1. Take a good hard look at your employment application, as well as all other employment work related documents that an outsider may look at and say the documents seem to be biased or slanted.
2. Your applications and any offer of employment should not only outline the job but should be signed, so make sure you have the candidate sign both of them.
3. Do not hire over-qualified individuals as they will most likely become bored and will probably not stay engaged. On the flip side, don’t hire under-qualified individuals if you don’t have a way to bring them up to the standards you are working at or if you cannot train them effectively.
4. Insure against charges of “I was never told” by requiring every new employee have an orientation that includes the reading of the company employee manual and the signing of an acknowledgement form.
5. Let employees know that you want to hear their complaints and want to resolve any problems in a timely manner by letting them know the company communiction process .
6. Put in place a formal review program and commit to it. Don’t rush through the process and hand out ineffective evaluations, but be honest and help develop the employee’s performance.
7. If it becomes necessary to discipline or terminate an employee, make sure you review his or her personnel file and look at length of service, other infractions, how their evaluations have been in the past, and how serious is the infraction they are being disciplined for now.
8. Be especially careful if you are going to be laying off employees. You need to consider the age, sex, or race of those being laid off and if your company is of a certain size (100 employees) you may be required to follow government layoff requirements, also known as WARN.
9. Respect and courtesy go a long way in fending off litigation. Treat your employees the way you wish to be treated.
10. When in doubt, get professional assistance from an employment lawyer. Most offer free or reduced fee consultations and may be able to help you in your quest to stay out of court.

There are probably many more tips. If you have more, please share them with us.

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It is sad, however, that many companies not only don’t provide an orientation, but expect the new employee to be able to figure it out themselves. The problem is, if you don’t provide a formal orientation process, the employee will still receive an orientation and it may not be the one that will benefit the employee, their co-workers or the company.

As part of the hiring smart philosophy, orientations can be simple to prepare and conduct. All it really takes is planning. It actually begins at the point of hire when the offer is first presented. The offer letter can include a welcome and a brief overview of benefits, time to report, who to report to and what to expect the first day, week and follow-up months. By merely making sure the new employee is listed on the company roster and in the phone system can make the first impression very favorable.

On the first day, the employee should be given a tour of the facility, no matter the size, and especially those areas the employee will be most involved with during their work day. Introduce the staff and prepare a list of their names and job functions. Time should be made to go over the basic operations of the company and department, such as work hours, timeliness/punctuality, explaining the time tracking process, pay day schedules (including direct deposit information or banks used in the area), overtime policy, lunch time or break time policies, parking, telephone and Internet policies, security regulations and how the telephone system works. In addition, a review of the new employee job description, the filling our of necessary forms, and a schedule for any additional needed information – such as training.

This is an opportunity to explain to the new employee the importance of their position and how it works to the support of the goals of the company. Orient the employee to their work area and make sure they have all needed supplies, materials, documents and manuals that may be necessary for them to do their job.

Just as important as the work schedule and pay schedule is the listing of Holidays and time-off provided by the organization, or how to report a sickness or necessary absence. Explain that a 90-day review will be conducted to ascertain any difficulties or answer any questions about the job.

A good orientation may take a day to actually complete. A great orientation will continue throughout the next 3-months as the new employee learns more about the company and the job. This is accomplished by following up with the employee and asking for their feedback or evaluation of the orientation program.

A carefully planned and executed orientation program will go a long way toward helping to retain good employees because it shows the care and time given to the program. A poor orientation may tell the employee that nobody really cares. PodTech has a great article on the On-Boarding process.

Just asking the employee, “How are you doing?” will go a long way toward making your orientation a great one.

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The first question can be pluses and minuses to a business owner – employment lawyers, consultants, and managers of organizations all disagree on the value of employee manuals. This disagreement comes from whether or not a manual is considered by the courts to be a contract for employment. Also, if not written correctly, the manual may inadvertently guarantee job security.

However, on the plus side, a handbook or manual can help increase morale. This is because when your employment practices are in writing, your employees feel they are being handled consistently and fairly. A well-written manual can save time because the employee know they can get the information they need about benefits, policy, procedures, etc. without interrupting their manager. In addition, handbooks and manuals provide the company with documentation that they are in compliance with important laws and regulations, that if not actively placed in the manual might be ignored (due to not knowing about it) or might prove to be unenforceable as you had not informed your employees about it.

So, the essentials of what goes in your manual would be:

• Compliance with all the applicable laws and regulations – both federal and state and in some instances local.
• Although it may be helpful to review other handbooks for ideas and layout, you need to customize the manual to your company and include the policies that are part of your organization. Someone Else’s handbook may not be appropriate to your organization.
• Only include policies in your handbook that you can support and follow. It will do you more harm if you put a policy in place and don’t follow it.
• It is okay to have disclaimers. Content for disclaims vary due to state regulations, so check those state requirements before adding a disclaimer.
• Make sure the disclaimer you use is clear and placed to be noticed.
• Where appropriate, leave room for your managers and supervisors to handle violations of policies. Be able to allow them flexibility based on their judgment and experience.
• Always require a signed acknowledgement that the employee has reviewed and received the manual. This signed document should be placed in their personnel file with a copy to the employee for their records.
• Date any revisions and have the employee place them in their manual with a new acknowledgement signed and filed.

Remember, an out of date handbook is not only useless but may also create a risk to your company. Stay current on laws and regulations and keep your manual up to date.

An example of a not-so-great but funny employee handbook can be found over at the Punk Rock HR Blog

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