HR CHPT 14

Workplace Handbook - compenstation and Benefits

Pay grades and pay increase policy, performance management process, benefits eligibility, paid time off/vacation entitlement

Nondisclosure agreement

prohibits employees from revealing confidential information of a company to anyone else.

employers should take with regard to developing and implementing electronic communications policies are as follows:

(1) Develop an electronic communications policy; (2) Communicate the policy to employees; (3) Obtain signed permission from employees that they understand the policy; (4) Monitor for business purposes only; and (5) Enforce the policy through disciplinary procedures.

Implied contracts

unwritten agreements created by the actions of the parties involved. An implied contract establishes employee expectations, especially if there has been a long-term business relationship. Some court decisions have held that if an employer hires someone for an indefinite period or promises job security, the employer has created an implied contract.

Clawback provisions

allow companies to ask former employees to repay pay-based incentives in certain situations.

Which of the following scenarios depicts the concept of constructive discharge?

Arturo makes the work environment so miserable for his assistant that the assistant resigns. Constructive discharge - process of deliberately making conditions intolerable to get an employee to quit.

Which of the following demonstrates a lack of distributive justice? a. Rude behavior with an employee b. Dismissal of an employee without due process c. Use of racial profiling at the time of hiring d. Disciplinary action based on favoritism

Disciplinary action based on favoritism

Workplace Handbook - Workplace Conduct

Harassment and civility policies, professional attire and behavior, attendance requirements, disciplinary procedures

Baudry Bonds, cook for Macaroni Grill and shop steward, says that if a person had smoked weed 3 days ago and it shows up in his or her test today, he considers that an invasion of privacy. Does the Data Protection Act of 1974 protect this type of privacy?

No, the Data Protection Act of 1974 only protects privacy with regard to medical and employee records.

Contractural Rights

Rights based on a specific contract between an employer and an employee.

Roberto, an employee at Oswalt Inc., a private pharmaceutical company in the United States, has been accused of holding a female employee from the IT department at gunpoint using his licensed gun and compelling her to give him access to confidential company data. In this situation, _____.

Roberto may be prohibited from carrying his licensed gun to the workplace, as it is illegal in some states

Statutes

Written laws passed by a local, state, or federal government.

Whistle-blowers

employees who report unethical activities of their employers

Affordable Health Care Act

the Affordable Health Care Act deals with employee medical coverage

non compete

Agreements that prohibit individuals who leave an organization from working with an employer in the same line of business for a specified period of time

Efraim worked for WD-40, a company that manufactures a lubricant whose ingredients are highly secret. When Efraim joined the company, he had to sign a document saying that he would keep all the company's trade secrets confidential, as a way of protecting WD-40's.....XXXXXX

Intellectual Property (or trade secrets that make the company profitable)

The authors of your textbook say that a disciplinary process can undercut an organization's at will provisions. What problem will a disciplinary process present for at will employment?

The disciplinary process can be seen as an implied contract.

Interactional Justice

The extent to which a person affected by an employment decisions feel treated with dignity and respect.

What research results were found when electronic monitoring processes that gave good feedback for employee development were used?

Work satisfaction went up. Work performance went up. Employees had more positive perceptions of organizational justice.

Employment at will (EAW)

a common-law doctrine stating that employers have the right to hire, fire, demote, or promote whomever they choose, unless there is a law or a contract to the contrary, and employees can quit at any time with or without notice.

Restorative justice *

an approach to justice in which one of the responses to a crime is to organize a meeting between the victim and the offender, sometimes with representatives of the wider community.

arbitration agreement

arbitration agreements require the parties to resolve their disputes through the process of arbitratio

Responsibilities

are obligations to perform certain tasks and duties

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

includes regulations related to privacy of medical information.

Ombuds

individuals outside the normal chain of command who act as independent problem solvers for both management and employees.

Data Protection Act

requires employers to keep personnel records up to date and keep only the details that are needed.

Due process termination

when they apply their rules for discipline fairly. questions such as "was the employee asked for his or her side of the story? and was the complaint process used?

Social Security Act

Deals with social security benefits

Workplace Handbook - General employment Policies

Employment and labor laws, employment status and work hours, non disclosure, intellectual property protections, use of company technology/bring your own device.

Fair Labor Standards Act

Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum pay standards

Even in the absence of written documentation such as statements in an employee handbook, an employer can be held responsible for breaching XXXXXX which create employee expectations through actions of the employer

Implied contracts.

Even though Gloria was disappointed that she was not selected for a promotion, she experienced _____ in that she was treated with respect and kindness throughout the appraisal and promotion process.

Interactional Justice

To ensure compliance with the rules of the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, which of the following should the committee do while conducting the test?

To ensure compliance with the rules of the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, the committee should only use licensed, bonded examiners to conduct the test.

Moral rights

rights based on values

noncompete agreements;

these agreements prohibit individuals from leaving the organization to work for a competitor in the same line of business for a specified time period

The Employee Polygraph Protection Act requires that employees must be allowed xxxxxxx .

to stop the polygraph exam at any time

When Haley started working for Fusion, Inc., she was given a handbook that outlined Fusion, Inc.'s policies for firing employees. The handbook said that no employee would be fired unless the company conducted a complete investigation and could show that the employee was in some way harming the company. For this reason, Haley was very surprised when her manager told her that her department was closing and her job at Fusion, Inc. was being eliminated. According to Haley, the policy handbook served as an XXXX and it could not be broken.

Implied contract - It laid out conditions of her employment, and in absence of any other agreements, those conditions must be followed . The contract was not explicit because the handbook does not contain paperwork that explicitly creates an employment contract,

Distributive Justice

Perceived fairness of how rewards and other outcomes are distributed

Rights

Powers, privileges, or interests derived from law, nature, or tradition.

A XXXXX is an agreement in which a terminated employee agrees not to sue the employer in exchange for specified benefits, such as additional severance pay or other consideration.

Separation Agreement

The disciplinary process can be seen as ....

The disciplinary process can be seen as an implied contract by employees, which says that they cannot be fired unless the disciplinary steps outlined in the process are followed. Unless there is an employment at will agreement in place that specifically contradicts this, companies are generally expected to follow their written disciplinary processes. Doing so can help to protect the company from charges of wrongful discharge.

National Labor Relations Board

employees are allowed to discuss workplace issues online, especially if such a discussion is a protected activity (for example, an activity that might lead to unionization), the Board does allow employers to prohibit the posting of comments that condone excessive disloyalty or present highly sensitive information to people outside the corporation.

nonpiracy agreement

it does not ask Haley to refrain from hiring Fusion, Inc.'s employees should Haley leave the company

When Wendy Winters, a weather reporter at a local news station, quit her job, she had to relocate to find new employment that did not violate the XXXXXXX she had signed with her employer, which prohibited her from working for another news station for the next 2 years.

noncompete agreement

nondisclosure agreement

nondisclosure agreement prohibits employees from revealing confidential information of a company to anyone else

Mandates

official orders to do something.

Positive Discipline approach

The positive discipline approach builds on the philosophy that violations are actions that usually can be corrected constructively without penalty. When using this approach, managers focus on fact finding and guidance to encourage desirable behaviors, rather than penalties to discourage undesirable behaviors. The four steps to positive discipline are as follows: 1) Counseling 2) Written documentation 3) Final Warning 4) Discharge The advantage of this positive approach to discipline is that it focuses on solving problems.

The Employee Polygraph Protection Act prohibits XXXXX

the use of polygraphs for most pre-employment screening and also requires that employees must be advised of their rights to refuse to take a polygraph exam, be allowed to stop the exam at any time,and not be terminated because they refuse to take a polygraph test or solely because of the exam results

An HR department that files employee medical records with other personnel records is violating the recordkeeping provisions of the XXXXX

Americans with Disabilities Act

What kinds of comments on social media may result in firing, even under the National Labor Relations Board's rules for protected activities? Check all that apply.

Comments that disclose highly sensitive information Comments that condone excessive disloyalty

Which of the following is not a rule that should be followed when developing an employee handbook?

Do not use disclaimers.

Although the employment-at-will doctrine typically allows employers to hire, fire, demote, or promote whomever they choose, employers must ensure that the language used in the policy statements in XXXXXX does not negate this right

Employee Handbooks.

Just Cause Termination

Employee termination based on a good reason for firing questions like " was th eemployee warned of the consequences of the conduct? and was there sufficient evidence of guilt?" can help make this determination.

Employees expect to have the right to free speech, while employers expect that their employees will not express views that hurt the company's brand or reputation. Which of the following actions will help an employer balance the employee's right to free speech with the employer's right to control what the employee says?

If an employee violates speech standards, the employer should attempt an informal resolution of the problem first. Employers should clearly outline their standards for appropriate speech and behavior. The employee should be asked to sign a nondisclosure privacy agreement.

What is the third step in the actions employers should take when creating and implementing electronic communications policies

Obtain signed permission from employees to say they understand the policies.

Hiranur just accepted a job as the Director of Human Resources for a non-profit organization that helps to find housing for immigrants in Dallas, Texas. Unfortunately, her agency was found guilty of wrongful discharge last year when they fired a long-term employee who had no record of performance problems. What should Hiranur do to protect her company from wrongful discharge cases in the future?

Put together accurate performance evaluations. Develop documentation justifying dismissals. Provide employees with a written warning. Provide written grounds for termination decisions. Involve more than one person in the dismissal decision.

In California, state law requires that employers give employees a meal break of 1/2 hour after a shift exceeds 5 hours. This makes meal breaks into: XXX

Statutory rights - rights based on laws or statutes passed by federal, state, or local governments

Transformative Justice *

a way of addressing an individual act of harm that relies on community members instead of the police, the law, or the government (also known as the state). It is a response to the racism and gender-based oppression that shape life for many people of color.

Fidelity has been dealing with harassment and bullying issues for some time, and although company officials promptly investigate and address any issues as quickly as possible, there are signs pointing to a possible negative corporate culture. Which of the following is one of the factors that are most likely hindering Fidelity's ability to reduce employee complaints related to workplace harassment and bullying?

The massive workforce of the company is one of the factors that are most likely hindering Fidelity's ability to reduce employee complaints related to workplace harassment and bullying. Being one of the largest investment companies with a workforce of over 40,000 employees, Fidelity has faced many harassment and bullying challenges, likely based on the sheer number of individuals who work there.

seperation agreement

agreement in which a terminated employee agrees not to sue the employer in exchange for specified benefits

noncompete agreement

because a noncompete agreement prohibits a departing employee from working for a rival firm

Progressive discipline approach

corporates steps that become progressively more severe and are designed to change the employee's inappropriate behavior. Figure 14-9 shows a typical progressive discipline process; most progressive discipline procedures use verbal and written reprimands and suspension before resorting to dismissal

The Data Protection Act of 1974 applies to both federal agencies and federal contractors

it may be relevant for this hotel if federal employees stay there. However, the Act only covers the privacy of medical and employee records, so it would not cover a person's right to privacy with regard to past drug use. The law would allow drug use to be tested, but it would not allow those records to be released outside of a very small circle within the corporation

Nathaniel's team members are habitually late to work and take long breaks than they are allowed under the company policy. Nathaniel decides to put a stop to this behavior and initiates the _____ by verbally reprimanding all the employees who arrived late to work or took long breaks.

progressive discipline approach

Arbitration clauses

require the parties involved to resolve their disputes through the process of arbitration. arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution, is a way to resolve disputes outside the courts.

Americans with Disabilities Act

requires employers to keep all medical-related information separate from other confidential personnel records

Lilly Ledbetter Act

deals with pay equity equal pay claims and essentially treats each paycheck as a new act of discrimination. Pay discrimination need not be intentional to be unlawful. Pay practices resulting in disparate impact are also actionable

When preparing a handbook, the authors should.....

eliminate controversial phrases, use disclaimers, and keep the handbook current, reviewing content at least once a year. Disclaimers are important because they point out employment limitations, such as employment at will policies. It is critical that these limitations be clearly explained to employees.

When Paul is assigned the task of reviewing his company's employee handbook, he should suggest that _____ be edited or removed to avoid implied contracts that might negate the company's employment-at-will rights.

the phrases "probationary employee" and "permanent employee