At the start of any New Year, it is always a good time to review your HR policies and make sure your business is in compliance in order to minimize risks and potential lawsuits. Here are five things that employers and the human resources staff should look at:

• Employee handbook. Employers should review, update, and distribute their employee handbook each year to make sure that it complies with the ever-changing employment laws. 
• Anti-harassment policy. Now is the time to review your current policy and make changes in order to ensure it complies with current employment laws. You should pass out your written anti-harassment policy to all of your workers so they can review sexual harassment, racial harassment, and your policies on other forms of unlawful harassment, as well. 
• Non-competition agreement. If a business changes ownership, or if an employee’s job aspect changes, it is vital to review the business’ non-solicitation and non-competition agreements to ensure they are up to date in order for them to be enforceable.  
• Personnel records. Employers should annually review their personnel files to make sure the records are up to date and that they include compensation information, performance reviews, and disciplinary notices for each employee. Employees should be allowed to review their record. 
• Employee classification. Make sure that your employees are properly classified as exempt, non-exempt, or independent contractors. If you are misclassifying employees, there are serious penalties for violating the law. 

If you need any help completing these tasks or with any of your human resources planning in Austin, call the Posey Law Firm toll free at 888-269-1962 or locally at 512-646-0828 today.