Employment Practices and Volunteer Management
Good employees are one of your organization’s greatest assets. As an employer, it is essential that you manage your employees and protect them from harm and hazards, such as discrimination and harassment. Whether you manage one employee or a thousand, if you don’t implement effective employment practices and adhere to employment related standards and legislation, your organization will be open to various risk of liability, such as wrongful dismissal, sexual harassment, discrimination, wrongful discipline, failure to employ or promote, negligent supervision, and invasion of privacy. Effective employment practice includes developing appropriate policies for hiring, disciplining and terminating employees, ensuring fairness and consistency, as well as ensuring workplace safety. Keep in mind that your policies must be consistent with the employment codes and standards of the applicable legislations in your province or territory.
Volunteers are another major asset for your organization that must also be managed and protected from harm. In most community organizations, volunteers engage in a wide range of activities and can have similar levels of responsibility as employees. The only difference is that volunteers are unpaid. It is important to note that most paid employment principles also apply to non-paid volunteer situations. Volunteers have many of the same legal rights and liabilities as regular employees and therefore management of volunteers often raises the same legal issues. In this regard, it is a good idea to apply the same employment practices, where applicable, to manage your volunteers and also to reduce the risk of liability for your organization and its directors and officers.
The following is a list of some suggestions to help manage employees' and volunteers' related risks:
1. Put policies and procedures in writing
Written policies and procedures are the starting point for effective employment practices.
They ensure consistency, provide evidence of your policies in case you need to defend them in court or at a human rights tribunal and reduce the possibility that your conduct will be challenged as subjective or discriminatory.
You need to also communicate your policies and procedures to your employees and volunteers. Compiling an employee and volunteer handbook or human resource manual is the easiest way to do this. It is good idea to obtain written confirmation from each employee that he/she has read, understood, and agrees to abide by the provisions in the manual.
2. Be deliberate in the hiring process
Avoid illegal discrimination in hiring and negligent hiring. Discrimination in hiring employees and volunteers occurs where the provisions of human rights legislation if applicable in your province or territory is violated. Negligent hiring occurs when an organization places an unfit or unqualified person in an employment or volunteer situation, thus putting others (for example, employees, volunteers, clients) at risk.
Organizations are expected to take all reasonable precautions during the hiring process to identify employees and volunteers who may pose a risk to others. Thorough reference checks, including criminal records checks to determine if the employee or volunteers will be working with vulnerable populations (such as minors, seniors and people with disabilities), are the best way to avoid accusations of negligent hiring.
Document the hiring decision to show that your hiring decisions are based on legitimate grounds and your hiring procedure is consistent. Interviews are the most common selection procedure and also the most subjective. To avoid the appearance of discrimination, interviews should be conducted by more than one staff member and follow a written script to ensure that all applicants are asked the same questions. It is also advisable to train staff members in interview techniques so that they understand which questions are most likely to raise liability concerns.
3. Have written job descriptions
Written job descriptions should be developed for every position in your organization, whether employed or volunteer.
At a minimum, the job description should include the following:
Job Title
The title should give some sense of the duties of the position and level of responsibility it entails.
Job Identification
Note the name of the department or position of the supervisor to whom the position reports. Identify whether the position is part-time or full-time.
Responsibilities
List the activities the person holding the position will carry out.
Qualifications
List any skills or abilities that are critical to successful job performance, including degrees, licenses, registrations, second language skills, knowledge of specific computer software or hardware, etc.
4. Strive for consistency
The perception of disparate treatment leads to countless claims and lawsuits against employers. The “consistent treatment” test asks, “How have other employees in this situation been treated?” The best way to ensure consistency is to involve an objective third-party who can review the situation before your organization takes adverse action.
5. Strive for fairness
The main components of fairness as it relates to employment practices include: affording employees respect, courtesy, equal treatment and opportunities, a forum to address grievances, and, a process for giving notice of poor performance and an opportunity to improve prior to discharge (except when a serious violation of workplace rules or ethics has occurred).
6. Handle terminations carefully
Given the risky nature of employee terminations as well as termination of volunteers, extreme caution should be the general rule, particularly for employees. Never terminate an employee on the spot. If the employee's performance is unsatisfactory, termination should only occur after a reasonable opportunity for rehabilitation has been afforded the employee. If the employee's conduct is the decisive factor in the termination, make sure that the conduct is documented and that the employee was on notice that the conduct was inappropriate. In cases of outrageous, dangerous, unprofessional or illegal conduct, when immediate termination seems the only prudent response, first suspend the employee, investigate, and then terminate, if appropriate. Legal advice must be obtained to determine if termination of employees is to be done with cause or without cause and how the termination is to be implemented.
7. Develop Human Rights and Sexual Harassment Policies
Finally, you should also consider developing a policy concerning accommodation of members of disadvantaged groups identified in the human rights code applicable in your province or territory and a policy concerning sexual harassment.
