Our team of experts fields real-life everyday questions from HR managers and gives practical answers that can be applied by any HR pro in the same situation. Today’s question: We got a report about an employee’s drug-related arrest. What action should we take?

Question:
We learned through a local newspaper that one of our employees was arrested recently for DUI and drug possession. We’re concerned about workplace safety and other issues — his manager said there were suspicions that the employee had used drugs on the job.

What do we do now?

Answer:
Conduct an independent investigation, recommends employment-law attorney Roy Ginsburg.

First, talk to the employee about what happened. If you want to verify his version of the events, you could also get a copy of the police report.

Once you have the facts straight, speak with the employee and let him know you think he has a problem and that you want to help.

If he’s defensive, noncommittal or defiant, those are red flags. You might want to go to the next step, such as requiring that he take a drug test.

Often, when an employer gets sued, the first thing a company’s lawyer says is, “Let’s see your employee handbook.” If it’s old and unrevised, the next thing the lawyer often says is, “We have a problem.”

Outdated policies or the failure to properly inform employees about new policies can be a big black mark against employers defending themselves against a bias charge. So there’s no better way to kick off the New Year — in a business sense — than by making sure your handbook is up to date. The top-priority items to check:

• New FMLA regulations. The U.S.  Department of Labor has revised the Family and Medical Leave Act regulations a couple of times in the last year. Further, the DOL requires employers provide each employee a notice of their updated FMLA rights in a handbook or a handout at the time of hire. Failure to do so will be the first area attacked in a lawsuit over FMLA leave.
• Genetic Discrimination. The recently passed Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of an employee’s genetic information. What follows is that your employee handbook should include genetic information among the “protected” traits that have EEO status.
• Privacy and electronic devices. Employees may have privacy expectations in their use of company computers and other devices, such as PDAs. Still, courts have ruled generally that employers can monitor and limit computer and electronic-device usage for improper activities such as accessing “adult” materials, inappropriate e-mails, or outside business use, as well as strains on bandwidth. The handbook is one effective way to serve notice about company  monitoring policies and employee restrictions on use.
• Social Networking. Facebook, Twitter and similar sites have become part of our culture — and our workplaces. More and more companies are instituting policies regarding limits to access of such sites during work time and what employees may disclose about their workplace. Such policies should be part of your handbook.

We asked 346 HR managers whether their companies had increased employees’ contributions to healthcare insurance in 2009. Here what they said.

The question was: “Have you increased employees’ health-cost contribution rates in 2009?”

The answers:

• Yes: 61%
• No: 26%
• No, but we’ve reduced benefits: 13%

A benefits study in 2009 found that the workers’ share for healthcare premiums went up by an average of 14.7%. And of course part of the debate about healthcare reform revolves around whether reform will increase or lower the costs for employees and their employers.

Congress and President Obama have floated several ideas for creating jobs. Some of the ideas that probably will be funded are aimed at specific industries.

What’s not on Congress’ agenda yet: The president’s proposal to give tax credits to small businesses that hire new employees. None of the current proposals on Capitol Hill have that component. House Democratic leaders did pass a $100 billion job-creation bill, but the tax credit for hiring wasn’t in there.

What is in the bill and coming from the White House:

• The president will announce plans to provide $5 billion more in tax credits for makers of wind, solar, electric-vehicle and other renewable-energy products. The president’s plan is to get the ball rolling for “green” industries and then attract $15 billion in private investment — and create jobs in the industry.
• The U.S. House’s bill contains money for infrastructure projects, water projects, affordable-housing construction and renovation, and school construction and renovation.

In any case, the Senate won’t consider or vote on the House bill — or a bill to give tax credits for hiring — until some time after the first of the year.

When HR manager Theresa Lane wanted to find out what employees liked and didn’t like about HR’s policies, she decided to do a survey. Problem: People weren’t responding — until she figured out an irresistible, and inexpensive, hook.

Her story:

Whenever we made changes in benefits and HR policies, we liked to get employee feedback to ensure everyone was on board with our ideas.

The typical way of doing that was to send out an employee survey and then tally and analyze the responses.

Problem: Before you can tally and analyze the responses, you have to have some responses. People either just weren’t filling out the surveys or were taking forever to get them back to us.

It was frustrating, but we understood that employees were busy and kept putting the surveys on the back burner. We had to give them a good reason to respond.

Let’s do a good deed
We got an idea when one of our employees talked about taking up a workplace collection for a local charity.

Our suggestion: The company will make a small donation to the charity for every completed employee survey.

That gave us a champion for the cause – the person who was collecting for the charity and would “talk up” taking part in the surveys – and gave employees another reason to complete and return their surveys to us.

And it worked. We got back more surveys than we’d ever gotten before, giving us valuable info on which to base decisions. Plus, we did a good deed by donating to the charity.

(Theresa Lane, HR manager, Cutler, ME)

Legal experts recommend that every every employer start the year with an six-part legal check up to ensure compliance with current employment laws.

Here’s the list from the law firm of Moore & Van Allen:

1. Do a quick review of your company’s written vacation policy. Take a look  to ensure that the policy provides proper notice of forfeiture, carryover, and accrual of vacation. Do a check-up to see that you’re in compliance with state laws.  For instance, some special rules apply in states like California regarding forfeiture of accrued vacation.
2. Update your company confidentiality agreement. First, make sure your agreement is tight and covers appropriate employees. A lot of law firms report that laid-off employees are taking revenge — or looking for an edge in finding a new job — by handing out confidential info from former employers. If you don’t have an up-to-date agreement, you leave your company open to such attacks. Second, review your agreements and policies to ensure they don’t prohibit employees from discussing their wages or terms and conditions of employment with their fellow employees. The  National Labor Relations Board views such prohibitions as illegal interference with concerted activity, even if your company is not unionized.
3. Get FMLA compliant. If your company has 50 or more employees, make sure that you post the FMLA poster that the US Department of Labor issued in 2009. Update your FMLA forms and policies, if you have not done so already. (To see if you’re in  compliance with FMLA and other federal posting requirements, use the DOL compliance advisor.
4. Get your managers up to speed on harassment policies. Review the policies with the bosses, and get them to schedule beginning-of-the-year meeting with their departments to review the policies.
5. Get FLSA compliant.  Review the company’s classification of employees as exempt from overtime under federal and state wage and hour laws. Lawsuits and investigations based on improper classifications of employees continue to be a hot area of the law and can result in significant awards against employers.
6. Conduct an internal I-9 audit. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement  announced new I-9 audits for employers. Make sure your bases are covered.

A recent court case illustrates one more quirk to be aware of when classifying employees as exempt or nonexempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

A loan underwriter for a New York bank sued under the FLSA, saying he should be paid for the overtime he regularly worked.

His employer argued that he qualified as exempt, since he was an “administrative” employee.

Under the FLSA, an employee qualifies for the administrative exemption if he or she does work that’s “directly related to management policies or general business operations” and “regularly exercises discretion and independent judgment.”

No discretion involved
The man claimed he reviewed loan applications using the bank’s Credit Guide – a detailed document setting strict parameters for lending. He simply followed procedures to come up with a yes-or-no decision. No discretion was exercised.

The judge sided with the employee. The man was engaged in the “production” of loans – the fundamental product offered by the bank. Thus, he wasn’t an exempt employee.

Cite: Davis v. J.P. Morgan Chase

Worrying about competition for talent probably isn’t your biggest concern right now. But it’s coming, especially in some industries and for some job titles.

The U.S. Labor Department released its report on 10-year projections for job and industry growth. Here’s what’s in the report.

First, as just about everyone knows, the manufacturing sector will continue to drop, even after a loss of about two million jobs in the sector over the last year, and they are unlikely to return.

Total employment is expected to rise in the next 10 years by 15.3 million, or 10.1%. That’s better than the 7.4% increase in the most recent 10-year period, but the numbers can be deceiving, since the recession dragged down the numbers so badly in the most recent 10-year period. Plus, we’re starting a low point in employment, so there’s a lot of room for growth.

Construction. The number of jobs will rise by 1.3 million, but even with the increase, there will be a percentage decrease when compared with the job market as a whole.

The service sector. Expect 96% of job growth to come out of this sector in the next 10 years — in particular in professional and business services, and health care and social assistance. Jobs in health care, which grew even during the recession, will skyrocket.

Which positions will see the most growth? The Labor Department projects increases of:

• 72% for biomedical engineers
• 53% for systems and data analysts
• 50% for home health aides
• 41% for financial examiners

You know the saying about looking a gift horse in the mouth. Just be careful you don’t end up looking like the other end of the horse.

This comes from the folks at the Emily Post Institute. As you might imagine, they specialize in, among other things, the etiquette of gift-giving at work — what’s appropriate, inappropriate and disastrous. So, here’s a test to see if you’re up on the latest from the Institute (answers at the bottom):

1. Which of the following is considered an inappropriate gift to someone at work?

a. Perfume

b. Jewelry.

c. Lingerie

d. Alcohol

e. All of the above

2. You’re invited to an after-work holiday party at your boss’ home. An inappropriate gift to bring would be –

a. Chocolates

b. Wine

c. A poinsettia plant

d. All of the above are appropriate.

3. True or false: Giving your boss a gift in the workplace is appropriate.

4. You’re a man in a workplace in which everyone exchanges gifts. It’s OK to give a woman a gift certificate to Victoria’s Secret. True or false.

5. In a workplace in which everyone exchanges gifts, it’s inappropriate to give a dictionary to a new employee whose first language is not English. True or false.

Answers

1. e. Just about any gift of that type is considered too personal for someone who’s a work colleague.

2. b. Generally, alcohol is considered an inappropriate gift, especially for the boss.

3. False. Workplace gifts for the boss, given individually, are considered inappropriate, since such gift-giving can appear to be an attempt to curry favoritism. However, it’s OK for a group to chip in for a gift for the boss.

4. False. Again, gifts that are of a personal nature generally are out of bounds. Plus, they might send the wrong message.

5. True. Any gift that potentially serves to underscore a worker’s fault or shortcoming is inappropriate — even if given in the spirit of trying to help.

The holiday shopping season figured to be flat for one group of retailers until they got an unexpected boon: a major work stoppage. Somehow it all makes sense.

Stores in Northern Ireland that border the Republic of Ireland were almost caught unprepared for the sudden rush of weekday shoppers gobbling up Christmas gifts. Turns out, a major strike in the Republic of Ireland gave workers there plenty of time off to hustle over to their neighbor country to take advantage of lower prices and holiday specials.

More than 250,000 teachers, nurses and other public sector workers were taking part in the strike against plans to cut their pay. And when 250,000 people in Ireland have no place to go, apparently they go shopping. Things got so busy at one point that the border town of Newry had a five-mile traffic backup into some of its shopping centers.

Managers of the shopping centers said business was similar to what it is just before Christmas. Besides the strike, shoppers are motivated by the lower prices on the UK side of the border, which are the result of the weakness of sterling against the euro and a lower UK value-added-tax.

More good news for Northern Ireland retailers: Labor leaders in Ireland are talking about staging another strike.