What are the basic steps of a harassment investigation?

Answer from Rachel, SHRM-SCP: When an employer receives a harassment claim, they have a legal obligation to examine the claim by conducting a thorough investigation. This includes the following steps: Select an interviewer. Typically, this person would be an impartial...

Avoiding Burnout When You Work in HR

If you work in HR, you know that employee burnout remains pervasive. You also know that the task of supporting overly stressed employees often falls on your shoulders. But you’re exhausted too. Burnout isn’t just a problem you have to help others solve; you also have...

If a holiday like New Year’s Eve falls on a weekend when we’re closed, and we typically give employees that holiday off, do we have to offer employees an alternative day off?

Answer from Emily, MBA, SPHR: No, the way you designate holiday closures is largely up to you. No federal law requires you to offer holidays off or offer alternative days off if you’re closed on a holiday (Massachusetts and Rhode Island both have laws that address...

The Rewards of Trust and How to Get Them

Why do people stop trusting in one another? And what happens to a team when trust disappears? To answer these questions, let’s start with a fable. About a year ago, Abigail began her first day on a new job. She was a software engineer, new to the workforce, and eager...

What is a workweek? Is it just our hours of operation?

Answer from Kelley, PHR: A workweek is not the same thing as your hours of operation. Rather, it defines the 168-hour period (i.e., seven 24-hour days) in which you track your non-exempt employees’ time to determine whether they’re owed any overtime premium pay. The...

7 Reasons to Go Paperless with Your Payroll

As a business owner, you know that occasionally you need to adapt your business model in order to grow and remain successful. But with new trends in automation and digitization popping up in the business world, how do you know what’s right for your company? We suggest...