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Updating Your Employee Policies: The 2017 Resolution You Can’t Afford to Break
Welcome to the new year, a time when the gyms fill up and the junk food gets thrown in the trash. It’s also the time when we always notice HR and legal experts across the Internet advising you to pull out that dusty handbook and update it properly.
Here are just a few examples around of articles prompting employers and managers to make those updates part of our New Year’s resolutions:
Beth P. Zoller of XpertHR warns that, “A number of significant legal changes on the federal, state and local level have or will have a substantial impact on workplace policies and employee handbooks. Thus, it is essential for an employer to review, amend and properly update its handbook for 2017 so that it reflects the latest legal requirements and is compliant.”
Terri Sanchez of Insperity.com says, “Just having a handbook won’t cover you completely. You must make sure your employees are aware of your policies and that you review your policies every year.”
Similarly, Jay Starkman of Bizjournals writes that, “Company handbooks should be considered living documents that change as new laws come on the books and as a business and its workflow evolves.”
The message is clear. There’s no better time to pull out that handbook and see what kind of scary, outdated policy relics might be lurking in there, waiting to rear their non-HR-compliant heads when you and the practice owner are least expecting it.
A Flurry of Changes in 2016
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I emphatically agree that the new year provides an ideal time to perform your yearly handbook checkup. After all, a lot happens in a year; especially such an interesting one as 2016. And even one outdated policy can do more than make you look unprofessional to a new employee. It can put you at serious legal risk.
For example, here are just a few areas in which employment laws rapidly changed during 2016:
1. Paid sick leave laws. These continue to sweep the nation, with many states and even cities planning for or enacting new requirements. Depending on what’s required in your specific location and situation, a handbook update may be required.
2. Expanded EEOC protections. In 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced a series of changes, and extended protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity under sex discrimination. In some cases, employee handbooks may need to be adjusted to reflect increased protections.
3. Increased penalties for FLSA and OSHA violations (among others). Penalties for “willful” minimum wage and overtime violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act shot up 72% during 2016 (and, by the way, violating overtime requirements is easier than you might think). And as part of a catch-up law updating how OSHA calculates penalties, that organization can now raise fines by nearly 80%. No one ever intends to violate OSHA rules, but mistakes happen—and to make them less likely, it’s essential to have clear and compliant policies.
4. Social media. With social media an inextricable part of our lives, a policy is a necessity! Yet many workplaces try to write their own, borrow one, or don’t update it—and that nearly always creates more problems than it solves. During 2016, Chipotle found themselves in hot water over their outdated policy. In cases like these, the devil is in the details. And social media is only one area in which many employers are accidentally out of compliance with the legal requirements of the NLRA.
5. Medical marijuana laws. As of January 1st, 28 states and the District of Columbia allow medical marijuana, while 9 states have legalized the substance altogether. Most employee handbooks contain boilerplate drug and alcohol policies, which may need to be changed to accommodate state laws while protecting the workplace.
What Lies Ahead in 2017
The above list is just a small sample of major issues that popped up in 2016. And we didn’t even get into other changes, such as updated I-9 forms, new rules involving independent contractors, and enough other state and local laws to make your head spin. So, what kind of legal whirlwind will 2017 bring?
Along with minimum wage increases in more than 20 states, just a few laws slated for consideration include:
• The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), which would make it unlawful to fail to provide reasonable accommodations to known limitations related to pregnancy or childbirth
• Restroom accommodations for trans and gender-fluid individuals
• Potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act
Rather than let new laws pile on top of new laws, seize the moment to review, clean up, and strengthen your employee handbook.
How Will I Keep Up?
Employment law trends tend to shift like the wind, sometimes with little to no warning. You need a trustworthy partner to help you stay up to date on any law changes as they happen, so you can prepare for them. We recommend working with a professional HR management company or an attorney who specializes in this area. While it’s tempting to try and do it on your own, keeping up with employment law changes and trends is a full-time job. Let someone else take that burden off your shoulders, so you can concentrate on helping your doctor and ensuring your practice thrives.
It looks as though it’ll be another busy year for employment law, which means a busy year for workplace discrimination, wage and hour, NLRA, and similar lawsuits. Make sure updating your handbook is the first resolution you keep in 2017, so you can start your new year with your practice healthy and better protected.
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