personnel records

The contents of an employee’s personnel file should provide an accurate and complete history of their employment with your organization.  They are business records, which can be subpoenaed by lawyers for lawsuits and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaints.  With all of the potential uses and potential viewers of these records, it’s important to understand what belongs in the file, and what does not.  Employers must insure that the personnel record is an unbiased, factual documentation of an employee’s employment history.  Consequently

"You mean I can't say that?"
"She's just too sensitive!"
"That's not what I meant."

It's likely that at one time or another you, or someone you know, has heard these words from a coworker or supervisor. What you may not have realized, however, is that the speaker could be breaking the law.

The start of a new year makes many of us consider making resolutions. But it's never too early, or too late, for managers to reflect on an employee's performance over the past calendar year and to set goals for their departments and employees by looking at results from last year. When taking some time to be reflective, managers should be asking themselves the following fundamental questions as they look back on the previous year: How did I do? How did my team perform? Was my department under, over, or within its budget? What did our customers say about us in 2012?

Both state and federal laws govern an employee's ability to take time away from work. These include, but are not limited to, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), the New Hampshire Workers' Compensation Law (RSA 281-A), New Hampshire's maternity leave statute (RSA 354:7,VI(b), the New Hampshire law governing reasonable accommodations for disabled employees (RSA 354-A:7, VII), and the state Crime Victim Leave (RSA 275:62).

By Barry Cox

Whether you work for a county, municipality, school or other local governmental agency, your supervisory job likely finds you confronted with the sometimes difficult task of managing people.

Hiring, Handbooks and Handling Discipline
Hiring people is often considered one of the more pleasant tasks of a manager. But even that task can be like walking through a mine field. Consider the following questions before your next hiring process begins:

Information in police personnel or internal investigation files is sometimes disclosed for use as evidence in criminal cases. This practice raises numerous questions about the procedures for determining what information may be disclosed. Understandably, it is a sensitive issue for most municipal police officers and prosecutors. The law on this issue has been refined this year by a ruling from the New Hampshire Supreme Court that will trigger new procedures for handling such information by police departments and prosecutors.

In February, New Hampshire Attorney General Peter Heed sent a “Law Enforcement Memorandum” to all police departments and county attorneys in the state urging them to work cooperatively to adopt policies regarding retention and sharing of certain police disciplinary files when a police officer played a key role or is a witness in a case. Attorney General Heed’s memorandum proposes a model policy for handling what is known as Laurie materials.