Rhonda R. Wilcox

If you work in Human Resources, chances are you haven’t yet had an opportunity to make New Year’s resolutions. January is full of tasks such as open-enrollment for benefits and sending W-2 and 1099 forms, and you may not have had time to ponder your goals for 2006.

We’d like to suggest a few. The day-to-day tasks of managing people often consume a lot of attention, leaving little time for the types of “clean up” tasks mentioned here. But your job will be a lot less stressful if you get these things under control.

1. Audit Your I-9 Forms.

It’s always best to get a handle on the state of your I-9 forms before the government comes looking for them. Our experience with most of our clients is that a majority of their I-9s are incomplete or incorrect. If you have a lot of employees, the penalties you might incur in an audit could be substantial. It’s better to resolve these issues now, when they can be corrected with minimal effort.

2. Make sure that you have signed copies of all important policies in your employees’ files

When litigating a harassment claim, one of the most important strategies for the employer is to show that it had a valid policy prohibiting harassment and informing employees how they should report it. Most of our clients have those. But another important thing is to be able to show the court that the employee knew about the policy. All too often, employers do not have a signed copy of the policy in the employee’s file, even though the policy includes a space for the employee’s signature. This is something you can correct in the course of a day or two. Make sure you check not only your harassment policy, but any other policies you require employees to sign.

3. Issue periodic reminders about your harassment policy

Even when you have signed copies of the harassment policy for all employees, some of them may have been signed when the employee was hired – six years ago. Such an employee can credibly testify that he or she doesn’t remember all the papers that were signed at orientation on the first day of the job. It’s a good idea to reinforce the policy on a regular basis. Posters or fliers in break areas are good too, but – particularly if your employees are on the road a lot or do not regularly visit a common area – it’s wise to mail them reminders periodically. You might simply choose to reproduce your policy and include it in paycheck envelopes once a year. Your goal should be to make sure that all employees have been exposed to the policy within the past 12 months.

4. Schedule training for managers and supervisors

Our experience is that Vice Presidents of HR, Directors of HR, and other high-level human resources executives are almost always well-informed about the law. Unfortunately, the rubber hits the road with the managers and supervisors who deal directly with employees. Often the statement that may create liability for your company was made by a line supervisor in the plant at 3:00 a.m. on a Tuesday, and HR never heard about it until the EEOC Charge or lawsuit was filed. Basic training on important issues for managers and supervisors will pay for itself many times over.

Your goal should not be to create a corps of HR professionals; it should be to give supervisors and managers enough information that they recognize the red flags. You want them to know when they should stop talking and pick up the phone to call HR. Training should be held regularly, because supervisors and managers get caught up in the daily grind, and may forget HR issues if they don’t hear about them often enough.

5. Schedule a desk audit to review payroll issues

Who is exempt in your organization? Why? Unless you are absolutely certain that you can explain to a government agent with confidence, exactly why each of your exempt employees is exempt, you should examine them all carefully. This is particularly important with regard to administrative assistants and assistant managers, who are often classified as exempt and therefore not paid overtime, when in fact their duties do not fit the requirements of any exemption classifications.

Another area of concern is calculation of overtime when employees also receive performance bonuses, some types of commissions, and other “extra” wages. We often find that clients pay overtime only on the straight wages, and in many circumstances this does not comply with federal or state law. If you’re not sure, now is a good time to speak with your attorney. There has been explosion in wage-hour lawsuits over the past few years, much of it brought as class-action litigation. Defending these types of lawsuit is very burdensome, so the proverbial ounce of prevention is definitely in order.

6. Resolve to do employee evaluations properly – or don’t do them at all

Employee evaluations are a wonderful management tool, if the supervisor drafting them is honest, frank, and using the same guidelines and standards as fellow supervisors. If not, they can be a litigation time bomb. Documents stating that the employee was doing at least an average job for the three years before he got fired are not helpful, if your position is that he never did very good work. If you are not training managers and supervisors on how to properly evaluate their employees, with regular reminders to make sure the evaluations are truthful, you may be creating records that will come back to haunt you later. Decide to do either take evaluations seriously or don’t do them at all.

7. Keep reading this publication!

The world of human resources changes as regularly as humans themselves. It’s important to keep abreast of what issues are “hot” in the field, and be prepared to respond to those. You should make it a point to regularly “sharpen the saw,” as Stephen Covey famously advised in “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” Read the Labor Letter and other publications in the HR field, attend seminars to learn more about topics important to your business or industry, and network with other HR professionals. That will help you create a whole new list of resolutions for 2007.