The Perks And Pitfalls Of Employee Handbooks Webinar

Speaker: Tiffany Thomas, Spring Law

About This Webinar

For most employers we consult with, preparing and distributing employee handbooks seems like just one obvious step in setting up or maintaining a healthy workplace. While employee handbooks can be a great tool to help organize the do’s and don’ts of the workplace along with important (and sometimes legally required) employer policies, you may not be aware of some of the potential problems lurking in your handbook. In this masterclass, we will explore some important potential perks and pitfalls of employee handbooks:

  1. Perk: An employee handbook can be a helpful vehicle for employers to convey their expectations for their employees (for example to convey your expectations when it comes to identifying the employee’s workplace or detailed accounts of the goings on in that workplace on an employee’s personal social media accounts) especially seeing as how you can’t typically include every expectation in the employment contract.
  2. Pitfall: Many employers want and expect the relationship between the organization and the employee to be bound by the expectations, responsibilities, and policies outlined in the handbook.
  3. Perk: By rolling out the handbook at the right time and by including legally compliant policies, you will likely provide your employees with the information they need to know and information that most lawyers and courts will expect them to know.
  4. Pitfall: It’s easy to feel like you may be a step ahead when it comes to your employee handbook because you can look to a company handbook that was created for a branch of the company that operates in another jurisdiction (whether that be another province or even another country), but generally our tip here is to beware!

About the Speaker:

Tiffany is a labour and employment lawyer with a passion and natural predisposition for practical problem-solving.

Tiffany articled with the country’s largest school board. During this time, she gained a specialized understanding of labour and employment, human rights, and family law within the education field. After completing her articles, Tiffany spent the next three years in the labour department of the Board focusing on problem-solving and litigating issues arising in the Board’s very large and diverse unionized workforce. She dealt with a large volume of workplace issues including health and safety, employee accommodations, discipline and termination, harassment and discrimination complaints and investigations, job competitions and posting disputes, collective agreement interpretation and policy issues within the context of several of the Board’s collective agreements. Tiffany also assisted with the negotiation of collective agreements.

Tiffany’s goal is to provide legal services in an approachable and accessible way. She aims to ensure that whatever the legal problem, her client understands the legal complexities and nuances and the solution to the problem. Tiffany enjoys working with clients and assisting them in identifying their legal rights and creating, fostering and maintaining effective workplaces. While Tiffany seeks practical answers to legal questions, she will stand her ground when it is necessary.

Tiffany generally splits her time between London, Ontario and Toronto. She spends her time outside of work with her family, friends and her beloved rescue dog, Penny. While on her long morning walks, Tiffany regularly stops other dogs on the street to tell them how cute they are. She is a massive Toronto Raptors fan, enjoys fashion, live music and cliche mystery novels and is an avid Wheel of Fortune Watcher.

What’s Included

In addition to 1 hour of in-depth compliance and training sessions with experienced lawyers, consultants, and other experts:

  • Q&A sessions: An opportunity to ask questions and if time is limited, a response will be sent following the event.
  • Video recordings of each session.
  • Exclusive materials
  • CE credits

Who Needs To Be There?

  • OHS managers, consultants, and others
  • Human resources managers, consultants, and others
  • Labour relations managers, consultants, and others
  • Business owners
  • Corporate Counsel
  • Union Management
  • Finance and accounting managers responsible for HR
  • Payroll Managers