HR Hero Guidebook Series

Each title in the series (available together or separately) tackles a single key HR issue in depth and detail, empowering you to confidently craft policies and drive successful leveraging of your company's human assets.

Guidebooks include a CD-ROM with additional tools, including forms, policies, procedures, and even correspondence templates.

HR Hero's Guide to Hiring

HR Hero's Guide to Hiring explains how to carefully screen and interview candidates, find the cream of the crop, and bring them on board. You'll also get a FREE bonus CD with forms, policies, procedures, and more to help you implement what you've learned in the Hiring guidebook.

HR Hero's Guide to Termination

After making the difficult decision to fire an employee, you're faced with some tough questions. When should you do it? And where? Who should do it? What should you say? What topics need to be covered? What laws come into play? You get answers to these and many more questions in HR Hero's Guide to Termination. FREE with your guidebook: Bonus CD with sample forms and checklists.

HR Hero's Guide to Diversity

In HR Hero's Guide to Diversity, you'll learn how to help create an organization that values diversity in its workforce and uses it to achieve dollars-and-cents goals. Best of all, the Guide shows you how and why diversity is good for the bottom line, so you can sell your diversity policy up and down the chain of command. A FREE bonus CD also gives you the policies, letters, and forms you need to take your diversity plan past the talking and planning stage, right to execution and monitoring.

HR Hero's Guide to Performance Evaluations

HR Hero's Guide to Performance Evaluations helps take the worry out of review time by showing you different ways to approach reviews, from frequency to what should (and absolutely shouldn't) be included. It helps you set goals, make informed decisions, and execute evaluations like those done at the most successful companies. A Free bonus CD of customizable documents gives you a head-start on designing, reviewing, or implementing a performance review system at your company.

HR Hero's Guide to Documentation

What gets documented and just how do you do it? How do you drive home the point to those who need to be doing much of the documentation — supervisors and managers? And when can flawed documentation be worse than none at all? HR Hero's Guide to Documentation shows you how. You'll also get a FREE bonus CD-ROM loaded with pre-made policies, in-house communications, checklists, and procedures so you can spend more time on actual documentation.

HR Hero's Guide to Attendance

HR Hero's Guide to Attendance helps you develop both discipline and positive reinforcement policies that encourage good attendance practices. Learn to focus on the root causes of absenteeism, from addressing a lack of employee motivation to fostering a sense that work is meaningful. With the FREE bonus CD included, you won't be creating a slew of new paperwork and policy guidelines – just use the customizable samples.

HR Hero's Guide to Discipline

HR Hero's Guide to Discipline focuses on the positive side of disciplining, when HR Heroes take corrective action to coach employees toward better job performance and greater job satisfaction. Learn how to master the bigger-picture issue: cutting down on the need to discipline. A FREE bonus CD includes a complete library of policies, procedural steps, and guidelines for maintaining control of your workforce, so you can focus on the big-picture issues.

 HR Hero Guidebook Series

HR Hero's Guide to Hiring

The costs of recruiting and filling vacancies, training new employees, lost productivity from vacant jobs all cut into profits. In fact, it's estimated that employers pay about 25% of an employee's annual compensation to replace that employee. A productive and profitable employment relationship all starts with whom you hire, so invest the time and effort to do it right.

HR Hero's Guide to Hiring explains how to carefully screen and interview candidates, find the cream of the crop, and bring them on board. You'll learn to:

• Define your hiring process
• Write a great job description
• Find the right person for the job
• Create an effective job application
• Evaluate resumes and screen applicants
• Conduct an informative interview
• Compare and judge job candidates
• Check an applicant's background
• Obtain an informative reference
• Negotiate a fair compensation package
• Test applicants
• Conquer immigration woes
• Handle contractual matters

Armed with the Hiring Guidebook, you'll become adept at recruiting and hiring employees for your organization.

HR Hero's Guide to Termination

 No matter how bad an employee's performance may be, that employee takes some degree of pride in his work, and so terminations come loaded with danger. The way you handle it can have far-reaching implications. A well-thought-out and executed termination makes barely a ripple. An off-the-cuff termination can cause a tsunami of litigation and low company morale – tying up your time, energy, and money.

After making the difficult decision to fire an employee, you're faced with some tough questions. When should you do it? And where? Who should do it? What should you say? What topics need to be covered? What laws come into play? You get answers to these and many more questions in HR Hero's Guide to Termination. This book covers:

• Preparing for the termination meeting
• Safely terminating protected-class employees
• Avoiding discrimination claims based on issues of obesity, sexual orientation, marital status, and off-duty conduct
• Whistleblowers
• Protection of the National Labor Relations Act
• Dealing with potentially violent employees
• Conduct during the termination meeting
• Reductions in force
• Avoiding age discrimination claims
• Resignations and severance pay
• Exit interviews
• Final paychecks
• Unemployment claims
• COBRA compliance
• Record keeping

Learn how to steer clear of danger with HR Hero's Guide to Termination.

HR Hero's Guide to Diversity

Companies that commit to building a diverse workforce create a workplace in which all employees — regardless of race, age, sex, socioeconomic background, physical challenges, or any other factor — can contribute their best efforts to the organization.

HR Hero's Guide to Diversity will teach you how to help create an organization that values diversity in its workforce and translate it to dollars-and-cents goals.

You'll learn how to:

• Set the stage for a diversity plan
• Build a culture that respects individual differences
• Develop a diversity plan that meets the needs of your organization
• Implement the plan and keep the diversity ball rolling
• Recruit great employees from all backgrounds
• Understand the difference between diversity and affirmative action
• Measure the progress of your diversity plan
• Train employees on diversity issues
• Thrive in a multilingual workplace
• Deter discrimination
• Respect and accommodate employees' religious practices
• Curb bias due to sexual orientation
• Help employees navigate generation gaps
• Ensure full participation in work by employees with disabilities

Best of all, the Guide shows you how and why diversity is good for the bottom line, so you can sell your diversity policy up and down the chain of command. It's clear and rational guidance for involving all kinds of people in achieving your company's goals!

HR Hero's Guide to Performance Evaluations

Ever get push-back when you approach managers and supervisors about evaluating their employees? Do you hear employees complain that their evaluations are unfair — or even meaningless?

Employee performance evaluations can be a great tool for communicating expectations and tracking results, but they also put egos, promotions, and relationships at stake. Handling them right, and helping supervisors do the same, takes an HR Hero.

Even in the best of circumstances performance evaluations can be stressful for all concerned. But they don't have to be.

HR Hero's Guide to Performance Evaluations helps take the worry out of review time by showing you different ways to approach them, from frequency to what should (and absolutely shouldn't) be included. It helps you set goals, make informed decisions, and execute evaluations like those done at the most successful companies. All in a way that treats both your employees and your company fairly.

You'll learn:

• How evaluations can aid in employee development
• Why more and more companies are using them as a strategic planning tool
• How to plan an ongoing system of employee assessment
• Techniques for crafting useful forms
• How to train managers on their responsibilities
• How to conduct effective evaluation meetings
• Legal issues to consider
• The role of new technology in evaluation systems
• How to ensure that your system keeps pace with change in your organization

Make HR Hero's Guide to Performance Evaluations your turn-to resource for improving your company's review procedure.

HR Hero's Guide to Documentation

The three most important words in HR? Documentation, documentation, and documentation!

You've heard the refrain from attorneys, you've seen the importance of good documentation firsthand, and you've probably preached the documentation sermon yourself. And yet, if you're like most HR Heroes, there are still questions you need answered:

What gets documented and just how do you do it? How do you drive home the point to those who need to be doing much of the documentation — supervisors and managers? And when can flawed documentation be worse than none at all? Since documentation is often the key to an employment lawsuit outcome, how can you use your documentation skills to gain the winning edge?

HR Hero's Guide to Documentation shows you how. In the end, it all boils down to common sense and fairness in the way you use documentation to ensure a smooth operation, and in the way you note achievements and problems, administer discipline, and evaluate employees.

In HR Hero's Guide to Documentation, you'll learn about:

• Building a file that gives a comprehensive look at an employee.
• Using documentation in your disciplinary process.
• Meshing employee documentation with your handbook and other policies.
• Maintaining job descriptions, search, and interview documentation.
• Making performance evaluations help employees grow and develop.
• Maintaining personnel files that meet your needs and your employees' privacy rights.
• Stopping, through documentation vigilance, identity theft at your workplace.

Make sure to master this critical HR function. Make HR Hero's Guide to Documentation a part of your reference library.

HR Hero's Guide to Attendance

In one sense, it's an unavoidable fact of life. Employees get sick, get injured, go on vacation or other types of legitimate leave, and come in late and leave early.

But no matter what the reason is, absenteeism hurts the bottom line. Everyone you employ has entered into a contract to show up for work regularly to earn the wages or salary the employee accepted.

How do you, the HR Hero, hold employees to that obligation?HR Hero's Guide to Attendance gives you everything you need to attack attendance problems head-on.

It helps you develop both discipline and positive reinforcement policies that encourage good attendance practices. It helps you focus on the root causes of absenteeism, from addressing a lack of employee motivation to fostering a sense that work is meaningful. The Guide also helps you adjust to those special absenteeism circumstances protected by federal law.

You'll learn:

• How your business is affected by absenteeism
• Who is absent, and why
• What causes sick leave other than illness
• Possible cures for excessive sick leave
• The effectiveness of discipline versus incentives
• Whether your policy is too strict or too lax
• How to manage legally protected absences

Sprinkled throughout HR Hero's Guide to Attendance are the top responses to the Best Absence Excuse survey conducted by HRhero.com of HR professionals nationwide. The excuses are creative, astounding, and certainly eye-opening if you've ever thought, “Now I've heard everything!”

HR Hero's Guide to Discipline

The word "discipline" conjures up pictures of kids in time out, drill sergeants, and worse. Yet timely, well-considered discipline can be a win-win situation for both manager and employee. Knowing that you helped someone rebuild her career is a rewarding part of being an HR professional.

HR Hero’s Guide to Discipline focuses on this positive side — when HR Heroes take corrective action to coach employees toward better job performance and greater job satisfaction.

Learn to confidently correct your own team members and better coach your company’s managers in effective discipline, all in a way that won’t make you exhibit A in some expensive courtroom drama!

HR Hero’s Guide to Discipline shows you how to correct employee behavior related to:

• Punctuality and attendance
• Substance abuse
• Misuse of company property, especially technology
• Dress, grooming, and hygiene
• Tobacco use
• Workplace solicitation
• Distribution of literature
• Fraternization
• Confidentiality issues
• Ethical standards
• And much more

Plus, you'll learn how to master bigger-picture issues, like cutting down on the need to discipline through team motivation tips, double-checking key discipline portions of your employee handbooks, and setting up and sticking to a progressive discipline program.