Welcome to the start of your compliance journey!

Over the next few pages, I’m going to detail the three most common issues I see people dealing with when trying to secure their business from auditors and hopefully avoid them entirely.

• You might be here because you're newer to HR.
• You might be here because you were voluntold into your new HR position.
• You might be a small business owner and you have no other option but to be HR.
• You might be the Office Manager / HR / Payroll / Adult-Babysitter - We call that "the Slash."

Whoever you are, and whatever you're here to accomplish, Thank you for your effort.

It's WAY too easy to ignore the issues and neglect putting in the effort required to do HR correctly.

The most innocent of mistakes or misconceptions can get you audited and the craziest things can put you in a courtroom. YOU DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THAT!

As an HR manager, YOU are the person responsible for the companies dotted I's and crossed T's. You are the front line in financial security, employee retention, and preparing to be audited by the IRS, OSHA, EEOC, ADA, DOL, and other agencies.  

Nobody else gets it. People that aren't in HR do not understand the level of scrutiny you're under.

No joke, I remember a case where an employer had to go to court because she fired her employee for sleeping on the job and the judge asked if her EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK or JOB DESCRIPTION said "employees aren’t allowed to sleep on the job” (or something along those lines).

Her response was that she didn't think that requirement needed to be explicitly stated. But according to the judge, it did.

I can hear your brain exploding from here, and I get it. But that’s our world. This is where we are.

Do you have an employee handbook that will act as your star witness (and not support your opposition) if you have to go to court?

Do you have job descriptions that fully explain the essential functions of the job in ADA and FLSA compliant language?

These are a few of the issues employers come up against when the time comes to answer the question “What made you think you could do it that way?”.

Click on the button below to head to the next part in the series.