HR Compliance – What does it mean?

HR compliance is a necessity for any business (small, medium or large) in today’s legal environment.  As a business owner it is ultimately your responsibility to ensure that your business is compliant.  Ignorance of the law does not release you of your responsibility.

What does HR compliance mean?  Very simply it is a way of defining proper workplace behaviours and assuring that policies and laws are understood and followed.  This means that you must know the laws and have proper policies in place.  To be compliant doesn’t mean just having policies sitting in a dusty binder somewhere in the office.  It means that you and your leaders know them, understand them and communicate them to your teams.  To have a Harassment Policy means nothing if your employees aren’t aware that it exists or they haven’t been trained to understand it.

HR laws change constantly.   When was the last time you updated your Employee Handbook?  Has it been updated since the legalization of Marijuana?  Have you updated your policies to reflect the Accessibility Standard for Customer Service in Manitoba?  

HR Compliance is so much more than policies.  The risk to your business is real.  There are labour laws, employment standards legislation, health and safety regulations and human rights legislation to name a few.  Mitigate your risk and partner with an HR professional. 

Many small businesses have HR responsibilities lumped in with the Office Manager or the Accountant.  I often joke with perspective clients that you wouldn’t want me doing your books or taxes and you probably shouldn’t have your accountant taking care of your HR.  As a business owner you don’t need to have all the answers – but you need to have a place where you can go to get good advice.  If you aren’t large enough to have an HR professional on staff – you should definitely have one on contract.  Many small businesses believe that HR is not affordable – that is simply not true. 

Romas HR Consulting understands the needs of business and we are here to help you mitigate risk in your business, improve employee engagement and provide support to you and your leaders.  With Support Packages available for a low monthly fee; we can ensure that your business is compliant, has policies in place to cover employee concerns and we are just a phone call/text/email away for any questions/concern/issues that arise.  We won’t take up office space or increase your cost of employee benefits – but we are always available for you.  Our package includes unlimited HR support, unlimited access to training video library for your management and staff on important topics such as Harassment in the Workplace, Violence in the Workplace and Impairment in the Workplace.  When laws change we will provide you with policy updates and knowledge support documents to help you understand the changes.   If you need support with medical accommodations – we are just a phone call away.  Have a difficult message to deliver to an employee – we can be on site to help ensure that it goes smoothly and be a witness to the meeting.

Are you having difficulty understanding what compliance means for your business?  Give us a call.