BEST EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES FOR THE NEW YEAR: What to start doing, stop doing, and continue doing.

Posted on January 8, 2013 in Compliance, Consulting

At this time of year, I reflect about how I can improve my business, my health, and my personal life by focusing not only on my positive habits but also on how best to modify unsuccessful routines. Drawing upon my personal practices, this newsletter suggests what I think employers should start doing, stop doing, and continue doing in 2013.

 Start Doing: Serious Attention to I-9 Forms

Employers must be attentive to the requirements of immigration laws, including keeping accurate I-9 forms. We help employers with I-9 reviews and audits by the Department of Homeland Security – Immigration. We find that some managers expose their employers (and the ownership of the business) to serious penalties including criminal punishment when they ignore the significance of I-9 forms. Some mistakes are careless. Sometimes the employer fails to complete the I-9 form within 3 days of employment, so the employer decides not to sign and date the form to avoid revealing the missed deadline. In other cases, managers knowingly accept fraudulent documents from the prospective employee. My favorite example was an employer accepting a counterfeit social security card that had pictures of astrological symbols – obviously not something the U.S. Government uses on official documents.   Another classic example of bad judgment was an employer that approved hiring a person who presented a green card with a date of residence that predated the person’s date of birth.

Employers must be more attentive to their I-9 practices. The consequence of not doing so is dire.

 Stop Doing: Misclassification of 1099 Workers

 Employers must stop utilizing creative ways to avoid compliance with the law. One glaring example comes to mind: 1099 workers who are truly employees. As I have written about some time ago (see Avoiding Pitfalls with 1099 Workers), businesses sometimes work with “independent contractors” as a means of evading payroll and unemployment taxes or avoiding overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

A new reason for misclassifying workers is in our midst: the Affordable Care Act. I predict that some businesses will try to move workers to independent contractor status to avoid application of Obamacare. This is a bad idea, obviously. The law determines whether a worker is a contractor or employee. Employers cannot write contracts that circumvent the letter of the law.

In 2013, employers should take a long look at who they treat as contractors to determine if those workers should be classified as employees.

Continue Doing: Effectively Communicating with the Workforce

Employers should continue effective communication with workers to make 2013 successful.   When I work with clients through a complicated or sticky workplace situation, I inevitably ask the same question in each conversation. What have you communicated to the employee?   Employment relationships succeed when the business delivers the right message to its workers in a way that the worker understands the expectations. I am often amazed by the difficulty that some managers have in talking through a situation with an employee. Every human resource manager reading this newsletter can relate to that statement. Managers often dump on human resources the problems created by managements’ failure to effectively communicate with workers. Managers should be trained to use human resources as counselors in how to effectively talk with employees and not as the backstop when things have gone awry. Effectively communicating with the workforce is key to avoiding workplace disputes and maintaining successful, long-term employment relationships.

Implementing these three practices will help ensure that your business has a successful new year.

I hope that you found this postinguseful. Please share it with others who you think might find it valuable.

Next month, in anticipation of Valentine’s Day, I will write about Dating in the Workplace: Skipping Valentine’s Day at the Office.


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