Woohoo! Mandatory policies, postings, training, legally enforceable contracts… Actually, no client has ever told us they LOVE thinking through legal compliance for their workplace. Rather, it’s the thing you have to do on top of the other revenue-generating tasks to keep the lights on.
For owner-operator employers, there is often no one to delegate this to. The internet is full of best practices and comprehensive lists of what to do, but it all eats up your time to figure out.
How to cut through the noise? What HR law compliance tasks must get done today to be legally compliant, and the nice-to-haves when you can in a quarter or two?
We advise our employer clients frequently on how to sort through the mandatory essentials, the things that will get you in trouble with the Ministry of Labour if you fail to comply. As you grow your business and bring on more people to do the additional layers, you can build on that foundation of compliance.
Where To Start?
Policies: There are a collection of workplace-related statutes that set out certain policies every Ontario employer must have. Examples include anti-harassment and violence policies, accessibility policies, and certain Employment Standards Act policies.
Postings: Ontario employers are required to post certain materials from the government in their physical and/or virtual workplace.
Training: Depending on your size and industry, employers have mandatory training obligations
Reporting: Also depending on the size of your workplace, there may be certain reporting obligations around accessibility.
In addition to the legal compliance mandated by the government, there are two highly recommended areas to frontload when getting your compliance house in order:
Anti-Discrimination: Rolling out an anti-discrimination policy is a critical due diligence step should you receive a claim of discrimination from an employee, as well as a tool of communication to your workplace about your standards of practice to hopefully minimize discrimination claims in the first place.
Contracts: Drafting and implementing employment contracts with an enforceable termination clause will not only set out clear job expectations with your candidates and team, but will also be the primary document you lean on in the rising wrongful dismissal cases. A good termination clause can manage expectations and contain the broad packages that many owner-operators find very difficult to afford.
Much of the content for these compliance steps is common from one workplace to another, but not all. Having the documents capture your workplace’s unique practices will strengthen your legal compliance. Practically, having the core policies, contracts and mandatory compliance steps in place will communicate expectations to your team in a clear and relevant manner.
How We Can Help You Save Time
Too busy to sort through all the details? Lack the resources or enthusiasm to sift through the mandatory obligations and just want it done as efficiently as possible?
The overwhelm is real for many of our clients. It’s why we built our 2024 HR Law Compliance Program.
If you need a hand identifying the roadmap and setting out an efficient roadmap for your 2024 HR law compliance, we can take the weight off your plate. We will do the heavy lifting for you, stagger out the workplace throughout the year to make it manageable for you, and check in with you once a quarter with a 1:1 compliance coaching call to help you stay on track. We charge a flat fee so there are no surprises over the year of implementation. We want this easy for employers.
We are employment lawyers who actually enjoy this HR law compliance stuff and can cut through the noise for you, giving you confidence you are on track and relief that it’s getting done without eating up all your bandwidth. Come to our website or email us at we*****@*******aw.ca for more details.
