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(Editor’s Note: Today’s article is brought to you by our friends at Poster Guard® Compliance Protection, a division of HRdirect and the leading labor law poster service that gets your business up to date with all required federal, state, and local labor law postings, and then keeps it that way — for an entire year. Enjoy the article!)
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for investigating charges of discrimination against employers who are covered by federal anti-discrimination laws. Most employers with at least 15 employees are covered under EEOC laws. In situations of age discrimination, it’s 20 employees. Most labor unions and employment agencies are also covered. EEO laws apply to all types of work situations including hiring, wages, benefits, training, harassment, promotions, and firing.
The reason I’m sharing the role of the EEOC is because on October 20, 2022, the EEOC issued a new “Know Your Rights” poster. This poster replaces the “EEO is the Law” poster. Covered employers are required to display this poster at their work site.
This might mean that your organization needs to update their poster – and you want to do it now. The last thing an organization wants is for employees to see outdated compliance posters. It sends the message that following the law isn’t important and might cause job candidates or employees to wonder, “What else isn’t the company keeping up with?” Non-compliance can also result in penalties, fines, and increased exposure in the event of litigation.
Now that you’re in the market for a new poster, please take a moment to think about your overall compliance poster strategy. This is a moment where HR has the opportunity to move from being reactive to proactive when it comes to employment law compliance.
Let’s step back for a second from the immediate need of the new EEO poster. Nationwide, there are about 175 different state and federal government agencies that are responsible for more than 400 mandatory posters, and many more on a local level. According to our friends at Poster Guard, they tracked more than 200 federal, state, and local mandatory poster updates last year. Think of all the hours it takes to maintain compliance in this area. Is that how HR wants to spend their time?! I think not.
Instead of doing all this work yourself, check out Poster Guard’s Compliance Poster Service. With this service, you would receive an up-to-date federal poster, which includes the new EEO poster PLUS the other five federal mandatory posters. The service also includes all the up-to-date state and local posters for your location(s). But to me, this is the best part…for the next twelve months, you would get new posters every time a mandatory change occurs . . . automatically with no additional cost. Poster Guard provides a 100% guarantee that the posters are compliant – or they’ll pay any government posting fine.
Honestly, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. This is money well spent. As HR professionals, researching labor law poster changes is just not a good use of our time. Especially when there are companies like Poster Guard with teams of people led by attorneys who can do it for you – effectively and efficiently. This frees up HR’s time to focus on hiring, engaging, and retaining employees.
So, go get your new EEO poster. And while you’re at it, think about how you want to maintain compliance posters moving forward. This is the perfect time to move from a reactive compliance strategy to a proactive one by signing up for a compliance poster service. The organization maintains compliance. HR spends their time on projects that need their attention. And employees know the company cares about following the law.
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Satyajit Mallick says
It’s a fascinating subject to explore.