The Most Important Responsibilities of An Employer

Being a company employer is a position that carries a huge responsibility with it. As a leader, you are held accountable for most of the things that happen within the firm. Whether your business can be deemed successful or not depends on many different factors, and the gross annual income is just one of them. 

Arguably, what’s even more pertinent than the amount of money your company makes per year is the way you treat your employees. Any good business owner knows that the connection she or he establishes with people who work in the firm also determines the level of success the company will have in the long run. That’s why, in this article, we’re going to talk about some of the most important obligations and responsibilities you as an employer have towards the employees. If you take these instances into account, you’ll certainly be on the right path of creating the place everyone dreams of working at.

Important Responsibilities of Every Employer:

Recruitment Process

There’s simply no other way around it: becoming the employer starts with the recruitment process. It’s essential to begin things on the right note, so you want to make sure that you hire the right people.

Some company leaders or recruitment managers tend to take a more lackadaisical approach towards this and hire, for example, only the people whose resumes look good. What they’re potentially risking with this kind of hiring strategy is employing the individuals that just won’t fit in well with the rest of the staff. 

If you don’t pay attention to the recruitment process, you can end up creating many problems for your company. It is your duty to take a more meticulous and serious approach towards these matters because a couple of wrong hires can steer the entire company in a bad direction. Make sure to appoint and sign up only those individuals that you’re absolutely certain that they’ll get along nicely with the rest of the group.

Taking Care of Your Employees

Once you’ve made sure that you’ve taken on the right people, it’s time to take care of them properly. Each and every one of your workers should be provided with health and safety protection. Although in many countries it’s not guaranteed by law to have a certain duty of care towards them, there’s still a health and safety legislation that most companies should stick to. This legislation mainly revolves around strictly following the procedures that allow the workers to be taken care of in terms of physical or mental health, especially when/if they perform some potentially dangerous and risky tasks.

This means that, in some cases, you’re obliged to provide protection to your employees, if their job includes dealing with emergency situations. But even if this is not the case, it’s strongly advised to take all the reasonable steps to make sure that your employees are healthy and safe. It’s not just about their overall well-being that you should be concerned about – the future of your company revolves around and depends on the level of happiness and contentment of your workers.

Written Contract of Employment

It’s also your duty to provide your employees with a written statement of employment. This is the statement that usually contains all the important details and information about basic terms and conditions. The written contract of employment is a piece of paper that not only protects the worker but the employer, as well.

In regards to these basic terms and conditions, the document should contain details on pay, number of hours per day or a week, holiday entitlement, rest days, pensions, sick leave, notice periods, disciplinary procedures, and so on. If you don’t have a signed contract with your employees, you’re facing many potential problems in the future. 

It’s not just that you avoid any possible confusion about some of the terms and conditions, but you should also be aware that you need to have this statement signed by law. Save yourself from any unwanted issues and have this contract ready for each and every one of your employees as soon as they step into your firm. It is recommended to have contract management software in place to keep all the records digitally safe. 

Equal Rights

The next thing you need to do, when it comes to acting responsibly as a company employer or a manager is to advocate equal rights for all your employees. This is one of the most crucial things you can do to ensure your firm continues to further progress and grow – treat all your employees fairly. 

Not only is it your responsibility to comply with the equal pay act, which states that men and women doing the same job must be paid at the same rate, but you also have to treat employees with disabilities fairly. This means that you need to provide equal opportunity to qualified applicants with disabilities, when you’re selecting, testing, and hiring candidates. 

You also have to provide equal opportunity in promotion and benefits. In order to learn more about these things in detail, we recommend you to hire professional services like those that NDIS consultants provide. That way you’ll know for sure that you’re fulfilling your obligations and responsibilities in this regard. You’ll also make sure that you’re treating all your employees and applicants equally under federal, state, or local civil rights laws.

Anti-Bullying Stance

While we’re on the subject of treating your employees fairly, it’s also of prime importance to convey an anti-bullying stance. This means that there needs to be absolutely zero tolerance when it comes to any kind of worker discrimination. These things simply can’t take place in your organization, and this ought to be a huge part of your office culture.

Things like bigotry, homophobia, xenophobia, religious intolerance and other forms of discrimination should be banished altogether, and your company needs to set the right example here. We recommend you to take preventative measures and make sure that no employee of yours is bullied or discriminated against, in any form. Those individuals who fail to comply with this rule should be disciplined or penalized in some way.

Pay

This is something that should go without saying and some employers don’t even fulfill one of their most essential obligations and responsibilities, which is ensuring that employees get paid for their work. Each worker needs to be compensated according to their contract of employment.

Every country has the law on the minimum wage, so it’s your duty to pay at least this minimum rate to your workers. It’s also your responsibility as an employer to pay attention to the age of your workers and to increase pay when necessary.

You also need to make sure that you pay your workers not just when they show up, but when they’re off sick, on a holiday vacation, or on a family-related leave.

Rest Periods and Time Off

Speaking of holidays, vacations, and family-related leaves, you also have to ensure that your employees have enough time to rest and recuperate. Again, this is something that benefits both parties greatly. You can’t expect your workers to be productive, fully focused, and ready to perform their tasks at hand if you don’t see that they are getting repose and intermission from their work.

What’s interesting to mention is that people actually tend to perform better and do more when they work less. That’s why some countries are seriously considering abandoning the 40-hour of work per week regime, and switch to 30 hours per week, for example. There are also some initiatives that a regular workweek should be 4, instead of 5 working days. Again, it’s important to understand that this is something that’s good both for the employer and the employees. Workers who are generally more satisfied with their lives and jobs are significantly more efficient than those who work almost without rest.

We recommend you to seriously consider implementing some of the strategies mentioned above. The tendency to move away from these regular working patterns which often lead to symptoms of stress and burnout should be revised, reassessed, and modified.

Final Thoughts

In this article, we wanted to cover some of the most important obligations and responsibilities that you as an employer should follow and stick to. These include going through the recruitment process thoroughly and meticulously, making sure that you accept your duty of care, and giving all your employees a written contract as soon as they start to work at your company.

On top of these things, it’s of utmost importance that you treat each individual equally, which means things such as complying with the equal pay act and giving equal opportunity to qualified applicants with disabilities. It’s also crucial to convey an anti-bullying stance, pay your workers the money that they’ve earned and deserve, and to give them rest periods and time off, according to the contract they’ve signed. Only by making sure that you follow all these tips that we’ve mentioned in this article, you can hope to run a truly successful and prosperous company. Don’t miss out on your chance to grow and lead your employees to a better future.