Category: Human Resources Best Practices

Employee Handbook Checklist

Published by Brett Holubeck on April 14, 2021

There is no company too small to have an employee handbook. It provides the rules at any place of business, the expectations for various employees, and the rights that employees have at the company (like how much vacation employees get). A handbook eliminates the issue of employees being given different benefits and having to follow different rules (often based on what their manager makes up when a situation arises), which can lead to lawsuits for disparate treatment.

When drafting a handbook it is especially important to carefully consider what policies the business must have. Some policies apply to everyone and others only apply to certain employees. Certain policies may be needed at some businesses but not at others. Handbooks should generally contain policies that are applicable to all employees.

Below are the policies that every company should consider putting in their handbook:

1. Anti-Discrimination Policy/ Equal Employment Opportunity Policy

This policy is needed for obvious reasons. All companies need to let employees know that they will not permit discrimination based on any protected characteristic (race, color, national origin, religion, gender (including pregnancy), gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age (if the employee 40 years or older), and citizenship status).

2. Absence/Attendance Policy

All handbooks must address attendance. Many companies use a “point” system for each absence and tardy; they discipline employees based on the number of points the employee has accumulated. You need a consistent policy to ensure that employees are treated the same.

3. Background Checks

Companies should address whether they will run background checks on employees; it is best to include this information in any offer letter, as well.

4. COBRA

There should be a policy addressing giving initial COBRA notice to employees and ensuring that employees will be given notice at the end of their employment. You can read more about COBRA here.

5. Confidentiality Policy

Companies should tell employees that they are expected to keep confidential information secret and define the items that are confidential. You may also lay out the procedures that employees must follow to keep the information confidential and how to share confidential information with individuals that have a need to know it.

6. Discipline

Companies should have a policy that discusses discipline. Many companies have a list of various offenses and explain their progressive discipline policy.

7. Disability

The process for requesting disability accommodations should be outlined in this policy.

8. Drug Testing

What kinds of drug testing will the company do? Will it include random drug testing, pre-employment, post-accident, or reasonable suspicion?

9. Employee Assistance Programs

An employee assistance program is a program that offers services and counseling for employees with employment (typically performance) or personal problems (often alcohol related problems). These programs are often included with the company’s group health insurance plan.

10. Expense Reimbursement

What will the process be to obtain reimbursements from the company, particularly for salesmen and others that travel? How will expenses need to be documented?

11. Employment At-Will

All companies need a policy addressing whether employees will be employed at-will. This policy means that employees can be fired at any time for any reason. The vast majority of employment relationships are employment at-will.

11. Family and Medical Leave Act

If your company meets the covered employer requirements of the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), then you need a policy on how employees will request FMLA leave.

The Department of Labor explains what an employee must do to be eligible for FMLA Leave:

● Be employed by a covered employer and work at a worksite within 75 miles of which that employer employs at least 50 people;
● Have worked at least 12 months (which do not have to be consecutive) for the employer; and
● Have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months immediately before the date FMLA leave is to begin.

12. Fitness for Duty

This policy is useful if there are physical or other requirements that must be met for an employee to perform their job duties in a safe manner.

13. Firearm Policy (for Texas and other states)

In Texas, most individuals can leave their firearms in a company parking lot if certain conditions are met. You can read more about this on the TWC website.

14. Garnishment

You may need or want a policy letting employees know about when their wages will be garnished and how garnishments are handled.

15. Grooming/Uniform Policy/Dress Policy

What is the required dress code for employees? Is there any uniform or equipment that they need to do their jobs? Will you reimburse for these expenses?

16. Harassment

You want a policy stating that the company will not tolerate harassment in the workplace. Companies may also want that policy to explain what employees can do to address harassment.

17. Holidays

What holidays will the company offer to employees? Will they be paid or unpaid?

18. Hours of Work

What are the typical hours of work for employees? If there are shifts, what hours do they work? What about for remote employees? You may wish to set hours for remote workers as I discussed here.

19. Inclement Weather/Bad Weather Policy

You need to have an inclement weather policy that lets employees know how to report that they will not make it into work and/or that the office is closed. You can read more about inclement weather issues here.

20. Internet and Email Use Policy

What will employees be allowed to do on company computers? Can they go on certain websites or will they be blocked?

21. Investigations

What is the process that the company will use to conduct workplace investigations? Who will conduct the investigation? How will the process be conducted? Is there a chance to appeal? Will the investigation be confidential? Who will know about the investigation? What will happen at the conclusion of the investigation? You can read more about workplace investigations here and remote investigations here.

22. Jury Duty

Will the company pay or not pay employees for jury duty? What will happen if an employee finishes jury duty before the end of the day/their shift?

23. Layoff and Recall

How will the company conduct a layoff or a recall of employees? Will it be by seniority, seniority within a position? Will there be bumping rights? You can read more about layoffs here.

24. Leave – Military Leave, Disability Leave, Maternity Leave

You need to list all the available leaves that employees may be able to take.

25. Meal and Rest Breaks

All companies should have policies addressing when employees can take meal and rest breaks.

26. Moonlighting Policy

Will you have a policy that prevents employees from getting another job? Will they need to devote their full work time to you? This is not recommended for low level employees.

27. Off Duty Conduct

You may want to remind employees that they can be disciplined or even terminated for off-duty conduct.

28. Office Romances/Dating Policy

How will you address workplace romance? You should at least have constraints around supervisors dating employees. You can read more about office romance problems here.

29. On-Call Pay and Other Issues

You should have a policy addressing issues when an employee is on-call, including how they need to be available and how quickly they must be able to get to the office.

30. Open Door/Suggestion Policy

All companies should have a policy addressing how employees can raise complaints and possible suggestions for improvement to the company.

31. Orientation/Onboarding Policy

You need policies in place to ensure that employees are effectively onboarded. Onboarding is incredibly important to ensure that employees quickly become effective members of the team. You can read more about onboarding here.

32. Overtime

All companies need to address how employees will receive overtime, that all overtime must be approved, and other issues related to overtime. You can read about the basics of overtime here.

33. Payday

When and how frequently will employees be paid? What will the workweek be defined as (it can differ from the calendar week)?

34. Promotions

What is the process for employees to apply for promotions or other job openings? Is there a lock step program where employees will automatically be promoted?

35. Re-employment

This is an optional policy, but many companies want to clearly state whether employees can be re-employed (especially in the context of when they are fired for cause).

36. Reference Request

What will happen after an employee leaves and would like a reference request? How will you address these requests?

37. Retaliation

You need policies stating that you will not retaliate or tolerate retaliation against employees for reporting discrimination, harassment, and other workplace problems.

38. Safety

There needs to be a policy addressing safety in the workplace. This is a highly specific policy that will differ based on the business. Some businesses may even have an entire safety manual.

39. Sexual Harassment

All companies must address sexual harassment in the workplace. This policy should ensure that an employee has more than one person that they can report harassment to. Some employees only know their own manager at the company and do not have access to other members of management or HR (think about employees at a restaurant). The handbook needs to list someone to whom these employees can report workplace problems, including sexual harassment. It is often an owner of the company in small businesses; in these situations, the owner’s contact information or an email address needs to be in the handbook so that the employee can reach them. Ideally, there would be male and female reporting options as some employees may not feel comfortable reporting harassment to someone of the opposite gender.

40. Smoking

You may need a policy addressing smoke breaks and where smoking may occur at the worksite.

41. Remote Work/Telecommuting

Will you allow employees to telework? What will be the requirements for employees that work remotely? How will you address the specific issues that are present for employees working offsite? You can read more about remote work here.

42. Vacation/Sick Leave/PTO

What will the company give employees in terms of time off for vacations and sick leave? Will you use a sick and vacation leave policy or a single PTO policy that employees can use for both circumstances?

43. Work-Related Injuries

What will happen when an employee is injured at work? What is the procedure for reporting the injury to management? Companies should also state that employees must report workplace injuries. This is an important policy for workers compensation insurance policies.

44. Work Rules

What other workplace rules will the company have? The handbook should have all the rules that are generally applicable to the workplace.

Conclusion

An employee handbook is critical. It is the most basic tool to prevent workplace disputes and even reduce the risk and the consequences of employment lawsuits. If you do not have a handbook, then this is the employment law problem that you should address as soon as you are able.

The information provided in this blog is for educational purposes only and is not legal advice. If you need legal advice, then you should speak with a lawyer about your specific issues. Every legal issue is unique. A lawyer can help you with your situation. Reading the blog, contacting me through the site, emailing me or commenting on a post does not create an attorney-client relationship between any reader and me.

The information provided is my own and does not reflect the opinion of my firm or anyone else.

Introducing Employment Law Problems

Published by Brett Holubeck on April 6, 2021

I’ve re-branded my podcast as Employment Law Problems.

On the ~~second episode of Work Law Problems,~~ second episode of Employment Law Problems, I discuss one of my favorite workplace topics: Workplace Investigations.

Workplace investigations are one of the most critical steps to respond to any employment law or other workplace problem. Unfortunately, many companies are ill prepared to conduct an investigation or do so in a haphazard manner. In this episode, I review how companies can successfully conduct investigations in the workplace.

The first part of the episode covers what companies should do before an investigation occurs including training managers, having a handbook, and having procedures in place for employees to raise complaints.

The second part of the episode concerns how to conduct an investigation including the biggest problems with investigations, how to interview witnesses, and how to gather evidence.

The third part of the episode reviews how to conclude an investigation including how to tell whether a witness is reliable and other factors that should be considered in making a determination.

For more information on this topic you can read my posts on workplace investigations (https://texaslaborlawblog.com/how-to-conduct-effective-workplace-investigations/ and https://texaslaborlawblog.com/remote-investigations-in-the-workplace/), which cover much of the content that was discussed in this episode.

The information provided is my own and does not reflect the opinion of my firm or anyone else.

Responding to a Corporate Campaign

Published by Brett Holubeck on November 3, 2020

Image of a target with a lot of arrows to symbolize a company becoming the target of a corporate campaign. — Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

You are a company leader. You’re getting ready for work. You turn on the television and see the name of your company blasted all over the news. You discover that there is a group that is very publicly advocating for a change in the company’s policies, or worse, you find out they want the company to close down altogether. You’re stunned. It’s your worst nightmare to see your company’s name dragged through the mud.

What can you do? You fear the answer is nothing.

Thankfully, that’s not the case. There are some steps that companies can take to respond to actions such as this, and that includes properly responding to what is called a “corporate campaign.”

What is a Corporate Campaign

A corporate campaign begins when enough people are motivated by some issue or action that the company has taken and these individuals attempt to force the company to change their position or correct what they did. A corporate campaign may or may not involve employees. It may involve stockholders, students, members of the community where the business is located, a union, customers, or even people with no relation to the company.

An example of this would be a university that has students asking it to divest from Israeli companies or companies that do business in Israel (see examples here and here. You may notice that the articles have very different views on the same event. Strong opinions on both sides are often present in corporate campaigns as they tend to focus on a hot-button issue.).

A corporate campaign is different than a union campaign (you can read about those here). A union campaign has the goal of having the employees at the facility unionize. Sometimes, but not always, a union may use tactics from a corporate campaign to boost their own union organizing at a company.

What Issues May be the Subject of the Corporate Campaign

While a corporate campaign can be about any particular issue, the most likely issues to initiate a corporate campaign are similar to those in a union campaign.

The most common issues of a corporate campaign are:

Higher wages
Improved safety
Gender wage gap issues
Diversity issues
Environmental issues
Investments in a particular country
Members of the community not wanting a business of that type in the community (e.g. opening a prison or a garbage dump near/in a community)
Accusations of monopoly
A union organizing drive
Urging the company to take a stance on a particular political issue
Ethical issues (e.g. the treatment of animals at a food processing facility)
Job related issues (e.g. accusations that the company is sending jobs overseas or closing a facility)

What A Corporate Campaign May Look Like

The main goal of a corporate campaign is to get the company to change or adopt a particular position or policy. Whoever is running the corporate campaign will use whatever means they can to put pressure on the company to increase the chances that the campaign is successful.

There are a number of strategies that the organizers may employ to conduct the corporate campaign such as:

Passing out fliers in the parking lot or in front of the building
Protesting or holding signs in front of the building
Employees going on strike
Seeking to get media coverage of the campaign
Starting a Facebook group, Instagram page, Twitter handle, or a podcast to release information about the company and to target them online
Letter or email bombing the company by sending a tsunami of emails or letters to the company
Contacting members of the Board of the company
Protesting outside the homes of members of the company’s board or executive team
Going to shareholder meetings and requesting a vote on an issue
Filing charges through the National Labor Relations Board
Making accusations against the company anonymously and/or against anonymous employees of the company (these are obviously difficult to disprove)
Trying to get hired by the company to report about it or try to take actions against the company from the inside (this is called salting)
Seeking out community leaders to address the issue and the company. These can include politicians, celebrities, religious leaders, and other people with influence.
Filing administrative claims with OSHA, wage and hour claims, discrimination claims, and other claims
Sharing content about the company online, in emails, and other mediums to shareholders, employees, customers, and members of the general public

The main goal of all of these tactics are to change the direction of the company and get them to adopt certain policies.

Is There Any Way to Prevent Being a Target

Attempting to prevent a corporate campaign is key. The best thing that could happen to you as a company regarding corporate campaigns is to never become the target of one in the first place. There are many companies that will never experience this such as small companies or companies in non-controversial industries.

There are a few ways that companies can lessen the likelihood that they will become a target of a campaign. The main goal of these efforts is to ensure that the company is in compliance with the law and employees are happy. You can do this by:

Seeking feedback from employees
- Hold town halls to hear and address employee complaints and concerns (quarterly or monthly meetings with all employees in one meeting or holding enough meetings so that all employees can attend).
- Have meetings with representatives from different areas of the facility if the business is too large to have meetings with large numbers of employees. These representatives should seek input from their coworkers so that they can bring any issues to management.
- Conduct stay and exit interviews. Stay interviews are annual interviews with employees to get feedback from them, discuss what they are doing well, and what can be done better. Exit interviews are meetings with employees that are leaving and can be used to determine where the company can improve.
- Have a suggestion box.
- Make sure that you have an open-door policy.
- Encourage managers and members of the HR team to walk the floor and interact with employees on a daily basis.
- Have a complaint procedure that allows employees to report problems to multiple members of management and escalate as appropriate
Providing professional development training for managers on a variety of topics. You can read about the suggested topics on my post: How to Train Your Supervisor. Managers are often a source of potential lawsuits for companies either because of their failure to act or acting in the wrong way in a given situation. It is cheaper to train a manager than it is to defend a lawsuit. It also makes your company a better place to work.
Conduct wage audits to determine whether your wage rates are competitive (i.e. fair) and you are not engaging in disparate treatment of any protected group (i.e. no group of employees in any protected class (e.g. gender, age, race, etc.) is being paid less than other employees in the same job, with the same experience, and other relevant factors).
Keep good relations with the stakeholders in the company and members of the community.
Conduct anti-harassment and bystander training for employees so that they can address situations if no manager is involved in the incident.
Conduct safety audits of the facility to ensure that the employees are safe. You can read more about how to do this in my article on how to improve workplace safety.

What to Do Once a Corporate Campaign Begins

Unfortunately, sometimes even with taking these precautions a corporate campaign will take place. Large companies are much more likely to be pressured and consider making changes due to a corporate campaign due to their public exposure. In a similar way, you will see corporate campaigns a lot more frequently in controversial industries. After the company becomes aware of a campaign, a company needs to act quickly.

There are a number of things a company may need to do in a campaign. Determining what to do in a campaign requires examining the extent of the campaign, the weaknesses of the company, and the particular issues that are being raised by the group.

There are a few steps that apply in any campaign:

Continue meeting with employees to address issues that they may raise.
Ensure that confidential materials, such as contact information for the executive team and board members, are secure on company devices and shared files.
Develop a team, which may include outside help, to determine how to best address and respond to issues that the group raises.
Continue to maintain good relations with members of the community, the board if any exists, employees, and other stakeholders.
Assess the weak points that are present in the company, which may include supervisors, policies that need changes, or other issues.
Work to resolve the issues that are being raised to the extent that they should be resolved. This will depend on the issues that are being raised and the appropriateness of correcting them during the campaign. If a union is involved, then the company may not be able to make changes without violating the National Labor Relations Act even if the company was not aware of the issue before the campaign began. You can read more about responding to union organizing here.

Companies must address the specific problems of the campaign and develop a well-tailored plan to resolve the problems raised by the campaign.

Conclusion

Corporate campaigns are difficult to respond to. They can focus on any particular issue and arise unexpectedly. Companies, especially public companies, need to be prepared to respond to a potential corporate campaign. Again, being proactive and acting to prevent one from occuring in the first place is your best route as a company. If this is not possible, then the company should make a plan soon after a campaign begins.

The information provided is my own and does not reflect the opinion of my firm or anyone else.