IN THIS ISSUE:

1. Feature Story: Doing Good Can Be Good For Business

2. Cathie's Corner: Applicants With Criminal Records: Hire Them Or Pass Them Over?

3. Progressive Discipline Isn't Always Step-By-Step

Strippers looking for work in London don't need to pound the pavement. All they need to do is check with a job center. A 2003 High Court ruling requires British government-run job centers to carry ads for legal work in the "sex and personal-services industries." One such ad states the $16-an-hour position involves "explicit sexual dialogue" and "performing for clients" for 15 to 40 hours a week.

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1. FEATURE STORY:
DOING GOOD CAN BE GOOD FOR BUSINESS

Most companies would like to think of themselves as socially responsible. Would your employees agree? You'd better hope so, because research suggests employees who are satisfied with their company's commitment to social responsibility are more likely to be engaged in their work. The more engaged they are, the less likely they are to seek greener pastures elsewhere.

Sirota Survey Intelligence, attitude research specialists, surveyed 1.6 million employees from more than 70 organizations. Seventy percent of them have a positive view of their employer's social responsibility programs and practices. Of that 70%:

• 86% have high levels of engagement,

• 75% feel their employer is interested in their well-being, and

• 71% rate senior management as having high integrity.

To a large degree, the Sirota survey focused on corporate's concern for the environment. Sensitivity to the environment is just one of a number of ways in which a company can embrace the idea of social responsibility. Other ways include: encouraging employees to volunteer; paying attention to working conditions at the factories that produce the company's products, especially those overseas; making charitable donations; and becoming actively involved in local civic endeavors.

The key to reaping the in-house benefits of a socially responsible attitude is to publicize your efforts to all segments of the workforce and support those employees who personally share that commitment and want to take it to the next level. One way to do that is to implement a program that provides employees with additional paid time off to do volunteer work. After all, it's a win-win situation for everyone: employees, the community, and the company.

If you are considering granting employees paid time off to volunteer, there are questions you must answer before drafting a policy.

1. Which employees can participate? Are only full-time employees eligible or can part-timers also participate? How long must the employee have worked for the company?

2. How many paid time off hours will employees be granted per calendar year, anniversary year, month, etc.?

3. What types of activities are employees allowed to partake in and which are prohibited? While you don't want to put yourself in the position of judging an employee's volunteer activities, you can restrict paid time off from being used in political organizations; religious organizations; athletic, social, or recreational associations; and organizations that pose a conflict of interest.

Examples of eligible activities might include: tutoring; service activities, such as answering phones or serving food; cleaning up community parks; painting a recreation center.

4. How must employees request time off to volunteer? Complete a written application? Verbally ask their manager?

For an example of how to turn your answers to these questions into a policy, download a sample volunteerism policy courtesy of AHI's Complete Policy Handbook On CD.

2. CATHIE'S CORNER:
APPLICANTS WITH CRIMINAL RECORDS: HIRE THEM OR PASS THEM OVER?

A question I've been seeing come up a lot recently has to do with hiring applicants who have criminal convictions. What's interesting is that I've been seeing it from both sides of the issue; not just HR managers who are faced with that decision, but also those who have a conviction on their record and can't get a job as a result. I've been hearing from people who are saying, "I made a mistake. I've learned from it. Now, I still need to feed my family. How long must I pay for a single mistake?"

State law on this issue is all over the map. In at least one state, having a conviction puts you in a protected group — an employer cannot discriminate on that basis. Other states allow an employer to discriminate only in certain circumstances, for example, if the job in question has a direct relationship to the crime. Still others have no laws at all, allowing an employer to have a policy excluding felons from employment. Additionally, even when there may not be a state law, there can be industry-specific laws, particularly when the job relates to working with children or the elderly.

But that still leaves a lot of employers with a question to deal with. Naturally, if the conviction was for shoplifting, you don't want to hire them to work as a retail clerk. You don't want to hire an embezzler as a bank teller, or a registered sex offender as a kindergarten aide. But might you consider hiring the shoplifter as a kindergarten aide? Or the sex offender as a bank teller?

If your company policy and state law permit, you might want to take a look at the specifics. Is the applicant registered as a sex offender because he's a sexual predator, or because at the age of 18 he had consensual sex with his 17-year-old girlfriend? Does the applicant have a history of shoplifting charges covering several years, or is there a single count back when she was a senior in high school? These are some of the things to consider before you decide to include or exclude an applicant.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not recommending giving felons special treatment. And I'm certainly not advocating any violations of state law in order to hire them. But in some cases I think it can be worthwhile to take the conviction out of the picture and simply look at the qualifications. If there are other more qualified applicants, fine, eliminate them. But if they're otherwise one of the top applicants and the conviction does not relate to the job in question, you can find some good employees who have a real incentive to do well by considering them and giving them the break that no one else will.

Catherine Bannon is an HR consultant in Marshfield, MA (catherine.bannon@gmail.com). Bannon worked for 10 years in HR management before starting her consulting practice.

PROGRESSIVE DISCIPLINE ISN'T ALWAYS STEP-BY-STEP

A well-written progressive discipline policy states that the company can bypass disciplinary steps and proceed straight to termination when warranted. No matter how clearly your employer has reserved management’s right to skip steps, though, employees will wonder whether...View the full story on our website.

FREE REPORT

Check out the Free Report, "Reaping The Rewards Of Employee Mentoring," which gives you everything you need to know to establish an effective program. Learn the basics of mentoring, what to consider in deciding the program's degree of formality, the characteristics of successful participants, common obstacles and suggestions for overcoming them, how to measure success, and the legal danger in denying employees mentoring opportunities.