Today’s Wall Street Journal offers the following three tips to small business owners to avoid lawsuits by employees:
- Classify employees properly.
- Maintain an antidiscrimination and harassment policy.
- Document, document, document.
These are all excellent points, each of which I have covered here in depth in the past. Let me suggest, however, that each of these considerations are meaningless unless you add a 4th step to this list – Training. Your supervisors and managers need to know:
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What your overtime policy is and how employees are supposed to be paid.
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What discrimination and harassment mean, how to recognize them, and what to do upon witnessing it or receiving a complaint.
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In a judge’s or jury’s eyes, an empty personnel file means that there are no problems with the employee. A blank slate will lead to search for an illegal reason for the termination.
Without this crucial 4th step, you leave a gaping hole to be exploited by employees in the lawsuits that are certain to be filed as a result of mistakes made by your management. Consider hiring a professional to train your managers and supervisors on an annual basis. The training costs are a drop in the bucket as compared to potential legal fees defending lawsuits and funding settlements or judgments.
Presented by Kohrman Jackson & Krantz, with offices in Cleveland and Columbus. For more information, contact Jon Hyman, a partner in our Labor & Employment group, at (216) 736-7226 or jth@kjk.com.