For some reason, everyday throughout this country, businesses make mistakes when they hire employees. Unfortunately, these mistakes are extremely costly and could have been avoided from the start either (a) when the company was created; or (2) when the employee was hired.

Listening to an expert who understands these issues can avoid a lot of stressful headaches down the road. The small investment that it takes to properly implement a sound employment strategy and the underlying policies will mitigate the future risk of very expensive lawsuits and litigation. This is one area that pays big dividends to be proactive. A company solely reactive in nature, will regret it tremendously.

Here are ten common mistakes that have a high price tag for companies:

1. Misclassifying  an employee as a 1099 independent contractor to avoid the employer/employee relationship;
2. Erroneously labeling an employee as “exempt” when they should have been classified as “non-exempt”;
3. Failing to maintain proper Worker’s Compensation insurance (BIG TIME MISTAKE);
4. Wage and hour violations for hourly employees;
5. Not providing meal and rest breaks;
6. Failing to create, distribute, and maintain a policy and procedures manual;
7. Neglecting to update insurance policies;
8. Not applying company employment policies in a uniform manner with regards to all employees;
9. Improperly terminating an employee; and
10. Creating (or negligently creating) a hostile work place (quite easy to do).

The good news is that all of these examples can be easily avoided if companies take certain proactive steps.