Polices Need to Be Applied Across the Board

In my last Insight, I discussed the process for implementing new policies at your company.

Businesses should develop some very basic policies at a minimum. Here are some examples of such policies:

• Vacation policy
• Sick time policy
• Bereavement policy
• Jury duty policy
• Holidays policy

Vacation Policy: In developing a vacation policy, for example, companies should look at how much vacation time they want to give employees. Some companies base vacation time on how long an employee has been with the company.

You also need to be mindful of what state and federal labor regulations are applicable when you’re creating a vacation policy. For example, in the state of California, earned vacation time is considered wages and therefore cannot be revoked by the employer. In addition, unused vacation time must be paid at termination.

Such regulations’ requirements oftentimes must be clearly communicated to employees in a related policy.

There are also states that require employers to provide their employees with the vacation policy in writing at the time of hiring.

Sick Time Policy: If a company develops a separate sick time policy, they need to be aware of how their sick time policy is used differently from the vacation policy. The two policies cannot be used interchangeably because there are different rules for sick time. There are also different state and federal labor laws that pertain to sick time, and these need to be taken into account when developing a related policy.

When companies do not distinguish vacation from sick time, they will lose the ability to have a bona-fide sick time policy. There are also municipalities that have specific ordinances about sick time policies. An example of this is the city of San Francisco.

Again, it is important to be aware of these laws, and to work with HR professionals and employment counsel to ensure that the company complies with applicable legislation.

Bereavement Policy: A bereavement policy is another basic policy that a lot of organizations have. It’s not mandatory to give employees days off specifically for bereavement, but it’s still a good idea to include in your employee handbook whether or not your company has a bereavement policy, and the specific components of it, such as maximum time off allow and whether such leave will be paid or unpaid.

For example, if you don’t have one, a simple statement such as, “Company ABC does not provide bereavement pay for employees and does not have a bereavement policy,” will suffice.

Jury Duty Policy: In addition to frequently being required by state law, having a jury duty policy demonstrates that the employer is civic-minded and supports employees who want to fulfill their public duties and responsibilities. A jury duty policy usually also incorporates a witness duty policy. As noted above, there are certain state laws that govern jury/witness duty time and if the time should be paid or not. These laws typically take into account whether the employee who must serve jury/witness duty is qualified for overtime or not. Be aware of these requirements and utilize the assistance of an HR practitioner or legal counsel to review the policy for compliance.

Holiday Policy: There are no labor laws that require private employers to offer holidays off. However, most companies do so in order to attract employees and maintain good work morale. When developing a holiday policy, it’s very common for businesses to observe mainstream holidays.

Also, businesses need to be aware of the different religious holidays that employees might celebrate in terms of how they develop the company’s holiday policy and how they choose which holidays they’re going to put on the schedule. Most companies choose those holidays when there is minimal business activity because most other businesses are also on holiday and not because of religious considerations. For those employees who have religious holidays outside the company holidays, employers should allow the employee the time off as a vacation day.

Some employers have even offered an extra, neutral, “floating” holiday to employees to use at their discretion.

More Elaborate Policies
The policies I mentioned above are fairly basic policies. Many companies, however, also have more elaborate policies for their organization. These policies are not always common to all businesses as the policies I mentioned above oftentimes are.

For example, a more elaborate policy that a company might want to implement is a telecommuting policy.

Another not-so-common policy is the attendance policy. Almost all companies have some kind of attendance policy, but some companies are fairly in-depth with their attendance policy.

For example, I once worked with an employer who had an attendance policy that used a point system, so if an employee was late by a certain number of minutes, they would get one point. If they left early, that was another point. If they were a no-call/no-show, that was another point. The points added up and once an employee reached three points, they would get a verbal warning, with the consequences escalating as the points accrued.  

That is just one example of a more elaborate company policy. Again, most companies don’t have attendance policies like the above mentioned. For the most part, companies generally have an attendance policy that requires employees to call-in to their supervisor by a certain hour if they are going to be absent due to an emergency and to provide their supervisor with as much advance notice as possible for planned absences, such as vacations or scheduled appointments. Most attendance policies also include a three-day no-call/no-show as job abandonment and is considered voluntary resignation.

Apply Policies Consistently
Once your company’s polices have been developed, written and approved by an HR specialist or legal counsel, it’s important that each policy be applied consistently across the board, and updated on a regular basis due to ever-changing employment and labor laws.

Companies need to make sure that they are ready to use each policy for every employee, regardless of their position in the organization, regardless of circumstances, etc., because if they aren’t consistently implementing their policies, they are opening themselves up for possible liability issues.

Businesses should develop some very basic policies at a minimum.