Southwest Florida Employment Law Blog : Southwest Florida Employment and Labor Lawyers & Attorneys for Discrimination Lawsuits and Civil Rights Cases in Fort Myers, Bonita Springs & Sanibel FL

By now I hope you have registered for our 19th Annual HR Law & Solutions Seminar, as we are at full capacity with a wait list!  Inevitably, though, we will have a few cancellations, so if you haven't registered yet and would like to attend please contact Gail Lamarche ASAP.  We have so many exciting things planned, and don't forget the 5.75 HRCI Strategic Credits. Check out the agenda here.

For the first time, we will have live Twitter updates throughout the seminar, provided mostly by the fabulous Lori Burke on the HR Collier feed.  We will use #swflhrlaw and #shrm as hashtags.  If you're in the audience, feel free to join in! 

Finally, I wanted to give everyone the opportunity to send in their questions for the breakout sessions in advance.  We will, of course, field live questions at the seminar, but if you want to send them in now please email them to me at suzanne.boy@henlaw.com. 

See you Tuesday!

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Today the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued its Final Rule on the Employment Eligibility Verification process.  That's the fancy name for the Form I-9, which all employers must complete for all newly hired employees.  The Final Rule becomes effective May 16, 2011. 

According to the USCIS press release, the main changes made by the interim rule include:  "prohibiting employers from accepting expired doucments; revising the list of acceptable documents by removing outdated documents and making technical amendments; and adding documentations applicable to certain citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands."

As you all know, the list of acceptable documents is divided into three sections:

• List A—documents that establish both identity and employment authorization (ex. U.S. passport, Permanent Resident Card) 
• List B—documents that establish only identity (ex. driver's license, ID card)
• List C—documents that establish only employment authorization (ex. birth certificate, social security card)

Review the list of acceptable documents and make sure you aren't accepting any of the documents that were removed from the list.   You may continue to use the current version of the Form I-9 (rev. 08/07/09) or the previous version (rev. 02/02/09).

If you have questions, check out the Handbook for Employers, Instructions for Completing the Form I-9.  I've used it in the past and found it to be very helpful.

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In reading Jon Hyman's most recent "What I Read This Week" (which, by the way, is an *awesome* resource if you haven't seen it before), I came across this article on the "Three Best Practices for Terminating Insubordinates."  In the article, Stephen Meyer offers a three-step plan for terminating insubordinates:  document; apply progressive discipline; and enforce consistently. 

This is EXACTLY what I tell my clients (in fact, I know a couple of you reading right now have heard this quite recently!).  Though it may seem pretty basic, the importance of following these steps cannot be overstated.  Document, document, document.  Many times I've seen clients terminate an employee they claim has been a problem employee for X number of days, weeks, or months, yet the employer cannot produce a single incident report, written warning, or even a note to the employee's personnel file to support this claim.  Those situations can be downright cringe-worthy for the lawyer who is faced with defending against a claim stemming from the termination.

While I certainly understand that dealing with problem employees and issuing disciplinary action is not exactly a fun part of any supervisor/HR professional's job, it really is so important to head off problems when they first begin by following these steps.  When you do this consistently, the employer will be in a much better position to terminate the insubordinate employee, and at the same time you will help minimize the employer's risk of being sued. 

Plus, you'll make your lawyer proud!

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We are less than three weeks away from the 19th Annual HR Law & Solutions Seminar, and thanks to an overwhelming (and record-setting!) response, we are only 10 spots away from being at full capacity.  If you haven't signed up and want to attend, register here, or contact Gail Lamarche at gail.lamarche@henlaw.com as soon as possible. 

As I've told mentioned before, we are featuring two fabulous guest speakers this year.  I profiled the first, Paul Macleish, in this post last month.  I want to take a minute to profile our second guest speaker, Dr. Rick Goodman:

What can an ex-team physician for the St. Louis Rams teach local business owners and HR professionals?  Dr. Rick Goodman's high-energy speeches are designed for companies of all sizes that want to maximize their potential. Dr. Rick has been working and studying with some of the most successful people and organizations in the world for over 20 years. He has developed unique and effective systems that help organizations.

In 1995, Dr. Rick became a medical staff member for two professional sports teams, the St. Louis Rams and the St. Louis Ambush. After selling his medical practice, Dr. Rick worked with two of the largest corporations in America, McDonnell Douglas and Boeing Corporation, where he implemented strategies to form and execute self-directed work teams. Throughout the project, he worked directly with leaders from all branches of the armed services to increase the productivity of all employees, maximize efficiency, and cut costs. During the first two years, Dr. Rick saved each company several million dollars and even prevented layoffs at all of their facilities.

Dr. Rick doesn't speak, teach, or train from the text book but passionately shares his life's stories and experiences with laughter and fun. Click here for a YouTube sneak peak.

We are very excited to welcome Dr. Rick to our seminar, and we think attendees are in for a real treat.  See you soon!

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