May 2022

You want to treat your employees fairly and provide a healthy work environment for all. But in the real world, things sometimes get messy. You have an employee who needs time off, but he’s the only person who can do his job. Someone is upset about being passed over for a promotion. Another employee is allergic to a coworker’s perfume. And someone is “dishing the company tea” on social media.

Now what?

In human resources (HR) training, every ethical challenge has a tidy answer. In practice, it’s often quite difficult to find solutions that everyone agrees are fair and right.

Federal employment laws are nice, tidy guide rails for your business. While they don’t resolve every HR dilemma, they give you a framework for handling many of the complexities involved in employing people.

This article covers nine types of federal labor laws you need to know and when they apply

At-will employment doesn’t necessarily mean you can fire employees at will. Know how to protect your business from wrongful termination complaints.
Most employment relationships are at-will, meaning you can fire employees at any time for any legal reason or no reason at all. Often, employers hear “at-will” and “any reason” and skip over the “legal” part. In fact, there are many illegal reasons for firing an employee, and it’s important to understand them before you let someone go.

How easy is it for a snap decision to turn into a wrongful discharge complaint? Consider the well-known case of EEOC v. Walgreens, in which a diabetic employee with an 18-year record of excellent service ate a $1.39 bag of chips because she was hypoglycemic. She tried to pay for the chips when her sugar rebounded, but her supervisor, perhaps under the influence of a particularly strident presentation on shrink prevention, fired

Retaliating against employees who exercise their workplace rights is a common, preventable mistake. Find out how to ban retaliation from your company.
Every year, retaliation heads the list of complaints filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). That’s because it’s often tacked onto other complaints, from sexual harassment to age discrimination.

Retaliation is also the toughest charge to shake. It’s not uncommon for companies to win a discrimination lawsuit only to lose on the accompanying retaliation claim.

Unfortunately, businesses often walk into retaliation complaints through innocent, avoidable mistakes. By knowing how to handle retaliation at work, you can avoid those costly mistakes.

What is workplace retaliation?
Retaliation occurs when an employer punishes an employee for exercising their workplace rights. Punishment can be any adverse action that might deter a reasonable employee from pursuing protected activities.

Examples of adverse actions include:

Termination
Constructive discharge, when punishment drives an employee to

EEO compliance is more than the law: it’s good business. This article breaks down equal employment opportunity laws and how to make them work for your small business.
The best reason to cultivate a diverse, inclusive workforce is that it helps your business succeed, as demonstrated by two recent studies by McKinsey & Company. An inclusive work environment broadens your talent pool, enhances the employee experience, improves customer service, and drives innovation.

If you’re like many business owners, you might think equal employment opportunity (EEO) is a given. Why wouldn’t you bring the best and the brightest on board? Yet it takes more than a commitment to the idea of equal opportunity to promote an inclusive workplace.

It takes careful planning, a solid framework, and active engagement. This article will help you translate good intentions into concrete actions to create an inclusive workplace.

Overview: The history and evolution of equal