Devoted to Corporate Attorneys, Corporate Lawyers, and Corporate Counsel

The following is not meant to be legal advice.

On November 10, 2007, a human resource professional specializing in employee relations spoke in San Francisco about performance management.

So much of the law is interpretive.  This is why most companies have progressive counseling programs.  Some companies have dedicated teams who manage employee relations issues versus leaving the escalated issues to the human resources generalists.  These dedicated employee relations teams report to corporate instead of the business lines.  Having a dedicated team may decrease litigation costs.  The job of employee relations is to decrease risks.

Employers have a covenant with employees, meaning whatever the employer has written to manage employees and decrease legal risks, should be followed.  For instance, some companies state they will do annual reviews of employees.  To show this, they may use an online system for reviews to record whether the managers do the reviews.  The record is discoverable.  Violating the covenant or company policy presents legal risks.