The threat of individual lawsuits is growing, and HR managers are right in the thick of it. Here are tactics for avoiding such suits … and an antilawsuit tool you should be using regularly.
Yesterday’s Advisor reported on a troubling increase in plaintiffs in employment law cases filing suit against individual managers as well as their companies—actions that could threaten your home, savings, and future income.
Wendy Bliss, an attorney based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, advocates a series of steps HR managers should take to reduce the likelihood of being named in a suit. We’re quoting from our sister newsletter, the HR Manager’s Legal Reporter
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Here’s the checklist of antilawsuit behaviors to follow that Bliss developed:
1. Understand the employment laws. Be sure that you are familiar with the laws that may result in liability. Understand what they require of you, and set up checklists and reminder systems to be sure that you carry out your duties properly.
2. Know the activities that put you in jeopardy. Be aware of the particular roles and activities that pose liability danger, and take special care when exercising your duties in those areas. We spelled out much of this in yesterday’s article.
3. Support your decisions with detailed, accurate documentation.
4. Use tact and diplomacy in day-to-day interactions with employees.
5. Listen carefully and nonjudgmentally when an employee expresses disappointment or anger.
6. Respect the confidentiality of personal or medical information.
7. Avoid inappropriate comments, jokes, or teasing, and do not permit others to engage in such behavior, (avoiding personal attacks avoids charges of defamation or harassment.)
8. Be especially wary with employees who are “career plaintiffs” or perpetual rule-breakers, or who are highly suspicious and distrustful and are overly attached to you, as well as those who exploit co-workers or who have an exaggerated sense of self-importance.
9. Handle difficult situations with extreme care.
10. Don’t make irrevocable decisions in the heat of the moment.
11. Before delivering bad news, develop a script that gives specific truthful reasons for the action. Focus on behaviors rather than attitude. Consider having a witness on hand who could later testify to the fact that you handled the difficult situation humanely.
12. Follow the Platinum Rule: Treat others the way they want to be treated.
The Power of the Checklist
If you find the above tips useful, you realize the value of the checklist. It’s a simple device, but one that channels your thinking and requires you to address things you might not have thought of on your own. Checklists also enforce consistency … the same procedure done the same way in all cases. That’s vital in the HR setting, where even a hint of discrimination can land you in court.
If you see the value of checklists in HR, you’ll find exactly what you need in the BLR program, HR Audit Checklists.
Housed in a binder, the program contains dozens of extensive lists organized into reproducible packets for distribution to your line managers and supervisors. There’s a separate packet for each of the following areas:
–HR Administration (including communications, handbook content, and recordkeeping)
–Health and Safety (including OSHA responsibilities)
–Benefits and Leave (including health cost containment, COBRA, FMLA, workers’ compensation, and several areas of leave)
–Compensation (payroll and the Fair Labor Standards Act)
–Staffing and Training (incorporating Equal Employment Opportunity in recruiting and hiring, including immigration issues)
–Performance and Termination (appraisals, discipline, and termination)
Anatomy of a Checklist Packet
Because the items on checklists may make little sense unless viewed in context, each packet also contains a background summary of the key laws and issues revolving around that topic. Let’s take the packet on Employee Handbooks in the HR Management section as an example.
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Before starting in on the checklist itself, you’ll read a three-page overview of legal and practical issues relating to the subject of the list. For example, how a sloppily written handbook can actually form unintended contracts with employees. Then the accompanying checklists turn those issues into actionable items you can check on.
Here are three items from the checklist on writing a handbook:
* Have you asked your attorney to review your handbook? []Yes []No
* Do you reserve the right to unilaterally alter your handbook? []Yes []No
* Do you require employees to acknowledge that employment is at will? []Yes []No
If you answered “Yes” to all these questions, you’ve skirted a real danger … the possible nullification of the employer-at-will relationship. But would you have thought of asking them without the prodding of a checklist? Now multiply that “save” into hundreds more like it, and you’ve got a sense of the value of the program.
HR Audit Checklists is available for a no-cost, no-risk evaluation in your office for up to 30 days. Click here and we’ll be happy to arrange it.