Hiring and Employment Practices and Responsibilities

• Author: Michelle Roy McSpurren/Rosemary Bocska
• Pages: 149-164

7

Hiring and Employment

Practices and

Responsibilities

Learning Outcomes

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:

• Describe some key responsibilities when hiring

employees.

• Understand a paralegal’s obligation to uphold

human rights legislation with respect to

discrimination.

• Understand an employer’s obligation to prevent

workplace violence and harassment.

• Understand an employer’s obligations with respect

to employee safety in the workplace.

• Understand an employer’s obligations to support

employees with disabilities.

• List the resources available to paralegals for

developing and setting workplace policies.

149

Introduction .......................... 150

Important Hiring Considerations ........ 150

Employment Standards Act, 2000

Requirements .................... 150

Special Responsibility Not to

Discriminate ....................... 153

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion ......... 155

Workplace Violence and Harassment .... 156

Sexual Harassment .................... 156

Workplace Safety ..................... 158

Accessibility Standards ................. 159

Developing and Setting Workplace

Policies ........................... 160

Workplaces with Ten or More Licensees ... 160

Human Rights Policies ................. 160

Confidentiality Policies ................. 161

Employee Handbooks ................. 162

Conclusion ............................ 162

Key Terms ............................ 163

Useful URLs ........................... 163

Review Questions ..................... 163

Discussion Questions .................. 163

Scenario-Based Questions .............. 164

© 2022 Emond Montgomery Publications. All Rights Reserved.

Introduction

To run a successful business, paralegals must understand and appreciate their respon-

sibilities around hiring and employment. This chapter discusses tips on how to find and

hire competent employees and details your professional and legal obligations

andresponsibilities to your staff.

Paralegal employers have a legal duty to maintain an inclusive, non-discriminatory

workplace, and to protect their staff from workplace harassment and violence. Depending

on their nature, the broad obligations might be aimed at staff, clients, or the public—or

all of them at once. These duties are derived from numerous sources (including the

Paralegal Rules of Conduct,1 legislation, and case law) and encompass many diverse

aspects.

Important Hiring Considerations

Choosing the right employees is critical to the success of a legal services business.

Paralegals may wish to advertise available positions on the Law Society of Ontario

(LSO) website or in publications such as the Ontario Reports, as well as in newspapers

and other online job sites, or post information on available positions on professional

networking sites such as LinkedIn. Many positions are filled by word of mouth, and this

is another reason why maintaining communication with colleagues and former class-

mates is a good idea.

When interviewing potential employees, the interviewer should ask questions that

will allow them to determine whether particular candidates are competent, are trust-

worthy, and would be a good fit for the legal services firm. Responses to scenario-based

questions that ask a candidate how they would act in a particular situation will assist

you to make this determination. When seeking candidates who possess particular skills,

skills-based interviews that test, for example, legal research skills will enable you to

determine whether a candidate who claims competency in that skill is truly a competent

researcher. Candidates who claim to be skilled in written communication may be asked

to produce samples of their written work, to review a letter to correct spelling and

grammatical errors, or even to generate a letter to a hypothetical client.

Always check references carefully; finding out that a particular individual would not

be an asset to the firm before—rather than after—hiring that person will save time

and money later. Increasingly, employers are also conducting criminal records

checksand even credit checks prior to offering positions to candidates.

Employment Standards Act, 2000 Requirements

The Employment Standards Act, 20002 governs working conditions for non-union

employees and covers things such as minimum wage, public holiday pay, overtime,

breaks, leaves of absence (including pregnancy leaves), vacation time, vacation pay,

notice of termination, paid infectious disease emergency leave, unpaid emergency

leave, and termination pay. Before they begin hiring employees, legal services business

1 Law Society of O ntario, Paralegal Rules of Conduct (1 Oc tober 2014; amendments current to 1 July 2021), online:

<https://lso.ca/about-lso/legislation-rules/paralegal-rules-of-conduct> [the Rules].

2 SO 2000, c41 [ESA].

150 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT FOR PARALEGALS

© 2022 Emond Montgomery Publications. All Rights Reserved.