Workplace Posters: Are You in Compliance?

Staying in compliance may be a bit more complicated this year, especially if you’re managing a remote workforce or a partially remote workforce. One thing to keep in mind is required workplace posters.  MP’s HR services provides advice on how to stay in compliance when it comes to workplace posters—whether your team is remote or on-site.    

Workplace Posters You May Need to Share 

Has your team been sharing all the labor law posters that they are required to?  Depending on your industry, the location of the workplace, and the size of your company, you may be required to share certain posters.  You may also be required to share different posters in different branches, especially if they are in different locations.  Below are the kinds of posters that employers may need to share.  If you work with HR consulting like MP’s, you can also bring this up with them to ensure you’re sharing all the posters that you’re required to.  

10 Types of Posters Your Workplace May Need to Share 

1. Sick leave
2. PFML 
3. Workplace safety posters
4. Parental leave
5. Antidiscrimination
6. Smoking Posters
7. Minimum wage
8. Meal break 
9. Child labor
10. State or city-specific posters        

Remote Workers and Onsite workers 

If your team is working remotely, you’re still responsible for sharing workplace posters.  The Department of Labor (DOL) has released guidance to help employers with sharing workplace posters for remote and onsite workers.   

For onsite workers, posting requirements can usually be satisfied by putting posters on a bulletin board in a lobby, breakroom, or anywhere that’s well-trafficked.    

For workers that are remote, there are a few tactics.  Notices that need to be shared with each employee individually can be emailed once if employees do (at least occasionally) receive emails from their employers.  For notices that must be continually shared, like FLSA and FMLA posters, employers need to share the poster in a way that is accessible to employees at all times.  They also need to let the employees know how and where to access postings.  If, for instance, they share a poster on an intranet nobody uses, this is insufficient.  If they only email it once, this is also insufficient.   

Employers should note that if part of their workforce is remote and part of it onsite, they need to satisfy posting requirements for both kinds of employees.  Onsite employees need to be able to see the posters in their breakroom, etc.  Remote employees must be able to look at posters on a company website, etc.   

Posters for Applicants 

Besides posters for their employees, workplace must also share three federal employment law posters with any job applicants: 

1. FMLA 
2. Employee Polygraph Protection Act 
3. Equal Employment Opportunity 

For applicants that come into the office, the posters can be shared in a high-traffic area, like the lobby or the room interviews are done in.  With new remote and online job applicants, the DOL has shared similar advice as above about sharing posters.  They can create a link to the posters on their websites.  The DOL specifically states that employers should write “Applicants have rights under Federal Employment Laws” and hyperlink this text to the three posters above.  If an employer has both in-person and remote applicants, they need to post for both, just as they must post for both onsite and remote workers.   

Procuring Workplace Posters 

For employers who don’t have all the posters they need, procurement should be fairly easy.  DOL posters are provided for free on their website.  If a state or city poster must be shared, these can usually be found on the local government website.  As mentioned above, if an employer is working with MP’s HR consulting, they can also help with finding these posters.  MP clients can even have all-in-one federal and state labor law posters printed for their workplaces, customized with all applicable posters for their location and company size.