Do-It-Yourself Project: Department of Labor Workplace Posters

By Rachel Sorra, Nonprofit Management and Governance Intern, Maryland Nonprofits

Rachel currently resides in the Baltimore area and continues to build upon her double-major in Psychology and Sociology & Anthropology. Rachel is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree at the University of Maryland Baltimore School of Social Work. She hopes to put her education and work experience towards outreach and support of families, providing all children with the opportunity to develop the skills and resources they need for future academic, career, and social growth.

It’s summer here at Maryland Nonprofits, and we’re taking care of some important projects.

It’s easy to get caught up in the chaos of upcoming deadlines, due dates, and duties, but even easier to overlook the more minute details. As a summer intern, I was assigned the task to weed through our required employment workplace posters, determine which posters were missing, and replace them. Department of Labor (DOL) workplace posters are made available for a fee from various for-profit companies. These oversized, laminated posters can be found taped or pinned on the inside walls of several large businesses. Organizations can use these posters, but they obtain the posters at no charge as well. With no previous experience or training, I was able to research an easy, cost-effective method for obtaining these posters.

This do-it-yourself project was completed with help from one of the Standards for Excellence educational resource packets titled, “Legal Requirements Checklist”. In the packet, I went through the checklist attachment, using Section 3: “Requirements Related to Organizations with Employees”. The checklist is comprised of five columns: a description of the form, the name of the form, where to find it, due date/posting information, compliance issues, and a “completed” column that allows you to check off whether you have the document, do not have the document, or do not need the document. Using the checklist made it nearly painless to do an inventory of the posters needed.

Once the checklist was completed, I went onto the Department of Labor website. The checklist provides links and URL’s specifying the exact location of most documents. I also found the search bar on the top, right corner of the homepage to be extremely helpful. The Department of Labor has most if not all of the posters needed posted right on the website in PDF format. To make the posters more attractive and sturdy, we elected to copy in color and took them to a nearby copy center to be laminated for an additional nominal cost. However, this is not required. In less than a couple of hours and few dollars later, we were supplied with all the poster requirements needed.

Hopefully, this process can save your organization some extra time and money!