As is typical for December, everyone is starting to wrap up for year end and the amount of substantive items to report on slows to a trickle. Thus, it’s time for some short items on a variety of employment law and HR-related topics.
- I’ve started microblogging at Twitter. Don’t know what Twitter is? There’s a great post on Ten Tips for Beginners to get you started. Better yet, use the Twitip.com blog, which has some very useful information in general. Once yo
u’re there, you can follow me at www.twitter.com/ctemplawyer.
I use Twitter to forward links to additional articles related to employment law and that employers in Connecticut may find of interest. There are some terrific feeds on HR-related topics as well. Just use the search function to find them.
- The CBIA has a program planned for December 16, 2008 on"Economy in Crisis: Managing Layoffs and Other Survival Strategies". The four-hour program, will cover topics such as reductions in force, communicating decisions, and outplacement. I’ll be speaking in the morning. There are still some spots available so be sure to sign up through the CBIA website.
- The Pennsylvania Labor & Employment Blog has a noteworthy post about holiday parties that serves as a good compliment to my post of yesterday. Some of the issues he suggests considering:
- Circulate to employees a kindly worded reminder about drinking and driving and the consumption of alcohol by employees under the age of 21.
- Consider engaging professional bartenders if they are not already part of your event.
- Give bartenders rules on serving minors and intoxicated employees.
- Avoid self-serve alcohol or long periods of "open bar."
- Jon Hyman, at the Ohio Employer’s Law Blog, has the latest advertisement opposing the Employee Free Choice Act. I’m not a fan of commercials on bills before Congress in general, but I have to admit this is fairly clever.
- Kris Dunn, at HR Capitalist, has a very timely followup to a WSJ opinion piece that I previously blogged about. In that piece, the writer suggested eliminating performance reviews. Dunn notes:
I feel the same now as I did then – while I agree the performance review is an imperfect tool, you’re only credible in calling for its elimination if you’re prepared to put your money and time where your mouth is and be involved in providing the training and CONTINUOUS feedback to managers on their coaching skills.
You don’t have time? Guess what sparky? You’re part of the problem, not the solution. Please fade to the background.
The alternative to the annual performance review is coaching daily, which is another word for feedback. The bad news is that we have a lot of managers nationally who aren’t willing or capable of coaching.
Dunn’s post is worth reading for his suggestions on how HR can help with the performance review process.