IN THIS ISSUE:
SNHRA Membership:
Important Renewal Information
Finance for HR Professionals:
SNHRA's February Seminar
Mix and Mingle with the Stars:
An SNHRA Mixer Event
LEGAL BRIEF:
Beware of Employee Endorsements
on Social Media Websites
SHRM News Feed:
Added to SNHRA.org Homepage
How to silence 7 common employee gripes
PLUS:
Many of our members have renewals on their SNHRA Membership in January or February. A couple of notes on the process: If your membership has not expired, you can simply click on “Join/Renew” after you’ve signed in, then click on the “Renew Your Account” link.
If your membership has expired, you can still sign in, but click on “Upgrade to Membership” in the “Member Area”. The receipt from the renewal process will serve as your invoice and receipt. At this time, we do not plan to send out invoices except to those who do not renew within 1 month of their expiration. If you have any questions, please email admin@snhra.org
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Date: Place: Cost: |
1289 South Torrey Pines Drive Las Vegas, NV 89146 $100 for SNHRA members/$150 for non-members |
To RSVP, click here!
Submitted to HRCI for 3.75 strategic recertification hours
RSVP NOW! Each Seminar Session is limited to the first 25 people who RSVP!
Presented by Terry Gilliand (bio)
Summary:
Whether there’s a recession or not, every HR professional needs to understand and speak finance. Most HR managers don’t fully understand the Balance Sheet, Income Statement or Cash Flows Statement. How are HR managers supposed to work with Finance to discuss budgets, propose new expenditures, cut costs, and connect all of these to HR metrics when they lack the finance talk? How can HR managers lead during a recession (as well as good times) when they haven’t acquired a full grasp of tools to understand and improve profit, cash and more?
Click here to find out more about the seminar.
Date and Time:
February 24, 2010
5:30pm - 7:30pm
Place:
Madame Tussauds
(On the Las Vegas Strip in front of The Venetian)
3377 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
Cost:
Only $10 per person
The mixer RSVP includes complimentary hors d'oeuvres
and beer/wine
For more information about the event click here
To RSVP click here
This event is co-sponsored by Madame Tussauds Wax Museum
and
Legoland California
For more information about Madame Tussauds click here
For more information about Legoland California click here
By: Patrick H. Hicks and Jeanine Navarro. Patrick H. Hicks is the Founding Shareholder of Littler Mendelson’s Las Vegas and Reno offices. He can be reached at phicks@littler.com. Jeanine Navarro is an Associate in Littler Mendelson’s Las Vegas office. She can be reached at jnavarro@littler.com.
Beware of Employee Endorsements on Social Media Websites
Employers already face concerns about how to handle employees trash-talking them on blogs, Facebook and other social media. Now, employers must be cautious of employee endorsements of their employers’ products and services on social media websites. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently issued updated guidelines aimed at protecting consumers from misleading endorsements and advertising. As these guidelines make clear, employers whose employees use social media like blogs or Facebook to comment on their employers’ products or services face potential liability, even where the employer has not authorized or ratified the employees’ remarks.
Effective December 1, 2009, the FTC issued its revised “Guides Concerning the Use of
Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising,” published in the Federal Register at 16
C.F.R. Part 255 (the “Guides”). The revised Guides address the circumstances where
consumer-generated media could potentially violate Section 5 of the FTC Act, which
prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices and unfair competition in or affecting
commerce.
In the revised Guides, the FTC identifies the general principles it will apply when
evaluating whether endorsements and testimonials, including those given by employees
about their employers’ products and services, are deceptive. The Guides provide specific
examples, and suggest that employees endorsing their employer’s products or services
have a duty to disclose to their audience their relationship to an employer at the time they
give the endorsement or testimonial. To be an endorsement or testimonial subject to the
Guides, the posting must be a message “that consumers are likely to believe reflects the
opinions, beliefs, findings, or experiences of a party other than the sponsoring advertiser,
even if the views expressed by that party are identical to those of the sponsoring
advertiser. The party whose opinions, beliefs, findings, or experience the message
appears to reflect will be called the endorser...” 16 C.F.R. Part 255.01(b).
The duty of disclosure applies even when the employee’s endorsement appears on a site
that is not maintained by the employer or employee (such as a popular “bulletin board”)
and the statement itself is not misleading. Failure to make such disclosure may expose the
employer to liability under the Act.
If employees make misleading statements about the employer’s products and services that result in injury to consumers, the FTC may bring an enforcement action against the employer. The FTC reports that it has brought enforcement actions against employers “whose failure to establish or maintain appropriate internal procedures” had resulted in consumer injury, but the FTC suggested in comments on the Guides that it would be unlikely to take action against an employer for the conduct of a single “rogue” employee whose conduct violated an adequate company policy.
Additionally, because postings on blogs and Facebook pages can reach wide audiences,
employers may be vulnerable to large-scale liability like class-action lawsuits by
consumers and/or legal action by State Attorneys General. In view of this latest possible exposure to employers from employees’ use of blogs and
social websites, employers should consider reviewing their electronic communications or
social media policies to ensure: (1) that they have policies addressing the use of the
company’s name, trademarks, and other proprietary information in blogs and other social
media; and (2) that these policies include either prohibitions or appropriate guidance
regarding references to company products or services. Such prohibitions and/or guidance
should no longer be limited to criticisms of the employer and its products and/or services.
Endorsements, if permitted at all, should be limited to truthful and verifiable statements,
or should be subject to prior approval by management. And in either event, such
statements must be accompanied by an employee’s written disclosure of the employment
relationship so that consumers can fairly weigh the testimonial.
Our website, SNHRA.org, has recently added a SHRM National news feed to the homepage. The SHRM news feed updates daily with the most important news for HR professionals. To visit our SHRM news feed simply go to the SNHRA website here, and locate the SHRM news feed in the bottom left hand corner of the homepage.
A recent study says that 40% of managers in the United States are considered “bad bosses” by their employees. Yet most managers assume that their relationships with their employees are running smoothly.
Obviously, some of those bosses are wrong … and that can create major problems for a business. A Gallup poll says organizations are 50% less productive—and 44% less profitable— when serious boss-employee conflicts exist.
According to a new book, 30 Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers, some common employee complaints about management, plus ways managers can silence them, include:
- “My boss doesn’t respect me.”
- Get to know your employees as people.
- Treat them as adults and respect their privacy.
- Recognize that employees have lives outside work and try to accommodate those needs.
- “Nobody appreciates my hard work.”
- Provide regular feedback and recognition.
- Mix an equal number of “thank-yous” and “good jobs” with your critiques. Ask employees for their ideas, and then use them.
- Thank and reward employees while they’re in the act of performing well; don’t wait for their next review.
- “There are different rules for different people.”
- Focus on being fair and consistent with the workload, pay, perks and appreciation.
- Be aware of the legal risks of making work decisions based on race, age, gender, religion or disability status.
- “My performance reviews are useless.”
- Provide continuous feedback. Nothing in the review should come as a surprise.
- Involve employees in setting goals, and adapt a development mind-set.
- Focus on specific employee behaviors (and cite documented examples). Don’t criticize the person’s character traits.
- Conduct reviews on time.
- “My boss micromanages my work.”
- Realize that employees are not happy when they can’t make decisions. Delegate when possible.
- Allow employees to have more say in how they do their work.
- “We have too many meetings.”
- Institute a time limit on meetings.
- Use a meeting facilitator.
- “I hate coming to work.”
- Ask employees what specifically would improve their outlook. Try to at least meet them halfway.
- Consider how you can enrich jobs (or juggle tasks among employees) to make them more motivated.
Article from TheHRSpecialist.com
You have to handle plenty of serious employee gripes about benefits and harassment. But as shown by a new survey of 2,600 HR pros and hiring managers, you also have had to deal with some truly offbeat complaints. Some highlights include employees’ gripes that a co-worker:
- Has big hair
- Eats all the good cookies
- Is so polite, it’s infuriating
- Is trying to poison me
- Has a ‘magnetic body’ and keeps de-activating his magnetic access card
- Only wears slippers or socks at work
- Has an ‘aura that’s all wrong’
- Breathes too loudly
- Wants to check a co-worker for ticks
- Wore bells on her shoes and it’s not the holidays
- Reminded him too much of Bambi
- Spent too much time caring for stray cats around the building
- (Male co-worker) keeps using the ladies’ room because the men’s room is not as tidy.
From TheHRspecialist.com
The “Employee Sarcasm” Guide:
Study these uses of English and Tone to find the hidden meanings in communication
and better understand your employees
- Never give me work in the morning. Always wait until 5:00 and then bring it to me. The challenge of a deadline is always refreshing.
- If it's really a "rush job," run in and interrupt me every 10 minutes to inquire how it's going. That greatly aids my efficiency.
- Always leave without telling anyone where you're going. It gives me a chance to be creative when someone asks where you are.
- If my arms are full of papers, boxes, books or supplies, don't open the door for me. I might need to learn how to function as a paraplegic in future and opening doors is good training.
- If you give me more than one job to do, don't tell me which is the priority. Let me guess.
- Do your best to keep me late. I like the office and really have nowhere to go or anything to do.
- If a job I do pleases you, keep it a secret. Leaks like that could get me a promotion.
- If you don't like my work, tell everyone. I like my name to be popular in conversations.
- If you have special instructions for a job, don't write them down. If fact, save them until the job is almost done.
- Never introduce me to the people you're with. When you refer to them later, my shrewd deductions will identify them.
- Be nice to me only when the job I'm doing for you could really change your life.
- Tell me all your little problems. No one else has any and it's nice to know someone is less fortunate.
We hope that all of our Members and Friends find the articles contained within R E S O U R C E S useful in your HR environment.
Many thanks to all of you who responded to our requests
for articles and research for this newsletter.
If you have anything you wish to contribute to the next issue, please do not hesitate to email Barry Lippold at blippold@marcison.com.
Contact Barry Lippold at 702-281-6528 for pricing and availability
to sponsor future R E S O U R C E S editions
Newsletter: 2010 Edition 1