As we creep up on the end of the year employers should be considering/doing a number of things:
- Is the company employee manual up to date – any changes necessary? – The end of the year is always a good time to review those policies and procedures and see how they worked in 2017. Often the year will show some deficiencies or problems with policies as they are applied.
- Are employee files up to date? Make sure all employees have acknowledged receiving the most recent HR manual or any changes to the manual.
- Are company employment agreements up to date? Make sure any employment agreements are updated or amended to reflect changes in ownership or term expiration. Quite often those agreements are forgotten about and there is no agreement in place.
- Make sure employees have signed off on all non-compete, non-solicit, or confidentiality agreements. Make sure you have signatures!
- Frequently the end of the year involves reviews. Make sure those reviews are acknowledged by the employee and make it to their employment files.
- Do you have job descriptions for your employees? Do you even need them?
- Are your independent contractors really employees?
- Is it time for some employees to move elsewhere?
- Get your lawyer to take you out for lunch so they can update you on any new employees issues coming in 2017 and so you can pick their brain about any other issues.
All the best next year!
