One of the biggest challenges facing employers is that workplace conditions are constantly changing. Whether it be as a result of certain economic realities, competition, personnel matters, or the ever-changing legal landscape, it is important for employers to have up-to-date employment-related agreements, policies, and procedures. As a result, we believe that the best way to help our employer-clients insulate their organization from legal liability is to take a proactive approach. We have developed a unique product for our clients to help them avoid costly legal liability in employment matters. This product is called the Workplace Diagnosis and Tune-up.
The Diagnosis. We have developed a diagnostic service whereby we visit our clients to review all employment-related agreements, policies, and procedures—the “inventory”. We then provide our clients with a comprehensive diagnostic report on how their organization is meeting its objectives of addressing workplace conditions. This report is a cost-effective way for our employer-clients to see how they are doing, where they’re going, where they should be going, and how to get there, while keeping up with current legal trends.
Our experience in providing this diagnostic service to large, small, unionized or non-unionized employers has convinced us that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Therefore, once our employer-clients have received their comprehensive report, we meet with them to review how we can proactively create and update their inventory, insulating them from potential legal liability down the road—the Tune-Up.
The Tune-Up. We work with our clients to find cost-effective means of providing comprehensive, timely, and up-to-date tools to stave off future legal problems in keeping with the organization’s core values, while providing for the seamless implementation of comprehensive agreements, policies, and procedures.
In addition, our labour and employment lawyers regularly help clients prepare unique employment agreements, policies, and procedures when required. These would include offers of employment, employment contracts, non-competition and non-solicitation agreements, and independent contractor agreements. Once these are drafted, we work with the client to ensure their proper implementation and administration.
Some examples of workplace policies that we have helped our clients to draft include:
- Enhanced voluntary retirement policy
- Discrimination and human rights policy
- Workplace violence and harassment policy
- Creation of workplace handbook
- Performance improvement plan
- Attendance management policy
- Progressive discipline policy
- Privacy policy
- Social media policy
- Computer and electronic devices policy