Six HR Strategies to Help Employers Stay Out of Trouble

1. Maintain a Zero Tolerance Harassment Policy

Workplace harassment remains a serious concern for employers. Whether it’s sexual harassment or harassment based on a person’s race, national origin, religion or any other protected characteristic, harassment can occur despite employers spending years raising awareness and providing anti-harassment training amongst other education efforts.

When workplace harassment occurs, it can negatively impact employee morale and work performance. Nearly a third of employee respondents (28 percent) felt they were not fully protected from harassment in the workplace, according to Traliant’s 2026 State of Workplace Harassment Report. It also reported that 38 percent of employees have witnessed harassment, with 21 percent being personally targeted.

And Gen Z employees reported higher rates of harassment — with 46 percent witnessing and 33 percent experiencing firsthand harassment.

Maintaining a zero-tolerance harassment prevention policy is essential for all California employers. At minimum, this policy should emphasize the company’s commitment to providing ways for individuals to file a complaint — including an alternative to going to their direct supervisor. The policy should also outline how your company will conduct timely, impartial and thorough investigations.

Plus, remember that California employers with five or more employees must also provide one hour of harassment prevention training to nonsupervisory employees and two hours of such training to supervisors. These mandatory trainings must take place within six months of hire or promotion and again every two years. CalChamber provides mandatory harassment prevention training that meets California’s strict requirements in an engaging, interactive format in a variety of formats — in-person training, virtual live training and online training courses.

2. Correctly Verify an Employee’s Work Eligibility

All employers, regardless of size, must use the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) Form I-9 to verify that an individual is authorized to work in the United States. No later than their first day of employment, the employee must fill out Section 1 of the Form I-9. Then, employers must complete Section 2 within the employee’s first three days of work. Employers can complete the Form I-9 in either hard copy or electronic format.

When verifying employee documents, employers cannot accept expired documents nor decline documents that are acceptable under the law — and they must retain an employee’s Form I-9 for at least three years from the date of hire or one year from the date of termination.

Employers should take note that the USCIS has increased enforcement efforts. Workplace enforcement actions are often triggered when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conduct Form I-9 audits, which typically involve reviewing employee documentation for work authorization. An employer will be asked to provide Forms I-9 and related documents for review, which then triggers California’s special requirements to notify employees within 72 hours of receiving a Notice of Inspection.

So, employers should prepare their workforce for possible workplace immigration enforcement actions. One best practice is to conduct a Form I-9 self-audit. However, before beginning an internal audit, consider engaging an attorney with experience in Form I-9 compliance to assist with or conduct the audit especially given California’s restrictions on unlawful immigration practices and limits on reverification. If employers anticipate significant problems with their Forms I-9 or anticipate difficulties correcting problems they find, it may be beneficial to have the legal counsel assistance during the process.

And recently, the USCIS revised its Form I-9 inspection policy, changing certain violations from “technical” to “substantive,” effectively eliminating a 10-day correction period for many common errors in Form I-9 paperwork. These revisions increase the chances of hefty fines for employers, so employers should be extra vigilant when completing Form I-9.

Employers should carefully review this new ICE guidance and consider auditing their Form I-9 practices to ensure they are complying with the law and avoiding hefty penalties for minor errors.

3. Carefully Classify Independent Contractors

California has stringent requirements when it comes to independent contractors. To be classified as an independent contractor, a worker needs to meet a strict definition under the “ABC Test,” and unless they fall under a particular exception, California presumes that a worker is an “employee” for employment purposes. To be an independent contractor, the ABC Test requires the worker:

• A) Is free from control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact;
• B) Performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and
• C) Is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation or business of the same nature as the work performed.

Workers that don’t meet all these requirements are not considered independent contractors; they are employees.

HRCalifornia Extra’s recent California Worker Classification: Independent Contractor or Employee? explains California’s ABC Test and its exceptions, the lesser used Borello test and California’s Freelance Worker Protection Act.

4. Determine Exempt or Nonexempt Status

In California, misclassification of employees as “exempt” is a common source of litigation. Incorrectly classifying an employee can prove quite costly for an employer as an employer can be found liable for up to three years of missed overtime and missed meal and rest breaks, among other wage-and-hour violations, plus waiting time penalties. In addition, if an employer is found to have “willfully” misclassified an employee as exempt, they can face penalties of up to $25,000, under California Labor Code section 226.8.

For California employees to be exempt, they must meet both a strict job-duties test specific to each exemption and meet the minimum salary requirement of that exemption. CalChamber members can use the following exempt analysis worksheets to help determine an employee’s status:

• Administrative Exemption Analysis Worksheet
• Computer Professional Exemption Analysis Worksheet
• Executive Managerial Exemption Analysis Worksheet
• Professional Exemption Analysis Worksheet
• Salesperson Exemption Analysis Worksheet

Employers should consult legal counsel if they are unsure whether their workers are correctly classified as exempt.

5. Understand Leaves of Absence and How They Interact

Any HR professional will likely say that managing employees’ leaves of absence takes up a big part of their work routine. Federal, state and local leaves of absence can be tricky so employers should start by knowing which leave laws apply to them and their specific requirements. For example, protected leaves in California include:

• The California Family Rights Act (CFRA), which applies to all private employers with five or more employees and provides up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave in a 12-month period, similar to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which applies to private employers with 50 or more employees. Many qualifying reasons for taking these leaves overlap, though some key differences exist.
• Pregnancy disability leave (PDL), which applies to all private employers with five or more employees and provides up to four months of unpaid leave when an employee is disabled by pregnancy.
• Paid Sick Leave (PSL), which applies to nearly all employers and provides employees with a minimum of 40 hours of sick leave annually. Local paid sick leave ordinances also exist in Berkeley, Emeryville, Los Angeles City, Oakland, San Diego City, San Francisco and Santa Monica. Employers with employees working in any of those localities must comply with both state and local requirements. Use this chart to compare California PSL requirements with the various local leave requirements.
• Up to five days of bereavement upon the death of a family member, for private California employers with five or more employees and all public employers.
• Leave for legal proceedings for victims of crime, and for employers with 25 or more employees, leave for treatment or services.
• Up to five days of leave following a reproductive loss event, such as a miscarriage or failed adoption.
• Up to 30 days of leave for an organ donor and five days for a bone marrow donor for employers with 15 or more employees.
• Up to two hours of work time to vote, although certain restrictions apply.
• Time off to serve on a jury or appear in court.
• Time off for military service.
• Time off for certain school appearances and civil services.

And these leaves don’t include certain optional leaves of absence, like holidays and vacation, which require employers to follow certain rules if they do offer these leaves.

CalChamber offers a Leaves of Absence Virtual Seminar that breaks down the overlapping requirements for FMLA, CFRA, PDL, sick leave and more. Learn how to manage eligibility, pay, and documentation while avoiding costly compliance mistakes. Register now for the next seminar on Thursday, August 6 and Friday, August 7.

6. Enforce a Meal and Rest Break Policy for Nonexempt Workers

California’s wage-and-hour laws require employers to provide meal and rest breaks to nonexempt employees — at least one 30-minute uninterrupted, unpaid meal break before the end of the fifth hour of work has begun and one 10-minute paid rest break for every four hours worked.

An unpaid, off-duty meal break:

• Relieves employees of all duty;
• Relinquishes control over their activities;
• Permits them a reasonable opportunity to take an uninterrupted, 30-minute break; and
• Doesn’t impede or discourage them from doing so.

Mandatory rest breaks of a “net” 10 minutes must be offered for every four hours worked or “major fraction thereof,” which is anything more than two hours. Generally, rest breaks should be provided in the middle of each work period.

Employers must require employees to accurately record their work start time, meal break start and end times, and work end time for the day.

Depriving nonexempt employees of their meal or rest breaks, or providing untimely meal breaks, means you’ll owe the employee “premium pay,” which consists of one additional hour of pay at the employee's regular rate of pay for each workday that the meal or rest break was not provided.

While the daily maximum penalty for missing at least one meal break and one rest break is two hours of pay per day — no matter how many total meal or rest breaks were missed in a day, consistently failing to provide required meal and breaks could result in costly, time-consuming litigation.

Best practices include maintaining and enforcing a well-drafted meal and rest break policy, ensuring employees adhere to the policy and promptly addressing any violations, as well as:

• Regularly auditing timecard records to determine whether employees are accurately reporting time and/or whether they have a pattern of missed breaks.
• Training managers about meal and rest break rules, including the importance of not interrupting employees during breaks, and addressing policy violations with coaching and/or discipline.
• Informing employees to notify HR if they’ve been denied the opportunity to take a meal or rest break.