Policy Review

The best use of HR policies are to aid managers in running the organization and establishing the rules, procedures and guidelines that will govern the company’s interactions with employees. Creating the policies by which the company will manage their employees demands time and effort, thorough discussions, focused attention and analytic thinking to ensure that the policies written are consistent and reflect the values of the organization. Creating policies should involve those who understand the vision, values and goals of the organization. The policies involve researching, writing and rewriting. To be effective and enforceable, the policy language must be clear, concise and understood by management and employees.

Each company has a different set of circumstances, and your set of human resource policies should reflect your needs and values. We love working with companies to identify what policies need revision and which ones need to be created and added. A review of what is needed for legal compliance is a good place to start, followed by employee concerns that have arisen that need more clarity for addressing consistently.

A good place to start is a review of the employee handbook and personnel files which summarizes company policies and holds the documents that represent agreements from employees such as job descriptions, payroll and training.

Employee Handbook

Employee Handbooks can be a valuable tool… if it is well written and reflects your organization’s needs. An Employee Handbook should be the foundational guide for the business relationship between the employee and employer. Handbooks provide a wealth of information to your new employees on what is expected especially in the areas of harassment and standards of conduct. An Employee Handbook that is not current and not fully understood by your managers, could end up being turned into evidence in court against you.

Personnel Files

Establishing clearly what belongs in your employee files and maintain the necessary documents properly will pay off in the long run. In one place, you should be able to find the important documents that support new hire documents, job descriptions, training, and performance feedback. Knowing what to keep in and what to keep out of an employee personnel file will help protect you from legal danger.

Form I-9 Records

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcement of I-9 compliance is at an all-time high with more than 3000 employers being audited. And, audits are expected to increase 40%. Will your I-9 practices stand if challenged? Do you know what fines could be assessed?

Pre-employment Screening and Recruitment

Policies pertaining to the recruitment and selection process are the foundation of building your workforce. Do you have a plan for maintaining applications, prequalifying applicants, moving candidates through the interview process and defining what pre-screening actions you want to employ? Making sure your employment procedures are well laid out and all hiring managers know the best practices is critical to avoiding discriminatory claims and more importantly to finding the best candidates for hire.