No matter the size of your business, if you have employees you need to understand HR compliance. While it is important to know what laws and regulations you need to comply with to avoid legal troubles, the ideal approach is to align recommended employment practices, such as pay equity, hiring, diversity, harassment prevention, and high ethical standards, with you affirmative business practices. This approach positively impacts your culture while keeping you above the bar for legal compliance.
As you think about your business operations, consider these 7 questions that can uncover potential risks for future employment claims:
Do you have a standard interview and selection process and a quantitative method to determine pay for new hires? And do you follow that same process each time?
Do you have an employee handbook that clearly outlines your expectations for professional and ethical behavior and are staff and leaders/managers trained on it?
Do you know what constitutes discrimination and harassment under federal civil rights laws and the additional protected classes identified for protection under the laws of the states where your company operates?
Do you know how to classify your employees as exempt or nonexempt under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act?
Do you have pay practices that allow you to set fair and equitable salaries for employees in the same or similar positions? Do you understand the risks of not having documented pay practices?
Do you provide training, coaching and timely feedback for employees to ensure they have the opportunity to succeed?
Do you have employee files and do you know what you should and should not keep in them?
If you answered no to even one of these questions, you could be at risk. Contact People First HR for a free audit consultation review.
Amanda Gleason is a Human Resources Compliance Consultant at People First HR, LLC. Connect with her to learn how she can help you build compliant and effective programs that support and grow your organization and its people.