Employee Relations

One of the first things to understand in fashioning practices and policies, and even day-to-day dealings with employees, is the difference between employment law and employee relations. The first is, as its name suggests, a matter of the law, or what an employer and employee are legally obligated do and to refrain from doing in dealing with each other and in operating in their respective roles as they relate to or affect the other.

That is to be distinguished from the policies and practices adopted by an employer about the employees that are intended to make for efficient, mutually beneficial, operations in a dental office. Ultimately, of course, the objective is to provide quality professional services that are good for patients and profitable for the dental practice, and good employee relations is not a small part of achieving that objective.

There is considerable overlap between employment law and employee relations, and many employment policies may be adopted specifically for the purpose of complying with a particular employment law that the employer is obligated to follow. But it is important to understand there is a difference, and to bear that in mind in implementing and enforcing or following all employment policies and practices in the dental office.

Because employers and their human resources professionals usually are not lawyers, the best approach to this is to draft written employment policies and practices, as well as written training materials and training programs, to accomplish both objectives (compliance with the law and furtherance of chosen employee relations objectives) and seek advice from legal counsel to make sure the policies in fact comply with the law, and that the efforts to achieve chosen employee relations objectives do not run afoul of the law either (for instance, improperly drafted diversity policies may end up actually violating the laws that prohibit discrimination).

Armed with that, the human resources professionals and dental office managers and professionals should focus, not on complying with the law, but on complying with the dental office policies and procedures. A common mistake among HR professionals is to try to comply with the law, when in fact their expertise is in complying with employer policies and practices that have been drafted to both comply with the law and achieve employee relations objectives.

There are dozens of laws that expressly or directly regulate the employment relationship, and probably dozens more that indirectly or implicitly regulate the workplace or the working relationship between employers and employees. Some of those might be federal laws passed by the United States Congress, or regulations promulgated by a federal government agency, some may be state laws passed by the Pennsylvania legislature or promulgated by state agencies. Still other employment laws have been passed by Pennsylvania cities and counties that apply enforce them within their own borders. The principal laws are listed in the next section to give a sense of the scope of what an employer must comply with.

The scope of those laws is one of the reasons it is best for HR professionals and managers to focus on practicing and enforcing the employer’s policies and procedures, rather than trying to “comply with the law,” but it is also the reason employers must be vigilant to have legal counsel review their policies on a regular basis, to be sure they are up to date and complete.