Don’t Overlook Employee Handouts: Understanding This Compliance Requirement

You’ve gotten the message loud and clear: To comply with federal and state labor laws (and inform employees of their rights), you must display certain postings in the workplace. But did you know these postings may not be enough? Employers also are required by law to personally distribute various notices to employees. These notices cover specific topics and are triggered by a handful of employee-related events. Just like labor law posters, these vary from state to state — and change frequently due to new or updated laws.

Why Employee Handouts? And When?

Labor law postings inform employees of their rights and protections under key laws, such as the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Many of the agencies that issue these postings also require employers to provide informational handouts advising employees of their rights and responsibilities. The topics addressed in employee handouts can include:

• Medical leave
• Workers’ compensation
• Sexual harassment in the workplace
• Pregnancy accommodations
• Health benefits

The reasons for providing these handouts vary. Depending on the underlying state or federal law, these handouts may be required for all newly hired employees or under certain situations. Event-based incidents requiring notifications can include:

• Enrollment in employee benefits
• Request for medical leave
• Notice of injury
• Pregnancy
• Termination

While this seems straightforward, there are two major issues with employee handouts. First, most employers aren’t aware of the need for these handouts. Second, it can be complicated and a drain on resources to obtain these notifications from the various government agencies (and in some cases, samples are not provided, and the notices have to be written from scratch based on statutory guidelines).

Get the Upper Hand with an All-Inclusive Posting AND Handout Solution

The Poster Guard 1 Smart App features mandatory, federal and state-specific employee handouts along with the necessary federal, state and local postings for your single-site business. The handouts in this app are backed by the same in-house legal team that monitors your workplace posting requirements, so you can be confident these handouts are accurate, up-to-date and legally approved. Within the app, you can download your handouts, then edit (with fillable fields), save, print and distribute to employees as needed. You’ll also receive instructions with each employee handout to help you know when and how to use these notices. Finally, the employee handouts in this app are organized by event so you have quick, easy access to the right handouts at the right times.