HR Compliance and Best Practices continue to grow and evolve over time. While the world continues to adjust to changes in the professional environment such as hybrid work, it’s more important than ever to remain compliant. Whether your business offers fractional HR services, outsourced HR or HR consulting, it is crucial to be aware of new policies. What can your organization do to ensure your organization stays up-to-date? Here, we share 5 best practices to follow for workplace compliance and the best HR support possible in 2023.
HR Compliance Tactic #1: Refreshed Policies
Over time, work policies may have changed to accommodate for updates in workplace compliance. These changes can include hybrid work or flexible work hours and location, adding more technology solutions (such as Slack or Teams), and daily best practices.
These changes might also be more official than general workplace guidelines. As Forbes recommends, staying current with local and federal regulations is also a critical task that falls to HR departments and consultants. To be informed as soon as updates in these areas occur, subscribe to trusted resources to be a first responder for compliance issues.
When refreshing workplace policies, in our previous HR Compliance article, we recommended specificity and transparency — and that stands true today. Being clear about expectations, rules and policies ensures more streamlined communication across all departments.
HR Compliance Tactic #2: Accurate Documentation
Documentation can be key in workplace compliance and communication. Many organizations rely on their HR support to ensure accuracy and consistency in their documentation, and your HR support should be prepared to take on that task.
Ensure employees are informed about expectations regarding documentation of hours, responsibilities, outstanding needs and any workplace issues. Be prepared for any questions or concerns that may arise surrounding documentation practices, and scan for problems with scope and employee time in the future that can be solved today.
Finally, create space for issues that employees may bring to the attention of their leaders or HR support. When team members are comfortable raising concerns or asking for help, problems can be mitigated before projects, timelines or deadlines are put in jeopardy.
HR Compliance Tactic #3: Upfront and Regular Communication
Clear, concise and kind communication is crucial for implementing policies and procedures. This type of communication from HR support can help eliminate confusion about best practices and avoid future problems.
Direct communication about policies, documentation, expectations and processes keeps all team members on the same page. Follow-up opportunities are also imperative to ensure each employee feels comfortable with expectations and systems.
Sometimes organizations may forget the importance of clear communication once employees are settled in and are no longer onboarding. Instead, keep the cycle of reviewing policies and best practices continuing for employees at all levels to eliminate misunderstandings and keep the teams engaged.
HR Compliance Tactic #4: Data Security
The world is moving faster than ever, and that includes the workplace. With multiple modes of technology and communication, artificial intelligence and more, data is moving fast. From an HR standpoint, this means keeping data secure has never been more critical.
According to SHRM, this means HR consultants and fractional HR support members should be educating themselves about every tool they use to leverage data. Ensuring the softwares used for workplace HR support are compliant is a non-negotiable practice in today’s workforce. Do the due diligence of researching and vetting every data tool used for employee or client information.
HR Compliance Tactic #5: Pay Policies
The final compliance tactic that has seen a massive uptick in necessity for 2023 surrounds pay policy. Whether referring to pay transparency, paid family leave or changes in pay requirements, ADP considers this to be one of the most important HR compliance issues of the year.
Much like our HR Compliance Tactic #1, legislation and regulation around pay policies continue to change over time. Remaining up-to-date and aware of necessary documentation and practices surrounding pay can largely fall to HR departments as these teams often execute payroll as well.
Let Humani help your workplace remain compliant!
At Humani, we provide fractional and consultant HR support for all of your workplace needs. From payroll to employee handbooks to all HR needs, we are committed to keeping your organization current and compliant.
