Ashley: Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. We're gonna give a couple of minutes for people to log on but we're excited to have you here and excited to chat with Lori today. A couple of housekeeping items. I will read off a SHRM code at the end. So, if you are here for SHRM credit, stick around till the end and we'll give that code for credit. We will also be sending out the slides and the recording later on. So, I'm going to post a couple of times in the chat...

Ashley: We will post a couple of times in the chat a handout of the slides so you're able to follow along and take notes but we will send out a copy later so don't stress about writing everything down during the session. I see the chat is working. So, we'd love to know where everybody's logging in from and throughout the sessions, feel free to share your thoughts in the chat and if you have any questions, we have the chat and the Q&A available so you can submit questions there.

Looks like we've got people from all over the place so far. We've got [crosstalk 00:01:05]

Lori: Yes. I'm gonna open the chat.

Ashley: I'm in Houston.

Lori: You know, Ashley, all that happened when I made that face was that I closed PowerPoint.

Ashley: Oh. Okay, well, that's [crosstalk 00:01:15]

Lori: So, we can't have that. We need PowerPoint open. Slideshows, start the...

Ashley: Looks like people are still joining anyways so we'll give it a couple of minutes to get situated and...

Lori: And did you put the link for the handout because I've got a link too, I can put there? Okay. Because they can't get it at...if they sign in after so let's try...there we go. Perfect. So, if anybody wants to take a quick 30 seconds either open that link or print it out. We've given you copies of all the slides. Tree up to a page so you can take notes right next to it. I also encourage you if you have an employee handbook and have it handy, why not grab it so that as we talk, you can mark things up in there as we go because the whole idea of this is to have you leave with lots of great action items.

Ashley: We'll give maybe about one more minute and I'll share that handout again for people who have just joined in.

Lori: Why don't we have people...how about if you put in the chat exactly what you're hoping to get out of this session? We'd love to know. As some of you have probably been on some of the other sessions Ashley and I have done together in the last couple of months and I love to be fluid...oh, Elizabeth, great question, multistate handbooks. I am pretty sure that I have a slide on that. If not, we will cover it for sure because I have...one of my favorite simple solutions...multi...and lots of people about multistate. So great. Okay, somebody wants to structure it better, create a handbook for the first time. Great.

Preparing for multiple locations. Just wanna make sure you're compliant. This is...oh, good. Oh, remote workers. Of course.

Ashley: Yeah.

Lori: Good. What's...what we have to put in for FMLA. You will learn that and more. Lots about remote work so I'm gonna make a note of that. Great.

Ashley: Cool. It looks like the joining audience has tapered off a bit. So, I think we could go ahead and get started. If you wanna take it away, Lori.

Lori: Perfect. Oh, Carol Reets [SP] or...I'm sorry if I'm saying your last name wrong. Less formal, inviting to read. I just saw something this week that I'm gonna share with you. So good. Okay. So, this is all to...somebody said vaping policies. Always fun, right? Okay. We're gonna talk about all of this. I think most of you are gonna get what you need out of today's program but certainly at the end we're gonna have a few minutes for questions and we will jump into as much as we can until the top of the hour. My name's Lori Kleiman. Welcome. And we're gonna learn a little bit more about handbooks. So let me start a bit with how we're gonna break down the next 60 minutes or so. We're gonna talk about some basics with employee handbooks, typical policies. Oh, Janine in Fort Myers. We have to talk. Typical policies which a lot of you have put in the comments. And then what you need to do and know to keep this going and make sure that you retain compliant handbooks. So, let's start with some of the basics.

One of the reasons you really need and want an employee handbook is because there are so many risks in human resources and many of us are working with handbooks and we're gonna talk about this in a minute. We're gonna do a really fast poll...that are outdated, that were written years ago. And so, making sure that we have the current language in there is really critical. There have been so many changes in the last two to three years in both our processes and the strategy of our organizations and the way we're using technology. For a lot of us, a lot of you put in the comments remote work is a really big deal.

So, we want to make sure that we're both meeting our obligations and getting everybody on the same page. So, if you get pushback in your organization, why do we really need to do this, that's why you need to do it, is so that everybody kinda knows what's what and where's where.

So, a lot of people say to me, "Should I have a handbook or not have a handbook?" And really, I recommend anybody over 10 employees needs an employee handbook. As a matter of fact, Ashley, if we could launch the poll right now that would be great. I'm gonna go ahead and stop my share because I'm curious just to see...it doesn't look like...there we go. So, everybody, let us know. Yes, you have a handbook and you've reviewed it in the past year. You have a handbook but who knows when you last reviewed it. You're working on getting one published and it sounds like a lot of you are in that process. And you don't have one at all and you may be just...you're here to see whether or not you should have one. So, if you could help share with me a little bit about the audience, that would be great.

Ashley: We've got about 80% of votes in so [crosstalk 00:06:52]

Lori: Great. So, let's do it, yeah, because we may have people on their phones and all sorts of...

Ashley: And here we go.

Lori: So, all right. So about 60% of you have reviewed it in the last year. So that's great. And another 25%, it doesn't surprise me. And then 11% working on getting it published and only 4% don't have one at all. So that's great, Ashley. Thanks for that because then I'm not going to spend that much time on people that don't have one at all. Rather talking to a lot of you about sort of what you wanna do. And one of the things you'll...in a couple of slides I'm gonna send you a link on if you would like a handbook checklist that you can almost go through and self-audit everything we're gonna be talking about today. I will send that to you. Yeah, lots of people are saying yes. I'll tell you in a minute how to get it. And well, we're gonna send it to everybody as a matter of fact. You guys don't have to all say yes, please. I'm glad you all want it. Look for your email tomorrow. You will get an email from me that will also have the slides and will have that checklist all ready to go for you. So, we will send it to everyone who registered.

So, it sounds like everybody knows and agrees that we need an employee handbook. Well, what we have to do is communicate it because I don't have to tell you it is so frustrating as a longtime HR person that, you know, everything is in the handbook, that your employees...you know, do I get time off for jury duty? My great aunt just died. How many days off do I get paid or do I have to use my vacation time? You've taken the time and energy to write it in the handbook. Now we have to get people to not only look but to really use it.

So let me take a quick couple of minutes here and just let you know a little bit about my background so that you understand why I'm the person here talking about this today.

Man: Meet Lori Kleiman of HR Topics. Lori's HR story begins in 1981 when she packed her bags for college at the University of Illinois expecting to get a business degree and become an accountant just like her dad. But numbers weren't her thing so with her degree in industrial sociology Lori started her career as human resources director in her family's commercial photography business employing 250 team members in 5 states. Working her way up to VP of operations, she learned the business of people.

Lori: Unfortunately, technology made the words of commercial photography obsolete. So, I started my own HR consulting firm for small businesses growing that enterprise to seven employees working fulltime in my home and just under a million dollars in sales. But that wasn't sustainable so...

Man: In 2007 Arthur J. Gallagher purchased Lori's consulting company. The entire team moved into the Gallagher Benefit Services operation and took the business model of HR consulting to small business nationwide. Lori was a mentor to HR operations in Gallagher offices in Houston, Baton Rouge, East Florida and more. But corporate life wasn't for Lori and as much as Gallagher was great for her and the business, Lori left in 2013 and returned to her entrepreneurial work. Her new organization, HR Topics works to support HR professionals and small businesses with actionable tools and tips to drive results. And to back up all the experience, Lori has a master's in HR and holds SPHR and SHRM SEP certifications.

Lori: So, whether your background is in a small family business, entrepreneurship or large corporations, I just want to make sure that you know I've been there and done that and I understand the HR challenges you're faced with every day. Now let's get on with today's program.

Perfect. So, thank you for all the nice comments you are putting in the chat. So, let's get back to this, though. So, these are the typical sections you're gonna see in your employee handbook. I think it's critical that there's always a really nice welcome. Welcome to our company. We're glad you're here. And then we start giving them all the legal mumbo-jumbo. We've got our basic policies, comp and benefits. You always wanna have a really strong technology section that makes sure that people understand nothing on the system is private, that you're going to be looking at their emails whenever you decide you want to, that you can...what you want on social media, what you don't want. So, technology has become a really big section. For many of us, we need a safety section. We need some components about OSHA. I know we had some people from schools here.

In expectations, that's where you may have some of your ethics and privacy and those kinds of policies. And then some sort of a conclusion or wrap-up. You know, whenever everything fails, come and see HR. We're here to help you, kind of a thing.

So, let's talk for a quick minute, though, about digital handbooks. And a couple people said in the chat originally that they wanna think about how they can do this differently. So, I saw the most innovative thing this week was the first time I saw it and I was so excited that I would be able to share this with you. A lot of you probably use Trello. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Trello is a Microsoft product that allows people to track projects essentially. And this gentleman I was talking to...I actually wrote his employee handbook and then...yeah, so you may all have...put in the chat if you have things like it so everybody knows what you use. He had taken the employee handbook I gave him and set the whole thing up in Trello with each policy being its own link. And in there, he was able then to add attachments for example. So, if you have a document people have to fill out for paid time off, you can have your paid time off policy, have the document right there attached and be ready to go.

To be honest, it was the coolest thing I've ever seen. I mean, I'm sorry I didn't think of it. But I'm so excited that I can share with you all something to think about. So, as we talk about digital handbooks and handbooks in general, get out of your mind which is what's in my mind, the 1990s here's a copy of your employee handbook. In almost every one of these systems you're mentioning here you...well, things like...think HR paychecks in Mineral. Those are a little bit different. Monday and Trello, they're very sort of visual boards that you can put these things on and so they're really interesting. They're not so much an HRIS. So, a lot of people are putting HRISs in the system which is great for everybody to know about. But think about these more visual systems. Now I'm not saying go out and buy it just for your employee handbook. But think about possibly in the digital world unbundling your employee handbook and rather than having your handbook just plumped as a PDF on whatever site you want it to be, think about having your different policies separately.

There are lots of ways you can deliver a digital handbook. So, think about that. Now the one caveat that I went through with him is if you're going to deliver your handbook digitally, tip number one is to look at your employee acknowledgement form. If that employee acknowledgement form, which I bet it does, says you have received a handbook, you wanna change that language to say I understand I can find my handbook at this location. And it is my responsibility to go there and look at it. But don't forget if you've got a typical digital handbook, you are not handing them an old-fashioned...and I do not recommend you print and hand people employee handbooks. So just have a look at your employee acknowledgement and make sure that it reflects how you are giving your handbook today which is sort of the last piece of this handbook basics, is really making sure you know where you are today.

And like I said, I am gonna send you...it's a... I think it's a four page...it might be two pages, handbook checklist of everything you need to have in your, you know, in your handbook. So after today, although hopefully you're taking great notes, it's a great follow-up and we will make sure that you have that tomorrow, Monday at the latest. Hopefully by tomorrow, though. So, let's jump into what a lot of you probably want to know about because you already have handbooks. So, what are some of the typical policies and some of those typical...you know what? I'm gonna save a couple of these questions for the end. I will make a note. Not printed. Okay.

Oh, I'll just take that one right now. So, somebody asked in the chat why would I not recommend handing out handbooks. Reason number one is it's expensive and it's a pain. I mean, a little bit. Reason number two is that it should be a living document and those policies are often changing throughout the year. There is nothing wrong...if you change your office hours from 8:30 to 4:00 to 9:30 to 5:00, there's nothing wrong with making that change in your employee handbook so that for the new employees coming in it's updated. But that's again the reason digital is so much better because it's a living document that you're constantly updating. For some of you in more confidential or high security, if you will...not security. That sounds too serious. But, you know, you may not want your employee handbook floating around, you know. And when they are things...you know, you may just not want them getting to your competition. So, think about that. Those are some of the reasons that typically I would not print an employee handbook.

Okay. So, let's get into some of these policies. Probably one of the biggest drivers in your employee handbook is the fair labor standards act. And you want to make sure that you are covering all the ideas of...minimum wage, sometimes I do or don't put it in the employee handbook because it's changing every single year. But you do want people to understand the difference between exempt and nonexempt work and that that is not always defined by salaried or hourly. The idea that somebody is or is not exempt from overtime. Overtime requirements is an important piece that you not only have in your handbook but you and your leadership team give thought to. For example, are you going to pay overtime the week of a holiday? This comes up the week of Thanksgiving all the time. People typically work 24 hours and have 16 hours of holiday pay the week of Thanksgiving.

Legally you do not have to pay overtime somebody who only works Monday through Wednesday. You only have to pay overtime if they have worked more than 40 hours. Now I could...I do a whole one-hour program on the fair labor standards act. So, you know, I'm not gonna get too deep into that today but you want it all spelled out properly in your employee handbook. The same with meal breaks. Now this is one of those things that we're gonna talk in a minute about state law but you wanna make sure that if you have a legal obligation in your state to have meal breaks that that is clearly spelled out in your employee handbook and that you make it clear to employees that they are not to work through their meal break just because they want to. That can often become a huge issue.

Comp time. Legally most of us cannot have comp time. It is typically illegal to have comp time. So, this is one of those things that if you have it in your employee handbook, I would honestly encourage you to take it out. Many people do comp time but it's illegal. So, and then there are obligation and timekeeping records. And what, you know, what is obligated to do there. Oh, somebody's saying what is comp time. Comp time means somebody works 2 hours over, you know, 40 hours and you say to them, "You know, we'll put it in a bank and you can take that time off whenever you want." That's what's illegal and that's what comp time is.

So, you guys...it looks like, Ashley, we could use my fair labor standards act whole session. I don't want to...I don't wanna go too deep into here. The only people who can have comp time technically is the federal government but private businesses cannot have comp time. So, I'm gonna move on. If we have time at the end, we can talk more about that. And yes, Faith is saying a fair labor standards act session would be great. We may even actually have that teed up for one of the next couple of months. Maybe you can check and we can let everybody know at the end.

Ashley: Yep. It's in February. I'll share the link later.

Lori: Perfect, everybody. So, we are gonna do that in February. So come back, join me. We're gonna dive deep into there. Ashley put it in the chat. So, you do want to make sure. This is essential, that in your handbook you are defining your work week. You need to say what day and time it starts. For example, our work week starts Sunday at midnight and ends Saturday at 11:59 p.m. So that's critical in your handbook. You have to tell people when they get paid, "You know, you can get your check every other Friday. We pay twice a month, whatever it is."

You want to think about direct deposit. Some of you are in states where you can mandate direct deposit and some of you are not. So, make sure you know...again, we're gonna talk about state and local law toward the end. Something came out in 2004 when they updated the fair labor standards act procedures called safe harbor language. And as a matter of fact, I will send that to you tomorrow as well. I'm making myself a note because you'll want that. Safe harbor language. Okay. So, we'll send that to you in the email tomorrow.

What safe harbor language is, is a couple of lines in your handbook after you talk about, "We're gonna pay you and we're gonna take deductions that are mandated by the government." You want...it's, like, three sentences. And I didn't write it. It came out from the government years ago, that basically says, "We do our best to pay you correctly but mistakes happen. It is your obligation to look at your paycheck. Hello, employees. And come to us as soon as you find an error and we will fix that error as soon as possible." And what that does...I mean, I have had...look, you heard. I've been in HR for 35 years. The number of employees who've come to me and said, "I was supposed to get a raise six months ago and I never got it." And then they expect you to go back and recalculate. The safe harbor language means technically you do not have to. They alert you to the problem and you fix it from there going forward.

Now the truth is a lot of us really do go back and do it anyway. But at least...yeah, Jamila, believe me it happens. I just had somebody, believe me or not, email me. This just came up. There's one company that...a small company that I still do consulting for. And he sent me an email and said, "Oh, remember last year how you said you'd give me $7,500 to reimburse me for that training class I took? I never got it." I said, "Really, Chris? You never got that amount of money and just now you're asking?" Oh, my God. Melody's saying, she went back three years once for somebody. So essentially the safe harbor language...why is the slide...oh, there. The safe harbor language keeps us from having to go back that far. Now again often we do it. Oh, my God. Laura may win the prize. She went back two years. Yeah, Sharon. I'm gonna send...in the email you get from me tomorrow...so look in your spam box if you don't get it. Let me know. We will send you the safe harbor language. So now gonna send you...I've got a list going. The slides, the employee handbook checklist and then I will also send the safe harbor language to everybody. So, you will have that.

Benefits. What are you gonna include in benefits? I recommend very little. Your benefits change too often. Do not start describing we have an HMO and a PPO. We pay 75%. Do not describe anything with your 401K plan. I use a simple couple of sentences that says, "Here are the benefits we provide. You know, health insurance, dental insurance, vision, 401K. See your plan document for details." Period. Don't start putting all that in the employee handbook. You do wanna talk about benefits that are not insurance related. Certainly, we always...almost always include our paid holidays. Whatever your paid time off policy is, if you have any kind of flexible work arrangements, tuition reimbursement, all those kinds of things would all go under the benefits section because that feels good to an employee the first day they start with your organization.

So really...but think about not including all the specific details. Now those of you who might have grabbed your employee handbook now would be a great time to look at your harassment policy. Because I'm gonna go over with you what needs to be in your policy and this again is fairly well defined by case law, is how we define these things. So, look at your current policy. First it should talk about reporting to multiple options. Ideally, you want both men and women as people that they can report to. I like to encourage you to refer to titles, not people. So please see your manager, the human resources department or someone on their senior leadership team to talk about this so that people have a broad number of people that they can talk to. Because, you know, it may be the person who's doing the harassing that you mention in the employee handbook. So really think about that.

You want to define what harassment is and what it isn't in your handbook. So, you know, again, I don't wanna...I could do a whole program on harassment and harassment policies and harassment training. So, we're not gonna go too far down the rabbit hole but make sure that you have a definition of what is harassment. Everybody should be doing harassment training. Many of you are obligated to do it by law now. A lot of you didn't...we didn't have to years ago. But whatever your training is going to be, spell that out in your employee handbook.

You want to have some information about an investigation process. Now I do not recommend you spell out your investigation. But what you want to be clear about is that when you report harassment, we will investigate it. We are obligated to investigate it. We will keep it confidential to the extent possible. Key words. If your policy right now says, "We're gonna keep our harassment investigation confidential," it's impossible. It's impossible. You're interviewing a number of people, you're talking to people. People are gonna know this is going on, okay. But the most important thing that you end with is nonretaliation. We will not retaliate for making a valid, key point, valid claim of harassment. Now if you find out that someone is blowing a bunch of smoke just because they want their supervisor fired, that, you know, that is not retaliation. That is somebody lying and cheating. But anybody who makes a valid claim of harassment, even if it isn't...doesn't rise to the level of harassment but some situation was occurring, there cannot be retaliation. That has to be in your policy for your policy to be really super effective.

And I see we have a ton of questions. I'm gonna get to those at the end. So, I'm trying not...I'm watching the chat but not trying to go too much back and forth. Most organizations these days have created a single policy for all types of harassment. So, Lyn Page, perfect. Sexual and all other unlawful harassment. That is a wonderful title. You don't need two separate policies, one for sexual harassment and one for, you know, just religious harassment. It should all be contained under the same policy.

Okay. Yes. Rene, I think using the language somebody who's made a good faith complaint, report...I might even steal that, Rene. That's great language. Sometimes we all learn from each other, right. Okay. I'm gonna move on because it looks like we have great comments in there. So perfect. And then you definitely want in your policy...and I know somebody made mention of it in the comments at the beginning going through the American with disabilities act and the family medical leave act. The American with disabilities act, don't forget or maybe you don't know, it is only your obligation to engage in an interactive conversation. So, in your handbook, again, you want very few details. What you do want to say is that we understand lots of people have lots of things come up in life. Whatever may be for you, we ask and invite you to come talk to human resources about it so that we can all determine together the appropriate next steps and leave it at that. Don't start talking about reasonable accommodations. Don't start talking about interactive conversation.

You want to encourage people to come in and tell you what's going on so that, you know, you can then decide what's next. As far as the family medical leave act, you need to be very specific. So again, the family medical leave...or not again. I'll tell you. Only applies to people with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius. Now I'm not gonna lie to you. Remote work has made this a little more complicated. So, if you are right on that bubble, there may be a point where you have to call your attorney and really determine. But for most of us, we know if FMLA applies or not. If it applies, you need to have...it's about four pages from the Department of Labor. Maybe three pages that really spell out for people FMLA. And all you have to do is google it. I mean, just google FMLA employee handbook language.

If you are under the threshold, mention nothing about FMLA. Once upon a time I used to write handbooks and say, "Basically, we don't have to comply but we will...you know, we generally follow the guidelines of FMLA." I have been told by lawyers and now I agree absolutely not. Never use the words FMLA in your handbook. What you can do is you can put...like, just call it medical leave and then say, "You know, our company works with people when we can. You know, again, come see me or there are ways to do it." But just don't use the specific words FMLA if you're under 50, okay.

All right. Cybersecurity. When we talk about cybersecurity these days, anybody know what BYOD stands for? Feel free to throw it in the chat. Yes, bring your own device. Lots of people got it right. It's bring your own device. So, if you have that, if people are allowed, you want them signing a separate BYOD document. Most lawyers would not recommend just burying it in the employee handbook because now you're starting to mess with their personal stuff. So often you want that to be separate. But you do want to go through and talk about social media and social media posts and whether or not they can use your company name on social media. Those kinds of things. So, spell it out. You must tell them and you want to tell them that nothing is private. We will be looking at your email. Know that we will be looking at your email and we have the right to do that whenever we want. And then talk about what internet sites they can go to, they can't go to. Give that some thought and really again spell it out.

And we're getting lots of great suggestions in there. So, everybody...you know, we can all learn from each other. So read the chat as well. And then there is all the fun that we have started to deal with of marijuana and work. You know, some of you live in states where it's just medical marijuana. Some have recreational marijuana but here's what you should know. Assuming you are a private employer...and we may have some public employers here. But assuming that you are a private employer, you should...you can still say, "Marijuana is not allowed." Marijuana is not a federally accepted drug so you do not have to allow those that test positive for marijuana, you know, to be...oh, Robin. Good, old California. It's really...it's about what you're allowed to do. So yes. In California, unless somebody knows different, if you send somebody for, for instance, a post-accident drug test and it comes back positive for marijuana, you could...best to my knowledge, you can still terminate.

Now one of the things that I want everybody to know as we're talking about employee handbooks...I talk about the federal law. We're gonna...I keep saying we're gonna talk about state law in a minute. But, you know, I know a lot about all 50 states but you have to be...you know, you have to know your own state and I'm gonna tell you how to stay up on that. Michelle, yes. Accepting a medical marijuana card...well, still doesn't mean...you've got...we're not gonna go down there because now you're getting into ADA issues and all that kind of thing, okay.

Anyone who is under the influence at work is not acceptable. I don't care where you live. I don't care what your state law is. Drugs, alcohol of any kind, you have reason to terminate, okay. So, they can have all the medical cards. If they are behaving under the influence, you can terminate for the performance and that's the key. And again, we're getting sort of down a rabbit hole. But you're not terminating because they're high at work. You're terminating because their performance is reckless and unacceptable, okay.

All right. What we have learned from COVID-19? So, somebody put early on do we have to put COVID-19 things in our handbook. Absolutely not. There's no obligation to put much in a handbook at all. You can just have some of these policies randomly on your payroll site if you want. But I believe what we did learn from COVID-19 is there may be times you wanna mandate certain health behaviors of your employees. You wanna mandate if someone is going to come to work, here are the things that we're gonna require to ensure that you're well. If you come to work, we're going to mandate certain vaccines. And so, I think you and your leadership team should just take a step back and think about what did we have to do in COVID-19 that was a complete pivot that we had never thought of before that maybe we want to put in our handbook. I'm adding to one of our handbooks for the one company I consult for still that if at any time we want you to abide by any safety concern, any safety or health concern, we may tell you to do it.

And if you don't do it, you'll be terminated. And you may have something that that's, you know, a simple policy around. So, a lot of you asked about what on Earth are we gonna do about remote work, right. So, I think today we need a remote work policy. I think every company needs a remote work policy. And you want to think through whether or not...well, it likely will have to be approved in advance. People can't just willy-nilly decide but what are those approval requirements? Do you require them to have a certain kind of work space? Who's going to provide the equipment? Is it your responsibility or their responsibility to have a desk chair? Are you going to spell out childcare arrangements? You know, a lot of people during COVID, when their daycare shut down, they just kept their kids home and they considered it a work day. Is that okay or is that not okay?

And the other piece that you have to realize is that if you approve remote work, then work comp is in effect while they're working. So, there have been stories through COVID that people got up from their desks to get coffee. They tripped over their dog and presto, it was a work comp claim. So, you really want to be very deliberate on remote work. So, I see lots of state things we're gonna...yeah. Karen, about moving to a different state. Irma, if you don't ever envision any kind of remote work, no, then you obviously don't need to have it and those kinds of things.

And then some of the other policies that I'm not gonna get too deep into but encourage you to think about is nepotism. Are you going to hire employee family members? Dating for people. GINA. GINA, we used to put in and now I've started taking it out. It really became a law that we don't...it's the genetic information notification act. It really doesn't play much. So, I don't usually have it. HIPAA. I don't know. I don't put HIPAA in handbooks. Basically, it just means keep private information private. You don't have any obligation to have it in a handbook. Solicitation in the workplace. Are you or are you not gonna let people sell Girl Scout cookies? Concealed carry. What are you doing about that? Somebody asked earlier about vaping. You know, smoking and vaping. There's no right or wrong to these things. You're welcome to have all of them but your handbook's gonna be 85 pages long and trust me, nobody's gonna read it.

And then finally, dress code. I can tell you right now in this diversity, equity and inclusion world, I would stay as far away from dress codes as you can. As far as dress code, you have to be very careful that you are not discriminating on all sorts of criteria. So, these are just a couple of thoughts and ideas...and the reason I keep looking this way is I'm watching the chat at the same time. All right. So, I've said 12 times we're gonna talk about state law. Yes, we are. You have to think here about minimum wage. What do I mean by the salary history ban? Many of you are in states where you cannot ask about what people were making in their past jobs. Ban the box is all about whether or not on your job application...so actually this doesn't really apply to handbooks too much but on your job application, are you gonna ask about felony history? We talked about defining harassment. Some of you need lactation laws and lactation has to be provided.

Paid time off. We talked about it a little bit. Whether or not you're keeping copies of their I9s. If you're gonna keep copies, I encourage you to make sure they know that, that that's being kept. And then predictive scheduling is...the definition in those states where you are required to give people a certain amount of notice on their schedule. So oh, God, Jessica. I wish. I mean, you can say anything you want in a dress code but...okay. So predictive scheduling was the last. And what you should know, the biggest thing everybody put in the chat at the beginning was what do I do about a multistate handbook. So, I'll tell you my easy answer. We have to know that state and local law will always supersede, okay. It always trumps anything in your handbook. So, I...in a multistate environment, right on the front page...and then I typically put it again on the table of contents. I just have a sentence that says...yeah, Liane. Yes, Liane. The answer is yes. State and local law always supersede federal.

So, I have a sentence that says this handbook was written with the laws of our home state. So, let's say that's Illinois. I'm in Florida right now. It's in Florida. Of our home state of Florida. Your state and local law will always supersede the handbook where there is a difference. And leave it at that. Now if you have a lot of employees in a different area, God forbid they're in California but I bet for a lot of you they are. Although I have to tell you that New York and Illinois, they're starting to become as bad as California. You may want an addendum to your handbook that's relevant for just those employees, okay. So, it's not a bad idea if you've got 20% of your workforce in one state. Then give them that handbook or that addendum, okay.

Okay. Then you wanna make sure. So, there's questions a lot about the more restrictive. Julie, I agree with you but is there any state that has a minimum wage lower than the federal minimum wage? I don't know that there is. Like, where? Well, I don't know why they bother with it because Ohio's minimum...so maybe those are people that just chose to not update...so maybe you're right. So, I apologize by making that more absolute. So right. It's...Ria, it's not quite that way. So, it's what favors the employee most. So, think about that. Right, Lauren. I mean, that's what we see in more and more places.

Julie, I'd have to see exactly what you're talking about, about federal law being more restrictive. It rarely is the case. Now minimum wage absolutely is. And what my guess is with minimum wage is those are a lot of states that just did not bother to continue to increase their minimum wage figuring they'll just go with the state. So let me get to the last 2 things because I see we're already up to 12 questions and I wanna make sure to get those right. Check your handbook acknowledgment. Make sure that it says that either they received a handbook. If it's digital, where is it stored? You always want the handbook...the acknowledgment to say that they understand the handbook is not all-inclusive, that often, you know, there are policies outside the handbook. You wanna say on the acknowledgment who they should go to with questions. You want to restate the employment at will and somebody asked this question earlier. On my handbook acknowledgments I say, "It is the employee's responsibility to stay up to date with policy changes."

And you might go so far to say, "Those will be emailed to you. Those will be posted on our payroll site." You know, whatever else you're gonna do. Oh, shoot. I realize I have a whole other section and I only have eight minutes. So, you guys get the idea.

The last section is real quick but a couple tips I have for you about how to keep this updated on a rolling basis. There are lots of different resources. I hope everyone is a member of SHRM. It's the best $200 you'll spend and they are really good. Make sure you have signed up for a local lawyer's employment newsletter because you want those local and state updates. And all you have to do, go to any law firm in your town that has an employment section and you'll be able to sign up for their blog and that sort of thing.

I make sure I attend at least one annual employment law update every year. Most of the SHRM chapters have them. Most of your law firms have them. Those sorts of things. And then I will be sending you a lot of this information out. If you don't like my stuff, you're welcome to unsubscribe. You will not offend me. But I will send out as much as I can.

My second tip is to make sure that your company has employment practices liability insurance. This is basically the insurance that covers you as an HR person. And those people, that insurance agency will typically go through your handbook completely for free to make sure that it's up to date and everything's relevant.

So let me end with my contact information. I am gonna be sending you a bunch out tomorrow. We are having tons of questions on the fair labor standards act. So, I am excited to tell you that is my next webinar with GoCo in February. Ashley, maybe you can throw the link to sign up for that again in the...in the link. And I understand that I confuse people when saying that one...I made this program up just specifically for you. I'm gonna soften the state and federal law because it's when it is...where it's more favorable. So certainly, you all have to pay a minimum wage of seven and a quarter. Anybody who is studying for certification, I wanna make one really quick plug. We do have a new class starting next year and I love teaching the HR certification program. So, if any of you need that, let me know and check out my website. We'll send that to you tomorrow.

Ashley, I saw we have a number of questions. Do you want me...because we have about eight minutes left. So, I was trying to just...

Ashley: Yeah, and really quickly I'm also going to share the SHRM recertification code. So, I posted that in the chat. It's getting a little bit buried so I'm gonna post it again. So, if you're looking for that...but yeah, let's jump into the questions. It looks like we have about five minutes left.

Lori: Yeah. So, I'm...and Ashley asked me to tell you maybe she'll scan the questions for some. But if you are HRCI certified...so you have your PHR or your SPHR. All you have to do is go into HRCI, say that you wanna report credits. You can get the same credit for it. It just is that you have to type it in yourself. So just type in the name of this webinar, the date you did it. So, some of you may even be listening. Chiquita, email me separately on that question. You know, the date you did it and you'll get the same one hour of credit.

Ashley: All right. So, questions from the session. I was seeing quite a few about how you should have employees acknowledge it, when you should have it, do you need to have them acknowledge every update. If law changes happen in January, do you need to have them acknowledge every January?

Lori: Yeah, that's a great question. I am not a believer by any stretch that they have to acknowledge every single update. But people asked how do they know when you've made changes. So, I tend to make my changes and track changes. I just...so that it's really obvious until I come up with a new version. So, think about all of our apps on the phone where you've got 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and then you go to 5. So, one way is to do it through track changes. One way is to email out a notification. We made a simple change to this policy. Here's what it is. And the third way that I'm getting to like more and more is that for many of you, you can host it on your payroll portal and the next time somebody goes into payroll, it automatically pops up. Hey, there's a change in the employee handbook. So those are three ways that I help notify employees of changes.

Ashley: Awesome. We also had quite a few questions. So maybe a clarification point about if you have to follow FMLA guidelines if you had 50 employees for part of the year or you drop, what if your workforce fluctuates?

Lori: Oh, yeah. We have 335 people on this webinar and a lot more are gonna listen recorded. That is giving you very specific advice to your organization. So, you're welcome to email me if you want. I'm always happy to talk to people but I can't, you know...the law is 50 or more employees within 75 miles. You have to look...if you're teetering on that, I encourage you to check with your legal counsel.

Ashley: Yeah. We definitely see that a lot. So, I appreciate the advice. We have a lot of specific questions in here. So please email Lori. Let her know. A couple of other questions I saw a theme of was how to make the language sound more like your culture, how to kind of soften some of these laws and legal things [crosstalk 00:58:06]

Lori: Make it fun. Make it fun. You know, when you talk about FMLA, why not say, "Hey, life happens. We all have crap that we don't wanna deal with. The federal law has provided something called FMLA." You know, so I've done handbooks where the intro to every section is a comic that I, like, found online. You know, when you're talking about attendance, there's no reason to say, "We all oversleep but if you're not gonna be here, give your manager a call, you know." So, there's no reason why you can't be fun and hip and use fun language but still communicate but, "Hey, if you don't call us three times, we may have to make some tough decisions about your employment." That kinda thing.

Ashley: Yep. I think that covers a lot of the generic questions. Again, we saw a lot that are very specific to your organization. So absolutely recommend reaching out to Lori for some help there.

Lori: Can I end with a disclaimer? Is that sometimes I am not a lawyer. I feel like I could play one on TV as that saying goes when it comes to employment law. But there are a lot of things, you know. I can't give you legal advice as it impacts your employee handbook. So, you know, I'm giving you practical HR advice. Anyway, so don't be offended if I say, "You gotta call your lawyer."

Ashley: Makes sense. All right. I think that takes us to the time. So, thank you so much for being here today, Lori, and for everyone who joined us. We will make sure you get all of the resources we mentioned emailed out from both Lori and GoCo. So, keep an eye out for that, the recording, slides, the SHRM code, everything great we talked about today. So always [crosstalk 00:59:56]

Lori: Hopefully we'll see you in January. I mean, February.

Ashley: Yep.

Lori: Bye, everybody.

Ashley: We'll send out that link. Bye.

Lori: Bye, everyone.