You are browsing: HR and Employment Issues
Six Ways to Know If It’s Time to Leave
Are you tired, a bit listless? Maybe the demands of the job seem ever more burdensome, or the board seems increasingly dissatisfied, or your retirement clock is ticking. Do you need more than a megavitamin? Even better is this advice from Tim Wolfred, …
Criminal Records Checks for Prospective Staff and Volunteers
Dear Ask Rita: I keep being told we should do criminal record checks on prospective employees and even volunteers and board members. But how? Is there a simple and cheap way to do this? And do we need their permission to do it? — Reluctant to get into …
Model Dress Code for Nonprofits
Following is sample language to use in your organization’s dress code: While work attire is casual at our organization, all employees should maintain appropriate standards of neat and professional dress and grooming. The key point in determining …
Tattoos and Piercings . . . and a Model Dress Code
Dear Rita: Our younger employees are increasingly decorated with ink and metal. Most of them conceal their “body art” while at work but in summer it’s become more visible. We don’t care about tattoos and piercing but we don’t want to look at them …
A 7-Point Checklist for Responding to a Request for Family or Medical Leave
Here are the basics for how a nonprofit should handle an employee’s request to take Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave. For more, be sure to see Wading through New Family and Medical Leave Act Regulations.The employer must send the employee an e …
Wading through the New Family and Medical Leave Act Regulations
New year, new forms to fill out! Though we love that employees can have some flexibility when serious medical and family issues arise, administering the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) can be challenging. Mercifully, Ask Rita offers some guidance o …
Downsizing from Employees to Independent Contractors?
Q: Our nonprofit group home has to downsize and as part of our reorganization we are considering changing some of our employees into independent contractors as a cost-saving measure. If we did that, we wouldn’t have to pay for benefits and …
Nonprofit Layoffs and Furloughs: Do Them Right
Dear Rita: It looks like we're going to have to lay some people off in the next couple of months. But the management team is also considering furloughs, a week's shutdown, and other choices. The decision about what to do won't be made by us …
Laid Off From a Nonprofit: Me!
A First Person Nonprofit story:Nearly two months ago, I joined the ranks of laid-off Americans. It almost makes me feel Patriotic, somehow Special, to be counted among the group considered most newsworthy, 24/7. The news is filled with stories about us …
The Nonprofit Board’s Role in HR
I once served on the board of a group whose executive director adamantly insisted that managing staff was her responsibility, not the board's. We stayed hands off until we started to hear rumors of favoritism. After we prevailed in a battle with he …
