Bulletproof HR – Strengthen Your Ability to Make Tough Employment Decisions
Practicing BULLETPROOF HR when it comes to managing your employees as it relates to compliance is important for several reasons, all equally important. What does it mean to be bulletproof? Being bulletproof means making deliberate effort to be compliance with everything from wage and hour issues (wages, overtime, meal and rest breaks, working hours, etc), to how you handle employee management and performance.
The risk of not being bullet proof can result in your business being subject to labor board claims, government penalties and lawsuits. Let’s expand on how you not only avoid problems but benefit from being bulletproof.
For reference, we’ve talked about some of the ways to be bulletproof in an earlier post: https://blog.infiniumhr.com/bulletproof/.
When your business manages its employees well and does its best to ensure compliance with the primary wage, hour and management practices, you gain the confidence it takes to make difficult employment decisions without the fear of retaliation from the affected employee. These decisions may involve disciplinary actions, demotion, suspension, or termination. If you have missed even minor elements related to proper HR management and compliance with one of more employees, you weaken your ability to take the necessary actions to effectively remedy the situation.
Example: You have been treating an employee roughly and perhaps focusing more on the person than their performance. Maybe you have let too much go and not taken the time to professionally counsel the employee and document the performance issues. The employee begins to feel, and voice their belief that they are the recipient of abusive conduct (now part of CA law), and since you haven’t clearly spelled out the performance issues and a path forward, with consequences for failure to raise their standards, you now have a disgruntled employee that has a path to a labor complaint or lawsuit for abusive conduct and maybe even retaliation.
Example 2: You don’t bother keeping track of rest and meal breaks as you believe you have honest and loyal employees who would never do anything against your business. But, one employee begins to have performance issues and you begin to discipline them, eventually leading to termination. You’re now in a situation where you’re unable to take decisive action because you have an employee who has missed several meal or rest breaks and could easily file a labor board complaint, costing you thousands of dollars in a settlement.
Bottom line here, it doesn’t pay to cut corners with employees and when you do, you lose the ability to make quick decisions on employee issues that can greatly impact your business and your liability. When you are compliant and have been managing your employees well, problems can easily and effectively be dealt with. You won’t walk in fear allowing problems to fester when you know you can act without fear of reprisal by a disgruntled employee.
Infinium is here to help you become compliant so don’t hesitate to contact us when you have a question related to any HR issues within your business. And finally, please contact us on any HR issues before small problems become big problems!