For compliance, devising strategies around what happens when you are audited is critical to prepare for if/when a regulatory agency looks under the hood. When you have your ducks in a row, you’ll be well on your way to a more peaceful existence at your job.

Kerri M. Roberts 20-year HR people operations pro turned entrepreneur suggests seven best practices to take a systematic approach to your most critical HR processes to stay compliant. Some of them may be handled by tasks in your HRIS, while others are not.

Although this information may be second nature, if compliance is feeling chaotic, like you’re constantly trying to chase your tail or waiting for the next shoe to drop, understanding the specific agencies that govern labor and employment federal, state, and local laws and regulations will help track their initiatives and adjust focus on your policies accordingly.

When there is legislation around wages, safety, discrimination, and leave laws, for example, it’s important to know which federal governing body is making changes. Here are the major players and examples of legislation they enact:

1. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): ADA and Pregnancy Fairness Act

2. Department of Labor (DOL): FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act)

3. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration): Heat Standards

4. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB): Off Duty Work Conduct

5. Wage and Hour Division: FSLA (Fair Labor Standards Act) Overtime Wage

Determining when, during your day, you stop to read, watch, or listen will help your brain to relax, knowing you have a system to stay on top of changing legislation. Do you like newsletters? Podcasts? Webinars? Or a combination of all three? As these laws and regulations shift, determining your system for staying on top of changes and where you go to get more information about how to proceed can go a long way to preventing overwhelm.

What’s great about HR is the array of resources. Newsletters are one of the most effective ways to stay on top of changing legislation. Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) is one of the best resources, however, with their now 14 newsletters, that largely look similar and sent out multiple times a day, I’ve noticed I can get behind when I’m trying to digest and tease out the most important thing. I end up blocking out all information which isn’t effective either.

Instead of signing up for every publication and update, be strategic and determine what information you get from which publication. For example, I prefer compliance updates from SHRM workplace compliance updates, leadership development from HR Besties podcast, and stakeholder management insights from HR Executive. When I need to go deeper on legal advisement, I look at SHRM, Brightmine, or Fisher Phillips webinars.

As an experienced HR professional, you know which publications work for you, but the key is to clear out the noise, so it clears your mind to focus on the things that matter. This strategy is how you ‘set it and forget it’.

Tips for Strategy

1. Choose the publications you get value from (pick 3-4).

2. Choose the time of day you read, watch or listen to these publications.

3. Take weekends off. Listen, watch, and read things you enjoy to fill your tank.

4. Decide on your system to help you stay informed and organized.

Staying engaged is the most important part to ensure you are adequately prepared, especially when legislation may switch gears.

Best Practice #3: Checklist When a Law Takes Effect

Following the set of same steps, every time a new law takes effect, will keep you organized and worry free when protecting your employer.

When state law takes effect:

1. Update handbook

2. Provide acknowledgement forms and applicable notices

3. Ensure consistent documentation and record keeping

4. Update applicable systems depending on the new legislation (payroll, employee classification, etc.)

5. Revisit policy on a cadence each quarter, bi-annually, or annually

6. Address specific industry related tasks

Best Practice #4: Set a Consistent Schedule Throughout the Year to Update Your Handbook

Your employee handbook protects your employer and provides transparency for your employees. Best practice is to put a reminder on your calendar quarterly, every 6 months, or annually to go through your handbook with your leadership team. Ensure you read it carefully, line by line, and update policies accordingly.

The most common workplace procedures to keep updated are:

• Anti-discrimination
• Harassment
• Leave policies
• Health and safety
• Confidentiality
• Disciplinary actions
• PTO policies
• Wait times for employee benefits
• Remote work policies
• Driving vehicles? Policies.

Accurate and consistent documentation is critical for protection against audits or litigation. You want to ensure you have a centralized secure system for storing and maintaining confidentiality and clearing out records when expired.

There are federal and state regulations that dictate requirements for record-keeping. This is an area where it’s important to create a system for records once created and when to dispose of them.

The most important documentation to keep a record of are:

• Employee records
• Performance reviews
• Disciplinary actions
• Leave documentation
• Payroll records

Federal and state laws mandate certain training for industries and employers with 50 or more employees. There is mandatory training for employees and managers, and, for litigation, you’ll want to track sessions and provide refresher training annually.

These include:

• Compliance training
• Anti-harassment
• Workplace safety
• Diversity and inclusion

Training is critical, for example, if a manager is caught sexually harassing an employee and the manager has not acknowledged these policies during litigation, your employer is at risk of having not done their due diligence.

You want to ensure your job descriptions and hiring practices are in line and comply with EEOC guidelines, like avoiding questions related to age, race, gender, religion and other protected characteristics.

Recent litigation surrounds cases of hiring discrimination which require employers to show documentation of their hiring practices. This includes pulling all candidate records, including how many people of color were interviewed, how often they interviewed candidates, and where the job posting was advertised. If you are caught in an audit, you’ll need to provide proof that you followed these processes to avoid liability. 

Stay abreast of wage laws, overtime pay, and that you are properly classifying employees (exempt vs. nonexempt), W2, contractor etc. You’ll want to perform periodic audits wage and hour audits to ensure proper classification, compensation, and provide regular breaks.

It’s critical to investigate an address employee’s issues promptly. When employees raise concerns, report harassment, workplace issues, discrimination, or safety violations, be sure to follow the same process every time to ensure you take appropriate action to resolve the issue.

Document everything!

• Keep all information confidential
• Document how they address the issue and the resolution you provided
• Best to have an HR present and third party
• Provide time/date stamp on all documentation

Compliance can take effort if you don’t have a system in place. Fortunately, there are many HR consulting firms and advisors to help. HR software also automates practices, giving you reminders of key compliance dates, regular federal, state, and local law changes and provides proper documentation on employment contracts and employee hours that are properly tracked for several years.

A learning management system (LMS) also provides basic training, including workplace harassment, diversity and inclusion, online training modules, what employees can and should be trained on, and reminders, prompt or quiz to record their acknowledgement.

Even if working with outside council, remember you are always responsible for protecting your employer and it’s important to conduct regular audits, or have your outside council provide you with an audit report you can use as evidence if you’re facing litigation.

The information contained in this site is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter.