HR @ 100mph
Hunter Lott
HR Policy Studio
HRHunterLott@gmail.com
© 2016
This document is intended to help companies consider various issues
associated with employment practices in the workplace. The author is not
engaged in rendering legal advice or professional legal services and no attorney
client relationship is created. Anyone who creates company policy with (or
without) the use of this document should consult with a qualified attorney
before relying on it. The law is rapidly changing and may vary from jurisdiction
to jurisdiction.
Headlines
• Jury Awards $499,000 Against EmCare in EEOC Sexual
Harassment and Retaliation Case
• Pitre Car Dealership to Pay over $2 Million to Resolve EEOC SameSex Sexual Harassment Suit
• Huge Dr. Pepper Snapple Age Discrimination Verdict
The List
• Age
• Sex
• Race
• Religion
• National Origin
• Disability
What’s NOT on the List
Maintain positive work atmosphere by working in a cooperative
manner. Maliciously motivated criticism, bullying or harassment of
management will not be tolerated. Being insubordinate, threatening,
intimidating, and disrespectful or assaulting a manager, coworker,
customer, visitor or vendor may result in disciplinary action.
BEHAVIOR STANDARD
HR Speed Limit
HR should not be about always driving 65 on the interstate. There are over
100,000 federal employees writing rules every day.* You can be 100%
compliant and still make lousy business decisions!
*Administrative Law…Bureaucracy in a Democracy…Daniel Hall…Pearson/Prentice Hall 2009…page 131 (6.3).
Headlines
• Jury Awards $499,000 Against EmCare in EEOC Sexual
Harassment and Retaliation Case
• Pitre Car Dealership to Pay over $2 Million to Resolve EEOC SameSex Sexual Harassment Suit
• Huge Dr. Pepper Snapple Age Discrimination Verdict
Decision-Making
TED
Columbia University Professor Sheena Iyengar studies how people choose.
The average CEO handles
139 tasks per week.
50% of decisions relating to those tasks took less than 9 minutes.
Only 12% of those decisions took more than 1 hour.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/sheena_iyengar_choosing_what_to_choose.html (posted Jan. 2012)
You Be the Judge
• The Company will pay authorized overtime in accordance with State and Federal laws.
• Firing an employee for being irresistibly beautiful.
• Firing an alcoholic for drinking whiskey on the job.
Which one of the above is risky?
Ask Tougher Questions
• Do you have someone working for you that you are not proud of ?
• Would you enthusiastically re-hire all your direct reports? If not, why
not and what are you doing about it?
• What’s the ONE good reason why an “A” player should come work
for you?
Better HR Decision-Making
• Think like outsiders… “60 Minutes”… TMZ
• Count to 10 before making most decisions
• Run it by someone else
• Say it or read it out loud