by Mary Beth Barry
It’s that time of year when we typically plan our personal goals and it’s also a good idea to incorporate them into our professional world.
Goals are a great way to set milestones, help you to prioritize what’s most important to your organization and can assist you with focusing on and staying on track with living out your mission and core values. And in the case of the goals listed below, they can help mitigate your risk of lawsuits or penalties by governmental agencies and ensure that your civil liberties as a CBA member and as a Catholic employer are protected.
Ensure compliance in your organization!
With each new year come new regulations and laws, 2023 is no exception. Employers must comply with employment practices to ensure a safe and fair workplace for all their employees. This can include following applicable laws, regulations, and other labor standards.
Catholic teachings support the idea of fairness and justice in the workplace. For example, the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16 shows that God desires employers to treat their employees equitably and without favoritism.
Employers should consider the quality of the workplace environment and the quality of life for their employees. Employers should strive to create a safe and healthy work environment and to provide fair wages and working conditions. This is not only an ethical responsibility, but one that will ultimately benefit the employer. By having employees who are safe, healthy, and fairly compensated, employers will see increased morale, productivity, and retention.
Additionally, when organizations fail to respect and comply with the laws put in place by regulating authorities, this may result in employees not being up to date on rules and laws that impact them as well as potential penalties to employers who do not comply, and the results can be extremely damaging.
Where do you start?
- Make it a priority to become familiar with state and federal laws, legislation, or mandates and any updates or changes to them.
- Start with a quick search of your state’s new 2023 employment laws. And then do the same for any new federal laws.
- There are many good on-line resources for you to reference. The U.S. Department of Labor has an e-laws poster advisor and a compliance assistance webpage, and most state departments of labor websites provide a list of state employment poster requirements. If you have a SHRM membership, consult their resources.
- Decide which of these are applicable to your organization and become familiar with them and their impact to your organization. Consult your legal counsel regarding all compliance requirements.
- Communicate and post.
- Update posters or notices in a conspicuous location so they are easily visible to the intended audience. Remember, there are also some posters that must be visible by applicants.
- Consider different ways to communicate changes that may impact a significant number of employees, such as a new paid leave policy. Think about doing an extra staff meeting, conducting a lunch and learn session, posting FAQs, or posting a quick informational video or webinar.
But what if a compliance poster conflicts with Catholic values and beliefs like the new updated EEOC language does? We recommend that you still post the EEOC posters as legally most employers are obligated to do so. However, we are preparing a more in-depth response to this important question. Stay tuned for a thoughtful and detailed CBA response to this conflict in the next few weeks.
4. Audit and adjust as necessary.
a. Make sure you review the necessary employee pieces for compliance. Are wages aligned with new minimum wage laws, do job postings comply with pay transparency laws, are forms updated to reflect new IRS mileage rates or W4 guidelines etc.?Strengthen your Catholic identity!
In order for our members to ensure that the protections we’ve won from government mandates are appropriately secured, they must ensure that their Catholic identity is clearly communicated in employment practices throughout the organization.
Applying better Catholic HR practices is an issue of human dignity and social justice and your mission and how you are called to love God and neighbor should be strong.
Where do you start?
- Start with reviewing all things related to your organization’s employment experience.
Below is a simple checklist of the places that you will want to review:
- Websites: both external and internal.
- Don’t just update your main page, update each tab.
- This may be the first place that potential employees will look when interested in working for you.
- Benefit plans including SPDs, employee handouts etc.
- Job postings/ads-both external and internal
- Employment Applications
- Orientation materials such as training documents, handouts, forms
- Employee handbooks and policy manuals
- Are your mission and values clearly communicated throughout?
- Performance Reviews
- Disciplinary/Performance Improvement Plan forms
- Job Descriptions
- Interview Questions *
- Exit Interviews *
*While not public/employee facing, these should clearly communicate your Catholic identity to external and internal candidates.
- Determine which of these items need to be updated. Consider:
- Start small. Decide which key items you want to focus on. Plan to update those items that get the most visibility.
- Determine which key players in your organization will need to be involved in reviewing and updating (HR, legal, finance, Church leaders)
- Be realistic about what you may be able to update. Some of these tasks may not be able to be accomplished readily. It’s ok to resolve to do these things over the next year.
Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed if many of your documents need an update. Remember the CBA is here to support you.
- Check out our easily accessible templates in our Members Only Room https://www.cbamembersonlyroom.org/ .
- Members are entitled to a free review and audit of any of the above items. We can suggest language or enhancements that strengthen your Catholic identity, do not conflict with Catholic teaching and help enhance your CBA protections.
Catholic employers should strive to treat their employees equitably and with respect. Galatians 6:7, states, “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” This means that employers should sow good and fair practices in the workplace and will ultimately reap the benefits of their efforts.
As we are seeing more and more court rulings against Catholic employers, it is more important now than ever for leaders and HR professionals to consider their role in ensuring that they are compliant with laws and regulations. Catholic employers must clearly demonstrate their Catholic identity in order to maximize their CBA protections but also to help employees and future employees be aware of and understand the values and beliefs associated with their organization.
If you have questions on how to better incorporate your Catholic identity into these or other employment related documents, please reach out to Mary Beth Barry marybeth@catholicbenefitsassociation.org. Additionally, please contact her if you are interested in having her review your HR documents or policies from a Catholic perspective. She can provide suggested language to improve the Catholic identity in your employment documents.