Posters Aren't Just For Teenagers
When I was a teenager, I had almost every part of my room covered with some sort of poster. There was Bobby Orr’s famous goal, the Miracle on Ice Hockey Team, Michael Jordan, and a couple others I probably don’t need to talk about.
As an employer you also get the pleasure of plastering your walls with posters. When I’m working with a client, the most prevalent questions are, “what do I need, where do they have to be, where do I get them, and why do I need them?”.
First and foremost, there is never a need to pay for a mandatory poster. Any state or federal agency that requires a poster will provide that poster free of charge. While you can certainly spend hundreds of dollars on poster services, there is no need to ever spend anything for the required posters if you don’t want to.
Now on to the posters…Your poster collection might be 6 or it could be 20. It all depends on what regulations apply to you and your organization. While the majority of your mandatory posters can be printed right from the Department of Labor’s website, don’t stop there. Make sure you review what state posters you’ll need and get those up as well. Also, be sure to check as there are some posters that are only mandated in certain instances, such as if you have federal contracts or migrant workers.
Also, if there is a state and federal law on the same item, you may need to put up both posters. For example, in NH, employers are required to have both the federal and the state minimum wage posters.
Don’t forget to update posters on a regular basis as they will change from time to time. I recommend spending the 30 minutes once a year updating all of your posters. Tear down the old ones and put up the new ones. That way you don’t have to wonder “if” something has changed…and what better time than the beginning of the New Year!
Finally, if you still have your Michael Jordan poster up, good for you. I hope you don’t have to cover it over with all of your workplace posters.
