them stretch before starting anything physical, and if it's a sedentary job, be sure they get up and stretch periodically, too.

Dress Code: This is a problem every time we change seasons. As the flips flops morph into loafers, the skin-tight pants and tights appear, along with shorter skirts and taller heels; your dress code should default to "professional", (you can't anticipate and list everything) so feel free to add restrictions and go-aheads as the seasons and fashions change. It's still not professional to see cleavage or underwear or to wear a short skirt, even if your bum is covered by tights. Safety is still the watchword for footwear. Spiked heels make walking treacherous. Men: Pull up your pants! "Professional" for you means wearing pants that fit and wearing a belt. Iron and tuck in your shirt. Tattoos are more and more accepted in society - or tolerated, perhaps, but business owners should have clearly defined rules about what's OK. Your comfort level and that of your customers are the criteria.

Social Media: Keep this simple for your employees. If they're at work, they work. Just as their friends cannot hang out with them during the workday, they may not text them back & forth during their work time. You can ban personal phones, but can you enforce the ban? If so, go ahead. The problem is that many workers just coming into the workforce don't know how we survived before we had instant contact at our fingertips with everyone we knew. They don't draw the distinction between their personal and work life as the older workers do. I have a client who saw on a video that a cashier was holding her phone low and away from the camera and was texting without looking! Another client has added to their application for employment: "If you can't live without your phone for the length of your shift, you need to apply elsewhere."

Clear Communication: You cannot assume every word you use is defined by your employees as you mean it. A client complained to me that regardless of how many times she told her employee to be on time, she was always a few minutes late. I suggested the client sit down with the employee and ask her how she defines "on time". Yep, for her, "on time" meant within 15 minutes.

Do not despair, you captains of industry - others are dealing with the same stuff.

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Article Tags: communication, dress codes, hr issues, misunderstandings, pleasures, social media, workers comp



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