For any business, be it an enterprise or a small-medium business (SMB), legal compliance is of paramount importance. Business owners mostly focus their time and efforts to optimize their processes in order to enhance their efficiency and generate maximum profit, and often end up sidelining the legal formalities.
Larger corporations mostly have a team of business attorneys on retainer that diligently analyze their processes and policies, and keep them up-to-date and in compliance with the latest laws and regulations. On the other hand, small businesses often lack resources, and think that they can fly under the radar with just implementing major federal and state laws. They may be doing fine without it for now, but in the long run, they will mostly likely face potential problems and legal implications.
A Business Process Review (BPR), in legal terms, enables you to reevaluate your processes and polices with the end goal to ensure that the company is in compliance with the federal, state, and county laws and regulations. A Business Process Review can provide insight into:
- Any potential problems or issues within your policies and processes
- What is working in your favor and what aspects may affect your company
- Suggestions for change and bridging the gaps.
Why you need a Lawyer for BPR?
If you hire an accountant to perform a BPR, they will perform audits and thoroughly check your company’s accounts and finances to ensure that there are no loopholes in that area. Similarly, an IT professional will carefully study your business processes and give suggestions for streamlining them to ensure maximum efficiency.
Just as optimum efficiency and keeping company’s accounts up-to-date are crucial for the success of any business, making sure that your company is not overstepping the legal boundaries is equally important. When you hire a lawyer, they scrutinize your company’s policies and processes and ensure that you are not breaking the law in any way. Sometimes, businesses don’t even know that they are breaking the law, and are caught off guard when an employee files a case or legal authorities put charges of illegal conduct on your company.
For example, if a business or an employer doesn’t give their employees a written contract within two months of their joining, they are breaking the law. Moreover, it is mandatory for an employment contract to set out clear terms of working time, pay structure, compensation and benefits, different types of leaves, and several other things.
How a Lawyer can help your Business?
1. Legal Documents and Contracts
Businesses require filing legal documentation and contracts in a number of areas including employment, licensing, partnership, incorporation, shareholders, franchising, purchasing, and leasing commercial and other properties. Your lawyer can draft these documents to ensure that they don’t conflict with your company’s interest or affect you in any way.
2. Review Policies
The laws related to employee-employer relationship and trading of services and products are updated every now and then, and it is essential that businesses make changes to their company policies accordingly. Some common mistakes may include anti-competitive conducts, inaccurate or misleading guidelines for wage policies pertaining to breaks and overtime, nonexempt/exempt misclassifications, unclear non-compete agreements, and several others.
Your lawyer can review your existing company policies and make sure that they in line with the state and federal laws.