Legal Requirements of Job Descriptions
If a job description hasn’t been updated recently, it’s a legal time bomb.
You may think of job descriptions as a recruiting tool—and they are—but they are also legal documents. Outdated, inaccurate or nonexistent job descriptions will spark trouble. Without one, good luck persuading the DOL that you’ve properly classified managers and supervisors as exempt from overtime. The same goes for turning down ADA accommodation requests. If you don’t list a job function, it’s not essential.
The world of work has changed, and job descriptions must reflect it
AI, telework and workplace tools have changed old jobs and created new ones. Your employees have assumed new tech skills, duties and responsibilities that must be reflected in their job descriptions. Consider this: At what point does your teleworker lose her exempt status when she’s doing all her own administrative work—tasks once relegated to support staff? How much overtime will you owe if you get it wrong?
Job descriptions are also essential to conducting fair and effective performance reviews, disciplining workers whose performance is subpar and designing performance improvement plans (PIPs). Without an accurate, up-to-date and worker-acknowledged job description, your chances of successfully beating back a wrongful-discharge lawsuit are dramatically reduced.
Review and update old job descriptions now, before they cause you trouble
Join us on Thursday, September 19 as we dive into everything you need to know to update your job descriptions. We’ll review sample job descriptions with some problematic language, discuss how they can be improved and walk you through the tools you need to cover your back. Taking time now to create or update job descriptions will pay huge dividends later.
We’ll provide a sample acknowledgment proving that your workers reviewed their job descriptions and agreed that they’re accurate. That’s essential if you fire them and they sue. Taking time now to create or update job descriptions will pay huge dividends later. We will show you how to get started, what to change and why you need to add reminders to your calendar once a year, at a minimum, that it’s once again time to update job descriptions.
Webinar Agenda
- The 5 benefits of a good job description, and the risks associated with outdated ones.
- The 4 federal laws that require accurate and up-to-date job descriptions, including the new Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.
- 4 simple steps to create accurate and defensible job descriptions that match industry standards and local variations—with online resources.
- How to define “essential functions” for ADA and FMLA purposes.
- Using job descriptions as a disciplinary tool to guide performance reviews and employee discipline.
- Choosing the right language that locks in an employee’s FLSA classification, avoids discrimination charges and more.
- Tips and tools for continually evaluating job descriptions to avoid misclassification errors and other legal issues throughout the year.
In this 75-minute online training, learn:
- How to avoid FLSA, ADA and FMLA claims. Discover how to correctly describe those all-important essential functions, expectations, duties, responsibilities and more.
- A step-by-step plan to write and revise. Replace “bad” wording with “good” language to eliminate red flags that may signal legal troubles.
- How and when to revise your job descriptions. Accurate job descriptions require an honest discussion with the employee about tasks and responsibilities, and a realignment of the description to match reality, or reassignment of problematic duties.
Get answers to YOUR questions from presenter…
Anniken Davenport is a noted employment law attorney and the legal analyst and senior editor of HR Employment Law Advisor and HR Specialist: Employment Law. She has authored several books, including Employer’s Practical Legal Guide and Bullet-Proof Your Employee Handbook. Anniken has served as a professor at Penn State University, where she taught business law and HR management, and she directed the Legal Studies Program at Wilson College. Her legal career includes representing government units in discrimination and other employment law cases and representing school districts in labor negotiations.
Registration bonuses included:
Everyone who signs up will receive a copy of Writing Legal & Effective Job Descriptions. This white paper identifies the benefits of drafting job descriptions, the most common legal traps and the key ingredients to include in a comprehensive, legally safe job description. Plus, it includes a 13-question self-audit tool to measure the legality and effectiveness of any job description.
You'll also receive one month of exclusive access to The HR Weekly, our comprehensive service with all the HR advice and compliance tools to simplify your job … and to keep your organization out of court. So that you continue to benefit from The HR Weekly, we will continue your subscription after that for the then-current rate, unless you tell us "no, thanks" — your choice.
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