Consilium Advisory Services LLC

The burgeoning growth of internet social networking has caused many employees and job applicants to become less careful about revealing details of their personal lives — for everyone to view.

Aside from risking identify theft these candid discussions online open the very real and growing possibility that less well known aspects of an individual’s personal life will be viewed by employers.

Yes, despite mounting evidence that online employer searches could violate the law, and at the very least are ethically challenging, HR staffs are tempted to use the Internet to glimpse details that could facilitate employment decisions.

The dilemma? Whether or not to use the power of the Internet to search, free of charge, for details that an employee or job applicant may not have revealed voluntarily.

The question we should be asking says one writer, is “what’s the purpose of our search?”

Reach out to Consilium at 949-632-2282
to begin the dialog on any HR challenge you face

Consilium
Advisory Services

Employee & Labor Relations Consulting
949-632-2282

Using social networks to check up on employees? You may have trouble ahead.

7 Keys to Slaying Sexual Harassment

The Herman Cain and Joe Paterno scandals may be fading but they offer important lessons for employers.

Chuck Conine, Consilium’s principal consultant and HR expert is a featured columnist for Smith Travel Research’s “Hotel News Now”. In Conine’s latest column he discusses sometimes overlooked ways to address sexual harassment in the workplace.

Read Chuck Conine’s advice here.

Vetting the HR Expert:
Techniques for Evaluating the Expert
Pre-Retention

Charles A. Conine, SPHR

One important consideration once counsel has determined to retain an HR expert is whether the potential experts being interviewed possess experience that’s relevant to the issues in the trial.

Can the proposed expert speak to the full range of these issues? The HR generalist who is trained in a variety of human resources disciplines has the benefit of perspective, understanding not only the interrelation among a variety of HR disciplines but as importantly, the connections between the policies generated in each and how these policies may be interpreted in actual practice.

Consider the case of a plaintiff alleging wrongful discharge during a probationary period. Defendants have answered, stating that plaintiff falsified his employment application and was released when reference checks revealed the falsification. Plaintiff countered, stating that he would have explained the discrepancies had he been afforded the right of appeal, which he alleges Defendants unreasonably denied.

While experts who have worked primarily in a single HR discipline, say, as a recruiter, may be perfectly suited to testify concerning steps employers take to verify applicant statements before a candidate is hired, that same expert may be unable to opine concerning what mitigating factors employers may consider before discharging employees during a probationary period – or whether and why honesty by job applicants is a bona fide reason for discharging them in the first place, or rejecting a request for an appeal of a discharge on that basis.

To read the full article, please request a copy from Chuck Conine by emailing him here.

Employers, are you liable for your employee’s rudeness? Maybe not.

Read the story here

For the answer Sharlyn Lauby, in an article for “Mashable” has written a good review of the issues.

Read Lauby’s comments and evaluate the viewpoints of the employer, the lawyer and an Internet technologist here.

Employers can never hope to prevail over harassment if their efforts focus on damage control exclusively.