Photo by Adrien Olichon on Unsplash
To be successful in management or as a human resources professional, you know the importance of staying current.
The basics include:
Essentially, you know you must understand your employees. That empathy is paramount.
You must understand your role in management.
A full awareness of your business model is vital and know how to motivate your employees to high performance.
Increasingly, you know the importance of being astute in technology or having access to technological capabilities.
You must be a student to continually grow your skill sets, and protect your business by avoiding unnecessary lawsuits.
Here are precautions – a checklist to prevent legal issues:
- Document everything. Always have a paper trail.
- Stay in check emotionally. Don’t allow emotions to influence your approach.
- Avoid discrimination of any type. Treat everyone the same way.
- Stay knowledgeable about laws and regulations. Stay abreast of all developments.
- Hire or be prepared to engage a good employment attorney. Stay in contact with your lawyer and follow all instructions. Again, document every detail.
- Make certain you and your supervisors are current on legal matters. Implement any appropriate training.
- Especially, with everyone focus on issues surrounding discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying. Be on the lookout for issues.
- Don’t procrastinate if you spot a problem. Deal with it right away.
- Make communication paramount with respect and accuracy.
- Continually recruit and hire the best-possible employees.
- Train your supervisors in the art of coaching. Keep all your employees current via training programs.
- Remain on top of your industry, your business operations and engage your staff regularly.
- Establish effective policies and keep them current. Make certain you, your supervisors and employees consistently adhere to them.
- Be rigorously honest and timely in workplace investigations.
- Look into the future. Regarding medical issues, anticipate possible problems. Again, create a paper trail.
- Stay calm in the event of a legal issue. You can’t prevent surprises. Be fair and impartial, honest and be diligent in following your policies.
- In the course of your day, know that you’ll encounter curious, offbeat statements or questions by your employees that might later have legal implications. Be certain to document them. A good technique is to create a paper trail by noting incidents in writing and emailing them to yourself.
From the Coach’s Corner, here are relevant tips:
Vital Strategies to Avoid EEOC Discrimination Suits – Federal employment discrimination complaints are sky-high — a sad commentary for businesses and public agencies that are large enough for a human resources department. Here’s what you need to know.
Avoid HR Documentation Mistakes that Cause Legal Issues – You must anticipate possible adverse ramifications – how a jury or judge even months later would view your paperwork if the situation becomes a legal issue. Here’s how.
Best Employee-Handbook Values to Avoid Legal Issues– Neither you, nor your company and nor should your employees be relying on an employee handbook with illegal or antiquated policies. Here are employee-handbook values to consider.
Management – 3 Common Mistakes in Performance Reviews – Not only do most workers stress over getting performance reviews, many bosses stress over having to give them. For management solutions, see these management tips.
For Positive Staff Morale, Coach the Negative Employees – For maximum teamwork and employee morale, it behooves bosses to think and manage like coaches who have a helpful spirit. Here’s how.
Sometimes the best part of my job is that the chair swivels.
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