Here’s the typical dangerous scenario:

Two employees have company-issued cell phones. One employee uses the company phone to send harassing text messages to the other employee’s company-issued phone. The receiving employee files a harassment complaint.

What’s the employer’s responsibility?

The various state laws indicate that electronic messages, such as e-mail, are considered evidence in harassment cases, and must be retained by the employer — to support or refute the charge. Following that ruling, most legal observers agree the term “electronic messages” also covers text messages, meaning an employer could be responsible for storing and producing such messages when they go from company phone to company phone.

That’s another headache no employer or HR department needs, so what’s the solution? Ban texting altogether? That seems extreme and impractical, althought least one employer in Florida has done that.

But the more practical option is to develop a policy about employee-to-employee texting, especially during work hours. Employees should understand, via the policy, that such texting should be done only as a business necessity, and that employees will be held responsible for offensive or harassing text messaages.

The vast majority of HR managers say missing open enrollment has a big impact on employees’ wallets, according to a recent CareerBuilder.com survey.

How big of an impact?

• 34% of HR managers say missing open enrollment costs employees at least $500 a year in out-of-pocket expenses (for things like medical care and school tuition, which could’ve been covered by their employer)
• 20% say it costs employees more than $1,000, and
• 10% say it costs workers more than $2,500.

That’s distressing news when you consider that half of hiring managers say more than 10% of their workforce misses annual open enrollment deadlines.

In addition, 25% of workers admit they don’t pay attention to benefits changes, figuring their benefits will roll over — or because they feel the whole process is too confusing.

Employees don’t realize what they’re missing

Another big reason employees don’t participate: They don’t realize everything their employer is offering.

When asked which benefits employees aren’t taking advantage of, HR managers said:

• Wellness benefits (45%)
• Flexible healthcare spending (43%)
• Tuition Reimbursement (38)
• Banking programs (25%), and
• Discounts on personal entertainment (24%) and technology (22%).

Here are tips from the book “It’s Never Too Late to Be What You Might Have Been,” by BJ Gallagher:

Giving

• Provide examples of the problem behavior.  For instance, “You shouted at two customers yesterday.” That’s better than “You have a bad attitude with customers.”
• Solicit questions and comments.  Be wary of the employee who broods quietly. That’s often a sign of resentment, not acceptance.  Ask leading questions that draw the employee out and give you some clues to the employee’s thinking. Example: “Tell me what you disagree with and why.”
• Get a commitment to change.  And try to put that commitment in measurable terms. Example: “So, you agree that you’ll be on time every day for the next month.”
• Schedule follow-up. Make it clear that this isn’t a one-and-done deal — that you’ll be checking back to see that there’s been a change and all commitments have been met.

Receiving

• Ask for or acknowledge examples. If the boss says, “I hear you’ve missed a few deadlines lately,” either ask for specifics or acknowledge that, yes, you’re guilty as charged.
• Ask for a chance to do better. Outline what you’re going to do to improve and when you’d like the boss to revisit your performance.
• Say “thanks.” Look at it this way: Negative feedback is a sign that someone cares and is interested in your improvement. Yes, there do seem to be those times when the feedback seems pointless. Still, a thank you is in order.

According to one study cited in the Harvard Business Review, men tend to be equal opportunity bullies — targeting men and women about equally. Not so with women, who target other women in more than seven out of every 10 instances.

Some other findings:

• Instances of verbal abuse are more commonly committed by men (57%) than women (41%), but
• Women (54%) are more likely than men (41%) to engage in more subtle forms of bullying, such as sabotaging another’s work, and
• Women (50%) are more likely than men (45%) to abuse their authority over subordinates.

The study goes on to issue a warning to HR managers: Left unchecked, bullying becomes the norm as a business culture. That is, managers and subordinates begin to think of bullying as a standard way of doing business. And in such environments, productivity invariably goes down and turnover goes up.

Sometimes, it’s better to talk in person — or to just not say anything at all.

Here are 4 e-mail tips for managers:

1. Look out for jokes – It’s up to managers to be on the lookout for potential offensive jokes and forwards sent by employees. Those e-mails may seem innocent to some, but anything potentially offensive must be stopped. For example, a subsidiary of Chevron settled a case for $2.5 million, based in part on an e-mail sent by an employee titled “25 reasons beer is better than women.”
2. Don’t send secrets – There’s rarely such a thing as a secret sent over e-mail. Messages can be accidentally or intentionally forwarded to others, printed and left on the machine, etc. If something needs to stay private, say it in person.
3. Avoid suspicious language – Using phrases like “Delete this e-mail,” “I probably shouldn’t be e-mailing this,” and “Should we get a lawyer?” is the easiest way to see that a judge gets to read the message.
4. Cool down – It’s good advice in any situation, not just at the office: Never send an e-mail when you’re angry.

If you don’t know what “free cash flow” means, maybe you should –  if you want to get ahead in your organization.

What if someone told you he had a key piece of knowledge that would give you an edge on most of the other managers in your company? You’d probably jump at it, right?

Well, consider that business owners and CEOs routinely expect their managers and supervisors to have an understanding of the basics of business, especially money and finances. A survey by the Harvard Business Review shows that owners’ expectation might be too high.

Asked to take a basic financial-literacy exam, a representative sample of 300 managers — from all company sectors, including HR — scored an average of only 38%. Get this: Over half didn’t know the difference between “profit” and “cash.” Many didn’t know the difference between an income statement and a balance sheet. Nearly two-thirds thought that discounts offered by sales reps had no effect on gross margin.

Does it matter? When delivering the results of the test, Harvard presented scenarios in which that lack of knowledge could cripple a business. For instance, imagine you’re hiring an inventory manager who doesn’t understand the relationship between inventory on hand and cash flow. Worse, imagine you don’t know what the applicant doesn’t know.

Here are three sample questions from the test (answers at the bottom):

1. You should be pleased about your company’s financial results if –

a. There is a negative trend in operating margin.

b. There is an increasing trend in COGS.

c. Cash flow is coming from company investing.

d. Cash flow is coming from company operations.

2. A company has more cash today when –

a. All customers pay their bills sooner.

b. Accounts receivable increases.

c. Profit increases.

d. Retained earnings increases.

3. To investors and analysts, free cash flow is a key number because –

a. It reflects the cash that is “free” — that is, your company doesn’t have to pay interest on it.

b. It is the cash that can be used to pay shareholders their dividends.

c. It reflects the operating cash that has flowed into the business that year.

d. It is the cash that investors put into the business.

Answers:

1. d.

2. a.

3. b.

It’s the later, says attorney Michael Schmidt in the National Law Journal.

A few reasons he and other lawyers recommend against it:

1. Many employees think its creepy — in a recent survey by Office Team, 47% of employees said they don’t like seeing a friend request from their boss. Sure, that’s less than half, but it’s probably not worth the risk of really bothering a good performer.
2. It smacks of favoritism — If anyone doesn’t get a friend request from the boss, that’s not going to look good.
3. Managers could learn too much about their employees — which could come back to haunt the company.

Say an employee lists membership in a religious organization on her Facebook page and is friended by her boss. Later, she’s fired for poor performance. Now, she could have a chance to argue her boss fired her because he learned about her religious affiliation.

Other kinds of info managers could find out: sexual orientation, medical problems and political affiliation, all of which could theoretically form the basis for a lawsuit.

According to the Office Team survey, 48% of managers are uncomfortable being online friends with subordinates. Just as well, many lawyers say — they’re better off not doing it, anyway.

Your company policies directly impact employees’ risk of heart disease, how much they sleep and their families’ well-being, eight separate studies have found.

Implementing flexible policies can add years to your employees’ lives, according to a three-year nationwide study released by the Work, Family and Health Network.

The following findings for the study were compiled by eight federally-funded research teams:

• Workers are twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease if there is little willingness in the workplace to accommodate employees’ family needs — like caring for a sick child or attending one of their kids’ sporting events.
• People who work for companies that are flexible about where and when work is done get an average of 30 minutes more sleep per night.
• Employees who experienced tension in the office say they feel out of touch with their child’s activities.

Communicate flexibility

While many companies have added flex-time or telecommuting policies, close to 40% of employees believe they’d be less likely to advance at their company if they asked for flex schedules, found the study.

That means companies that want their employees to take advantage of flex policies need to assure workers these activities won’t put their job security or career goals at risk.

It pays to communicate that message, according to the study. Companies with a more flexible culture benefited from:

• less unnecessary work being done
• increased employee support for the organization, and
• a 45% reduction in employee turnover.

Shine the spotlight on them

In general, the more frequently employers reward workers, the more those workers will aim to please.

The key is making sure rewards fit the size of employees’ accomplishments — and that the rewards vary.

Example: Don’t always give away the same $10 gift cards. Instead, hold a public recognition ceremony or send out a company-wide e-mail praising the employee. Be sure to focus on what the employee did that saved others time, boosted profits or otherwise helped the company.

Offer decision-making power

Another good way to show employees they’re appreciated and make them feel valuable: Encourage supervisors to allow employees to make small financial decisions.

Example: Let employees choose which new desk chairs everyone will get or which prizes will be given away at the next employee appreciation meeting.

Solicit employee ideas

Welcoming ideas from employees about new benefits is a great way to get them plugged into your programs.

Sure, a few suggestions are bound to leave you scratching your head. But if you can use just one, it’s worthwhile.

According to a recent study a crash is 23 times more likely to happen when drivers are texting than when they aren’t.

Despite that fact, a lot of people do it anyway — including employees with work issued cell phones, which could put employers in the hot seat in the event of a crash.

These three apps can be installed onto company phones to help stop unsafe driving:

1. Textecution

Works on: Android (apps for other phones are being developed).

Price: $1.99

Using the phone’s GPS, the program disables texting if the phone is moving faster than 10 m.p.h. One problem: What happens when the employee is on a train?

2. Drive Safe.ly

Works on: Android and BlackBerry. Apps for iPhone and Windows Mobile being developed.

Price: Free for “Basic,” $13.99 for “Pro”

This program reads text messages out loud while the user is driving. They can also set the phone to send an automatic reply when they’re in the car.

3. TXTBlocker

Works on: BlackBerry

Price: $24.99 initially, then $9.99 a month

This app also detects how fast the phone is moving, and will disable texting accordingly. It can also be set to block texting at certain times, but that’s more for parents who know when their kids will be in the car.