Woohoo! Mandatory policies, postings, training, legally enforceable contracts... Actually, no client has ever told us they LOVE thinking through legal compliance for their workplace. Rather, it's the thing you have to do on top of the other revenue-generating tasks to keep the lights on.

For owner-operator employers, there is often no one to delegate this to. The internet is full of best practices and comprehensive lists of what to do, but it all eats up your time to figure out.

How to cut through the noise? What HR law compliance tasks must get done today to be legally compliant, and the nice-to-haves when you can in a quarter or two?

We advise our employer clients frequently on how to sort through the mandatory essentials, the things that will get you in trouble with the Ministry of Labour if you fail to comply. As you grow your business and bring on more people to do the additional layers, you can build on that foundation of compliance.

Where To Start?

Policies: There are a collection of workplace-related statutes that set out certain policies every Ontario employer must have. Examples include anti-harassment and violence policies, accessibility policies, and certain Employment Standards Act policies.
Postings: Ontario employers are required to post certain materials from the government in their physical and/or virtual workplace.
Training: Depending on your size and industry, employers have mandatory training obligations
Reporting: Also depending on the size of your workplace, there may be certain reporting obligations around accessibility.

In addition to the legal compliance mandated by the government, there are two highly recommended areas to frontload when getting your compliance house in order:
Anti-Discrimination: Rolling out an anti-discrimination policy is a critical due diligence step should you receive a claim of discrimination from an employee, as well as a tool of communication to your workplace about your standards of practice to hopefully minimize discrimination claims in the first place.
Contracts: Drafting and implementing employment contracts with an enforceable termination clause will not only set out clear job expectations with your candidates and team, but will also be the primary document you lean on in the rising wrongful dismissal cases. A good termination clause can manage expectations and contain the broad packages that many owner-operators find very difficult to afford.

Much of the content for these compliance steps is common from one workplace to another, but not all. Having the documents capture your workplace's unique practices will strengthen your legal compliance. Practically, having the core policies, contracts and mandatory compliance steps in place will communicate expectations to your team in a clear and relevant manner.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.