Is Your Handbook Leaving You Open to Lawsuits?

Even if you just have a few employees, you should have an Employee Handbook.

Your handbook helps you communicate your rules and company information to your team in a uniform way.

It also serves as a source valuable of legal protection for you if an employee breaks one of your rules and challenges you in court.

However, if your handbook is missing vital pieces, then it can leave you wide open to lawsuits.

Here’s a few things to check your handbook for…

Genetic Discrimination

You need to add genetic information to the list of protected characteristics in your nondiscrimination or anti-harassment policies.

In November of 2009, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, or GINA, went into effect.

According to Title II of GINA, it is illegal to discriminate against employees or applicants because of either their genetic information or a family member’s genetic information.

Find out more about GINA at: http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/genetic.cfm

FMLA (Family Military Leave Act)

You are required to have a written policy that details your employee’s protections under the law.

Your handbook is a great place to have this written policy since it’s distributed to each of your employees.

Non-Profit Ethical Practices

IRS Form 900 is now surveying whether or not an organization has a written policy that addresses whistle-blowing, conflicts of interest, and document retention and destruction policies.

So make sure your group has these policies written down in your handbook, and that you are actively following them.

Social Media Policies

I’m sure you’ve seen more than one company in the news regarding their employee’s use of Social Media in a good or bad way for the company.

While Social Media can be used by employees to help grow the company, it can also be used to destroy a company’s reputation.  It’s important to document any and all company rules regarding social media in your handbook.

Discipline

All rules require consequences… and your company rules are no different.

Having a written policy regarding what happens when your rules are broken is not only beneficial in protecting you legally, but also in ensuring that your management team knows how to respond appropriately to avoid making a bad situation even worse.

The “What you forgot” Clause

It’s impossible to write a handbook that will cover every possible way an employee could cause problems, and every possible way to resolve them.

So it’s good to have a clause in your book that addresses that.  Otherwise, an employee could argue that any action you take outside of what’s covered in the book is unfair.