Best Practices in Employment Law.

No area of the law has seen as much change and growth in the past few decades as employment and human rights laws. It's a constant challenge to stay ahead of these changes and keep your organization out of legal "hot water". This article explores some of the potential risk factors and the strategies you can employ to prevent problems, complaints and litigation.

Hiring

Risk Factor:

Potential employees lie or misrepresent themselves on their resumes.

Background:

Estimates vary but somewhere between 30 - 65% of candidates lie or exaggerate their qualifications when applying for jobs. This includes false claims about educational qualifications and listing work experience the candidate simply doesn't have.

Obviously, the problem is that you may end up hiring people who aren't qualified for the job. If you later find out that they have misrepresented themselves, you may well wish to terminate them.

Prevention Strategy:

The law says you may terminate an employee who lies on his or her resume if the matter is serious and you would not have hired the candidate had you known the truth.

To strengthen your right to terminate with cause and prevent lies or exaggerations, require all candidates to complete a detailed application form before you hire them. The form should ask for a complete job history and educational background. It must be signed by the candidate and should stipulate that you have the right to disqualify the candidate from the competition or terminate his or her employment for making false statements.

Risk Factor:

You hire someone who later claims that you misrepresented the scope of the job, and he or she sues you for wrongful hiring.

Background:

A number of disgruntled employees have successfully sued for wrongful hiring. The basis of their claim is that they were told that the job for which they were applying had certain responsibilities and compensation. They agreed to work for the organization, only to discover the job falls far short of their expectations. This type of situation usually arises when an eager employer goes too far in trying to sell the job to a desirable candidate.

Prevention Strategy:

Give the potential employee an up-to-date and accurate job description. This should outline the parameters of the position. It should also stipulate that you have the right to make reasonable changes to the employee's job duties. Your letter of offer or employment agreement should also provide an overview of the position and allow you to modify it.