PREVENTING PERSONNEL-RELATED LITIGATION
by Paige Proctor
Over the past several years, we have all assimilated changes in employment-related laws into our thinking. One at a time, we have become aware of the American Disabilities Act, the Family Leave Act, sexual harassment, and a considerable number of subtle but meaningful regulatory and cultural changes. Our awareness has also been heightened about the threat of increasing litigation.
I think it's time we all stepped back to take a look at the big picture: the accumulated effect of the laws. A quick checkup for personnel practices may be helpful, just to make sure we are on firm ground.
Here is a series of questions. If you answer no to any one of them, the potential for trouble is brewing in your shop. If you answer no to three or more of these questions, I recommend you get busy with some damage control.
Circle 'Y' for Yes or 'N' for No in each question:
- Do you have a personnel handbook that is periodically updated? Do you require your employees to acknowledge in writing that they have read it? Y [ ] N [ ]
- Does the handbook have a specific policy for each of the following:
- Sexual harassment Y [ ] N [ ]
- Substance abuse Y [ ] N [ ]
- Family Leave Act Y [ ] N [ ]
- Are you and your managers current and up to date on proper hiring and firing procedures? Y [ ] N [ ]
- Do you have a simple, but legally correct letter to tell new employees that they have been hired and under which terms? Y [ ] N [ ]
- Are you using both product knowledge and personality profile tests in screening potential employee candidates? Y [ ] N [ ]
- Do you have a specific process to orient new employees to both the agency and the job in the first two or three days of their employment with your firm? Y [ ] N [ ]
- Do your employees understand what kind of performance you expect from them, and that there are measurable goals on which they will be evaluated? Y [ ] N [ ]
- Do you have an employee career path in your organization, or is each job a dead end?
Y [ ] N [ ] - Do you insist on employees taking professional development training programs, such as CPC, CHIC, CSR? Y [ ] N [ ]
- Is your personnel or human resource manager authorized to work with a knowledgeable attorney whenever needed on human resources matters? Y [ ] N [ ]
- Are your employee benefits offered to each and every employee on a non-discriminatory basis? Y [ ] N [ ]
The checklist you have just completed is certainly not all inclusive. It is designed to alert you to the fact that things may need to change in your agency or brokerage. If you are an owner, you might assume that personnel/human resource matters are your responsibility-and that is not necessarily true.
Why don't you delegate this responsibility to someone in your organization? Once he or she is up to speed on all the changes, some new policies and procedures can be implemented in your business.
If you choose to ignore human resource management in your agency, you will soon join a rapidly growing list of agency owners who are involved in embarrassing and time-consuming litigation-most of which is not covered by any form of insurance protection. You are bound to spend some time considering this issue; would you rather spend it in preparation or in regrets?