10 Common Mistakes Employers Make

Ronald F. Smedley

Let's face it, as employers focusing on ministry or business, it is easy to lose sight of the rocks and potholes that can come our way with employees. One can think things are moving along well and WHAM! … someone shares their distraught over something or someone in the organization. People problems. These types of issues come from a vast array of reasons, many resulting from a lack of clarity or focus within various areas of human resources.

Below are what I believe are ten mistakes one can make that will only expand and exasperate the people problems within your organization. If addressed both in a timely and proper way, your organization is well on its way to being one that anyone would be proud to work for.

1. Not having an employee handbook. There are all sorts of excuses for organizations not having an employee handbook (my personal favorite is "we have great employees, no need"). No excuse, however, will help you once an employee files a complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). One of the first things the investigator will ask for is a copy of the employee handbook that sets forth the why you took the employment action in question. The employee handbook is what answers the "what about" questions regarding employee practice and policy. Note that an out-of-date handbook in many cases is worse,with a greater potential for liability, than not having a handbook at all.

2. Failure to have proper, accurate job descriptions. A clear description within a concise format describing the key responsibilities (5% or more of a job's time) is vital if an employee is to know what is to be done on the job. Along with a job description that is signed by the employee, you should have clearly established standards and/or goals of each job. Without them, how can an employee know how to define "success" within the position? Having inaccurate, out-of-date job descriptions can cause more confusion and frustration for employees than having no job descriptions.

3. Having untrained management administer performance reviews. A performance review is only as accurate as the person presenting it. Without prior training in feedback, discipline, discrimination, leadership and organizational policies, it is not possible to conduct fair, non-discriminate performance reviews. All too often a manager will complete the review and give their comments without having one piece of objective data or an event to support his/her comments. This could be considered discrimination and if argued, would be one person's word against another's without actual data supporting the "job well done" or "unsatisfactory performance."

4. Not having all termination decisions reviewed by a central person. When terminations arise, using a well-trained human resource professional or legal counsel to review the issues and documentation before the termination is the best way to avoid unnecessary problems. This person should be the "clearinghouse" for all controversial hiring or firing decisions. Not only will this person's training enable them to spot problems, it will also help provide consistency across the organization for employment decisions, while avoiding potential discrimination problems.

5. Making promises you cannot keep in recruiting. In every state, an organization can get into legal trouble for misrepresenting a job to a prospective employee. As employers, we have an obvious incentive to make a job sound as good as possible when recruiting people. Nevertheless, before you entice someone to quit his or her job and move to your organization and location, think twice about making any promises about how long the job will last, the potential for advancement, or the potential for future compensation.

6. Not having a clear vision, mission and set of values. If every employee in the organization is not clear as to where "there" or "success" is, ambiguity and poor results will almost always follow. The only way to ensure the clarity of direction is to live and demonstrate the vision ("what it is like if we succeed") and the mission ("who we are, what we are doing, and who we are doing it for") of the organization. Also vital are the values of the ministry. Values are the cornerstones of the organization and if they are compromised, the building will fall.

7. Asking employees about their criminal record. It is perfectly legal and prudent to ask applicants about prior felonies or misdemeanors that directly relate to their potential job; however, employers can only inquire about convictions, not arrests, and they must tell the potential employees that answering "yes" will not necessarily preclude them from employment. In addition, employers cannot ask about cases where the criminal record has been sealed or expunged (perhaps because the employee successfully completed a diversion program). If you do not want to hire people who answer "yes" to your conviction question, make sure you have good criteria for why and have confirmed it with legal counsel.

8. Bypassing the reference check. Many organizations (properly) have the policy that all requests for reference (with a signature of allowance) are answered in writing by human resources solely with a verification of employment, wages, and dates only. However, you would be surprised how many employers do not follow that policy or "let it slip." If a manager gives out information that is not "100%" truthful, with a bit of their opinion included, a problem could result. On the other side, Theodore Roosevelt once shared "if you are willing to lie for me, someday you will lie to me." According to the American Management Association, over 50% of all applicants are not truthful on their resume or application.It is vital to ensure a job candidate is accurately represented on their resume by checking all references of employment and education from all past employers.

9. Misclassifying employees. Believing an employee is exempt from overtime simply because you pay him or her a salary, call them an "independent contractor" when he or she works only for you, or assuming no overtime is owed because he or she works for one part of the organization 5 hours in the morning and another part of the organization 5 hours in the evening cannot only get you sued by the employee, it may very well bring up an audit by the Department of Labor or the IRS. This is still the #1 area of concern for the Department of Labor as they examine the labor practices of organizations across America.

10. Not having a good human resource consultant on your team. If your organization is small or medium-sized, it is a great support to have someone with the knowledge and expertise needed for any size organization to be simply a call away. The HR and labor responsibilities for a small organization are very close to being the same as one with 1,000 employees.

Ronald F. Smedley is president of Synergistic Resource Associates in Placentia, CA a full-service human resource/development consulting firm centering on the needs of the small to medium sized employer. Visit www.sraonline.net for more information.