Now is a great time to review your company’s employment policies and practices. The government is aggressively enforcing employment laws. This includes Federal and State agencies. No company is immune to the scrutiny. More and more employees are filing complaints about unfair pay practices, discrimination, and unfair termination. There are several critical areas.
Compensation Practices
Do a thorough review of your pay scales and common compensation practices. Identify and fix disparity in similar positions. Document the basis for starting pay levels, bonuses, increases, and any other types of both monetary and non-monetary compensation.
Leave Time
FMLA, Medical, and Military each have unique rules. Make sure your policies do not go against the laws on each of these. Regardless of how generous your leave time is, you as the employer need to be actively engaged with these employees rather than automatically terminating after a pre-determined time frame. At times a reasonable accommodation could be made to get the employee back to work.
Classification of Independent Contractors
Penalties are high for misclassification. These relationships need to be reviewed regularly to ensure proper classification. As time goes by it’s easy to slip into different classifications without meaning to. A simple restructure of how independent contractors perform their services can correct the problem. If the need is found you may also want to hire them as employees.
Background Checks
There have been several cases lately that have caused the EEOC to determine some background checks can have a negative impact on job candidates especially minority applicants. Your policy should not prohibit hiring due to a crime conviction. It is best to have a policy where the nature of the crime and relationship to the job are considered
Penalties for noncompliance of these and other issues are substantial. Allow CyQuest to help you with a policy review or help you create policies on these and other areas today!