Every now and then, it’s worth it for even the most seasoned HR professional to receive a reminder about best practices in the workplace.  Ensuring compliance with our Top Ten Tips list below will help to keep your workplace running smoothly.

1.  Ensure that all  employees sign employment agreements that clarify potentially contentious issues up front, such as entitlements on termination.

2.  If your workplace has any concerns about protecting company confidential information or intellectual property, ensure that employees also sign some form of Confidential Information and Intellectual Property Agreement (“IP Agreement”).

3.  Remember that employment agreements and IP Agreements must be signed before an employee’s start date.  If that doesn’t happen, then the employee must be provided with some sort of “consideration” for signing (eg. a signing bonus; a promotion and salary increase), and the consideration should be specifically referenced in the agreement(s).

4.  Remember that the law is ever-changing:  a good employment agreement template one year will not necessarily be legally compliant the next year.  An annual legal review of your employment agreement templates will provide a significant cost savings to your business in the long run.

5.  If it is important to your business that restrictive covenants be entered into, ensure that non-competition covenants are not used where non-solicitation and confidentiality covenants would suffice to protect the company.  In addition, ensure that the covenants are sufficiently narrowly drafted in terms of scope, duration and jurisdiction so that they can be upheld by the courts.

6.  Provide employees with at least several days to consider any employment agreements that they are being asked to sign, so that they may obtain legal advice if they wish.

7.  Ensure that your workplace is up-to-date and compliant with all of its statutory obligations.  In Ontario for example, that includes ensuring that all employees have undertaken mandatory Workers and/or Supervisors Health & Safety Awareness Training, ensuring compliance with the Access to Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), ensuring compliance with the Pay Equity Act if applicable, and ensuring that your workplace has posted all required Employment Standards Act (2000) posters and all required Occupational Health & Safety Act posters and policies.

8.  In the event of employee disability issues, consider obtaining legal advice to help you to properly assess and monitor the situation, so that both your workplace and the employee are protected and treated appropriately.

9.  In the event that an employee must be terminated, ensure that he/she is provided with reasonable notice in accordance with the applicable statute, any applicable employment agreement, or the common law (except in the case of a just cause termination).  Do not seek a release unless the employee has been offered something more than the minimum statutory entitlements, and if the employee refuses the offer, provide all minimum statutory amounts even in the absence of a release.  Ensure that benefits and vacation pay continue to accrue through the statutory notice period, and ensure that the Record of Employment is properly completed and submitted in a timely manner.

10.  Don’t hesitate to seek legal advice.  Oftentimes, the biggest problems can be made much smaller if legal counsel is contacted before action is taken.

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