3 Quick Things Local Businesses Can Do To Get Into Legal Compliance

Summer's here.  And it's time to start moving on those New Year's resolutions to take care of lingering issues that your local business has had.

You've meant to get around to it. But it's never moved to the top of the to-do list.

Well, here are three quick things you can do right now that will help get your company into compliance from a labor & employment law perspective.

1. Make sure all your legally-required posters are up-to-date.  I'll let you in a legal "secret": Rather than having to search for them at various government websites, there are many companies that offer them for a small fee. Pay it. It's worth it. A popular choice is gneil.com.  Just order their poster compliance kit (or find another site) and within 5 minutes you'll have ordered it. Just be sure to put it up in an employee common area when it arrives in the mail.
2. Create a sexual harassment prevention policy.  Did you know that having a policy and enforcing it provides an employers with a defense against some sexual harassment lawsuits? So, if you haven't done one, talk with an attorney about getting one. Or, if you want to try things yourself, try using the sexual harassment policy that the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities uses. If it's good enough for the agency that investigates such complaints, it's probably close to what you need. Just be sure to modify it as necessary. That should take you about 5-10 minutes.  And be sure to relay the policy to your employees too.
3. Even if you're up-to-date on most laws, you might have missed a law that was passed in late 2009. That law required employers to handle employment applications with care. Specifically the law requires that:

• Each employer shall obtain and retain employment applications in a secure manner and shall employ reasonable measures to destroy or make unreadable such employment applications upon disposal. Such measures shall, at a minimum, include the shredding or other means of permanent destruction of such employment applications in a secure setting.

So take that pile of employment law applications and lock them up and be sure to shred them before discarding. 

Now you've knocked three things off your to-do list.  You probably just have 100 more things to go.  But it's a start.