The Manager's Guide to HR: Hiring, Firing, Performance Evaluations, Documentation, Benefits, and Everything Else You Need to Know - Hardcover

Muller, Max

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814410766 ISBN 13: 9780814410769

Publisher: Amacom Books, 2009

Synopsis

Managing people is a tricky business—and managers and small business owners can no longer get by without understanding the essentials of human resources. New questions abound. In our increasingly legal-minded age, how much documentation do we need to keep on each employee? What’s the best way to confront complicated personnel issues, and even workplace violence? The Manager’s Guide to HR provides readers with a straightforward, step-by-step guide to human resources topics, including: hiring · performance evaluations and documentation · training and development · benefits · compensation · employment laws · documentation and records retention · firing and separation The book clarifies hot-button issues such as dealing with conflict, privacy issues, COBRA compliance, disabilities, sexual harassment, and more. The Manager’s Guide to HR is a quick and ready reference for every leader.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

If your company has a full-fledged human resources department, consider yourself lucky. But whether it does or not, you as a manager need to be well versed in several critical HR areas. Hav­ing a thorough grasp of basic human resources issues means you can make better decisions—and faster ones—on everything from hiring and firing to performance appraisal to compensation.

A thorough and accessible guide written in plain English, The Manager’s Guide to HR gets right to the point on dozens of major topics, hot-button issues, and common misconceptions. The book provides a litany of dos and don’ts to follow regarding:

 

·       Hiring. How to write the perfect job description, then recruit, interview, and check the eligibility of candidates.

·       Training. How to make sure your employees have everything they need to do their jobs well, safely, and legally—and how to document it all. Includes information on sexual harassment training.

·       Compensation. How the Fair Labor Standards Act and Equal Pay Act affect your business, how overtime must be calculated, and how to avoid violating these seemingly complex regulations.

·       Benefits. The nuts and bolts of healthcare coverage, life insurance, the Family and Medical Leave Act, COBRA, leave eligibility, and much more.

·       Employment Law. An overview of federal laws, what they protect against, and how they are enforced, and what compensation may be required when they are broken. Includes key information on federal, state, and local protected classes.

·       Sexual Harassment and Workplace Violence. Detailed definitions and case law examples to prevent your company from allowing harass­ment, and necessary precautions, documen­tation, training, and reporting pertaining to violence or the threat of violence.

·       Privacy. What you are and are not entitled to know when conducting background checks, how (and how closely) you can monitor your employees, and what constitutes an invasion of privacy. Plus valuable information on defama­tion, inten­tional provocation, and much more.

·       Performance Evaluation. How to bring your appraisal, the employee’s self-review, and the job description together to create a fair, consistent, and effective evaluation.

·       Termination and Separation. What does at-will employ­ment mean? Right and wrong ways to fire an employee, how to use progressive disci­pline, what you need to know about the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, and much more.

Finally, The Manager’s Guide to HR gives you step-by-step instructions for documenting everything and keeping bulletproof records. You’ll learn the elements of a well-kept and up-to-date personnel file, including what records should not be kept in that file. The book also includes sample docu­ments from OSHA and other regulatory agencies, with thorough explanations of their purpose and value to you, your company, and your employees.

With the priceless information in this book, you’ll be on the same page as your HR department (and your company), and you’ll know that you are treating your employees as they deserve to be treated—and as the law requires.

 

Max Muller is an attorney who has specialized in human resources law for more than 30 years. Formerly house counsel for Isis Foods and president of Electronic Processing, Inc., he has presented thousands of human resources seminars for premier organizations including the American Management Association. Mr. Muller lives in Overland Park, Kansas.

From the Back Cover:

Just when you think you’ve got the whole management thing down—your employees are getting the job done, your projects are on schedule and below budget—comes word that you need to double as an HR expert. In a workplace landscape that grows more legal-minded every day, your company has got to protect itself from the repercussions of poor decisions, inconsistent policy, and just plain ignorance.

The necessity is particularly urgent for small business owners and managers in smaller companies without full human resources operations. But even if the company does have a human resources department, it’s incumbent upon you as a manager to know how laws and regulations, rights and responsibilities, and new developments affect how you do your daily work. The good news is, The Manager’s Guide to HR gives you detailed information to help you through the challenges of:

 

• Hiring and firing legally
• Training effectively
• Paying fairly
• Protecting yourself and your employees
• And documenting it all thoroughly, accurately, and consistently.

 

You’ll get invaluable insight into how to handle COBRA issues, disability, sexual and other harassment issues, benefits administration, workplace violence issues, conflict resolution, privacy, records retention, disciplinary matters, and much more.

Written by human resources expert and veteran attorney Max Muller, The Manager’s Guide to HR provides no-nonsense information with a refreshing absence of jargon. The book is created specifically for department managers, supervisors, and other professionals who need to know the ropes—or risk disaster.

Don’t worry—being the kind of HR expert your company needs doesn’t mean neglect­ing the job you’re really there to do. It means knowing your stuff, avoiding common mistakes, and making the most of great resources like The Manager’s Guide to HR.

 

About this edition

• Publisher: Amacom Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0814410766
• ISBN 13: 9780814410769
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 296