This blog was originally published in December 2013 but has been reviewed and updated for 2025.
It’s that time of year again to reflect on this year’s achievements and set goals for the new year. With the beginning of 2025 upon us, we encourage managers, supervisors, and human resources personnel to add the following five resolutions to their 2025 goals.
- Update Personnel Rules, Policies and Regulations
The California legislature was customarily active in 2024 in passing new obligations for employers. There also were several changes to federal employment laws over the last few years. For example, SB 1100 amends the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) to place restrictions on the ability of employers to include statements on the need for a driver’s license in job postings and similar materials. SB 1137 also amends the FEHA to prohibit discrimination based on a combination (e.g. intersectionality) of any two or more protected statuses. These two recent changes alone will require employers to update their policies, job descriptions and hiring-related documents. Therefore, public employers are encouraged to audit all policies to ensure they reflect current law.
- Adopt an AI Policy
Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) tools and technology are becoming ubiquitous in our society. Indeed, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Department of Labor have issued guidance on AI in the workplace that address topics such as tracking hours worked and biased AI resume screening tools. As AI tools become more widely available, public employers should adopt AI policies that set forth the parameters on employees’ use of AI to perform their job duties. Such policies should address responsible and effective use of AI that will help agencies enhance their services to the public.
- Audit Your Agency’s MOUs
Heading into negotiations? Take some time in 2025 to audit your labor agreements. A labor agreement audit is a legal compliance review and internal analysis of contract language. Agencies should regularly audit their agreements to ensure legal compliance, which can help avoid litigation and potential fines. For example, CalPERS and FLSA compensation often overlap and auditing a labor agreement for compliance on both issues is an efficient way to avoid costly errors in the future. Labor agreement audits can also help identify ambiguous language that may be subject to multiple interpretations. Identifying these gaps allows both parties to negotiate clarifying provisions in upcoming negotiations.
- Evaluate Your Agency’s Handling of Disability-Related Issues
Employee disability-related issues are among the most complicated and confusing that employers face. It is critical that employers understand their obligations under disability laws. This includes understanding the interaction between the disability interactive process, workers’ compensation, FMLA/CFRA, pregnancy-related laws, fitness for duty examinations, and CalPERS disability retirement. Knowing the differences between these laws and how to comply with each of them will help employers navigate through employee disability-related issues.
- Document, Document, and Document
The importance of good documentation cannot be emphasized enough. Whether you have just completed a disability interactive process meeting or counseled an employee on performance issues, it is critical to create and maintain documentation of these interactions. When writing annual performance evaluations, employers should make sure they accurately and honestly reflect the employee’s work over the preceding 12-month period. Regular documentation of communications with and actions taken towards employees can be used to support discipline. It can also be used as tool to give feedback to and motivate employees.
Following through on these five resolutions will go a long way towards strengthening your agency and reducing the risk of lawsuits and unfair practice charges. If your agency needs assistance with implementing these resolutions, our offices are ready to help.