Spring is finally here, along with the sunshine, flowers and bunnies. Of course that also means it’s time to throw open the windows and get your spring cleaning under way. While your house could probably use a good once over I am actually talking about your HR practices. When was the last time you gave them a good once over?
That’s what I thought.
Well, there is no time like the present, the stress and chaos of year end is over (finally) and we haven’t hit prime vacation season yet so let’s GO!
HR practices are in large part dictated by state and federal regulations, and it takes a solid understanding of these regulations to not only make sure that a business is compliant with these standards but to allow a business to go beyond compliance to foster their company culture through their HR processes.
For example did you know you are not legally allowed to run a background check on an applicant until an offer of employment has been made? Or that I-9 forms cannot be kept with employee files? What message is your handbook sending to employees, is it helping or hurting your relationship with your employees?
While all of these details can be a nuisance it is important to have them taken care of, all it takes is
one disgruntled former employee or an applicant who felt wronged during the recruiting process to make a call to the Department of Labor and you could be facing an audit. The good news is as long as your house is in order an audit is just an inconvenience, the bad news is if it’s not it can be very expensive.
The main things auditors may look at are your company handbook, your recruiting and on-boarding procedures, review and compensation practices and of course your personnel files.
When they look at your handbook they will want to make sure that you don’t have any policies that violate the law (like telling people they can’t talk about their salaries) and that it contains all of the required legal language regarding employee rights and detailing what your expectations are for employees. They will also be looking for some of the major policies like safety, sexual or unlawful harassment, reporting procedures, and drug and alcohol policies.
When it comes to recruiting and on-boarding you will want to be able to show that you have job descriptions for each position, and that your selection process focuses on the knowledge skill and abilities of the applicants. It is also important to show that you keep a record of everywhere you post your job listing and everyone who applies for it. Additionally you may be asked to show that you screening processes are not discriminatory, the best way to do this is to be consistent and be mindful that employment decisions that are not based on bona fide occupational qualifications run the risk of appearing discriminatory or illegal.
The next thing an auditor can ask for is your compensation structure, why do you pay each person the way that you do, what is the business case for that decision? If you haven’t benchmarked your salary/wage ranges this can be a hard question to answer especially if there are any discrepancies between employees in similar roles. Going hand in hand with compensation is often your performance management processes. How often do you document performance, only when there is a problem? Performance reviews are another thing that for many businesses feel too corporate for their culture. The good news is you don’t have to have a heavy annual review with grades or scores the key to any performance management process is that you are providing employees with relevant and timely feedback and they are being given the opportunity to improve.
And finally personnel files, I had to save the best for last. These can be the most tedious, there are guidelines that dictate what information can be kept where and how long it must be kept. For example the I-9 forms that I mentioned earlier, every employee must complete one when they are hired (or at least within three days) after that they must be stored separate from all of the employees other information and must be kept for one year after the employee’s date of termination or three years after the employee’s date of hire whichever is later. The hard part is there are rules like this for background check information, payroll records, applications and interview notes, credit checks, verifications of employment and just about all the other paper that accumulates when you have employees.
While this round of spring cleaning can be a bit daunting the best news yet is you don’t have to do it alone. hr-haven can help! With our HRx, we come in and identify all of the areas where a company needs to make changes and provide a detailed list of what needs to be done. Or, for those who simply don’t have the time for it, we can fix it as well – whether your current files take up several filing cabinets or is just in a box in the back corner of your office.