What is Your Employment Risk Profile?
Are you prepared for a potential lawsuit or government investigation involving your employment practices? Most employers know they have significant risk in this area, but do not know how to limit their legal exposure. To properly assess and improve its risk profile, and potentially avoid a legal dispute altogether, an employer should work with legal counsel to focus on the following key areas:
Policies: Assess and revise where necessary the Employee Handbook and other employment-related policies to ensure optimal protection and to avoid facial violations and other evidence of non-compliance.
Placement: Examine practices for recruiting, selecting, onboarding, and promoting employees to avoid potential claims of discrimination and ensure compliance with government regulations (EEOC, OFCCP, NLRB, ICE, and other agencies).
Pay: Ensure that compensation practices are sound and compliant with FLSA/DOL requirements (including classification of workers as exempt employees or independent contractors) and anti-discrimination laws.
Performance: Focus on effective methods for fair and consistent evaluation of performance and correction of disruptive workplace behavior, including best practices for investigation and documentation.
Accommodation: Educate and prepare managers to handle requests for job modifications or leaves of absence due to disabilities or serious health conditions under the ADA or FMLA.
Addressing Concerns: Establish and maintain channels for responding to internal complaints or reports of perceived harassment or other misconduct, including best practices for investigation, documentation, and avoidance of potential claims of retaliation under Title VII, ADA, ADEA, and other applicable laws.
Asset Protection: Consider the use of restrictive covenants, information security, and other means of protecting trade secrets and confidential information, important relationships, and other investments, particularly in light of new Georgia law.
These are just a few of the steps our attorneys can take to help you assess and improve your employment risk profile. If you might have needs in any of these areas, please do not hesitate to call for a “P4A3 Assessment.