{"id":8853,"date":"2025-09-25T12:15:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T16:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/employerdefensereport.com\/?p=8853"},"modified":"2026-03-20T12:04:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T16:04:33","slug":"how-to-design-a-legally-compliant-onboarding-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.connmaciel.com\/employer-defense-report\/how-to-design-a-legally-compliant-onboarding-program\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Design a Legally Compliant Onboarding Program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CMC&#8217;s Labor &amp; Employment Practice Chair, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.connmaciel.com\/kara-maciel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kara M. Maciel<\/a>, <\/strong>and Partner,<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.connmaciel.com\/schwartz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Jordan B. Schwartz<\/a>, <\/strong>co-authored an article in the <em>Employee Relations Law Journal, <\/em>titled &#8220;<em><strong>How to Design a Legally Compliant Onboarding Program<\/strong><\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.connmaciel.com\/_files\/ugd\/460460_f303eb65e74d4a28a4f7af92f25ce3d4.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Screenshot 2025 09 25 121209 300x270\" class=\" wp-image-8860 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/employerdefensereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-25-121209-300x270.png\" alt=\"Screenshot 2025 09 25 121209 300x270\" width=\"329\" height=\"296\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.connmaciel.com\/employer-defense-report\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-25-121209-300x270.png 300w, https:\/\/www.connmaciel.com\/employer-defense-report\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-25-121209.png 588w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 329px) 100vw, 329px\" \/><\/a>Bringing a new employee on board is one of the most critical moments in the employment relationship, and one of the most overlooked opportunities to protect an organization from legal risk. In today\u2019s fast-changing regulatory environment, where federal and state requirements shift with new legislation and agency priorities, employers cannot afford to rely on outdated onboarding practices.<\/p>\n<p>This article <!--more-->provides practical guidance on designing a compliant onboarding program, highlighting key topics that have undergone recent changes, including anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training, wage and hour laws, FMLA and ADA awareness, workplace safety, ethics, and data protection. It also explores strategies employers can implement during onboarding to stay current with labor and employment laws, protecting both the organization and its employees.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.connmaciel.com\/_files\/ugd\/460460_f303eb65e74d4a28a4f7af92f25ce3d4.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here<\/a><\/strong><\/span> to read the full article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CMC&#8217;s Labor &amp; Employment Practice Chair, Kara M. Maciel, and Partner, Jordan B. Schwartz, co-authored an article in the Employee Relations Law Journal, titled &#8220;How to Design a Legally Compliant Onboarding Program.&#8221; Bringing a new employee on&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":9237,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[847],"class_list":["post-8853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traditional-labor-relations","tag-hiring-background-checks"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Design a Legally Compliant Onboarding Program - Employer Defense Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.connmaciel.com\/employer-defense-report\/how-to-design-a-legally-compliant-onboarding-program\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Design a Legally Compliant Onboarding Program - Employer Defense Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CMC&#8217;s Labor &amp; Employment Practice Chair, Kara M. 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