Creating board policies is essential for guiding organizational decision-making and ensuring consistent governance. A nepotism policy is very important for your organization. Below are some sample clauses to give you a sense of the types of language and the level of specificity you might want to consider when developing your own policy.
Your organization’s legal counsel should be involved in creating this type of policy. Make sure you comply with all necessary federal and state regulations.
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For the purpose of this policy, a relative is defined to include spouses, parents, children, brothers, sisters, brothers and sisters-in-law, father- and mothers-in-law, stepparents, stepbrothers, stepsisters, and stepchildren, fiancées, and life-partners.
This policy also applies to individuals who are not legally related but who reside with another employee.
- Board members and their immediate family members (as defined below) will be excluded from consideration for employment by the organization.
- Employees shall not hold a position with the organization while they or members of their immediate family (as defined above) serve on the board of directors or any committee of the board.
- It is well accepted that employment of relatives in the same area of an organization can cause serious conflicts and problems with favoritism and employee morale. In these circumstances, all parties, including supervisors, leave themselves open to charges of inequitable consideration in decisions concerning work assignments, performance evaluations, promotions, demotions, disciplinary actions, and discharge. In addition to claims of partiality in treatment at work, personal conflicts from outside the work environment can be carried into day-to-day working relationships. It is XYZ’s policy that relatives of persons currently employed by XYZ may be hired only if they will not be working directly for or supervising a relative. If already employed, they cannot be transferred into such a reporting relationship. If the relative relationship is established after employment, the individuals concerned shall decide who is to be transferred. If that decision is not made within 30 calendar days, management shall decide.
- In other cases where a conflict or the potential for conflict arises, even if there is no supervisory relationship involved, the parties may be separated by reassignment or terminated from employment.
- Employment of spouses: With respect to the employment of relatives, XYZ reserves the right to:
- Refuse to place one spouse under the direct supervision of the other spouse where such has the potential for creating an adverse effect on supervision, safety, security, or morale.
- Refuse to place both spouses in the same department, division, program or facility where such has the potential for creating an adverse effect on supervision, safety, security, morale, or involves potential conflicts of interest.
- Employment of other relatives: Relatives, up to and including first cousins of any agency employee, board of trustee, or any:
- Person exercising, hiring, promotion, and termination authority may not be hired into agency service without approval of the chief executive or the executive committee of the board of trustees.
- Relatives within the third degree of kinship by blood or marriage of any agency employee, regardless of status, will not be hired in the same department, division, program, or facility where such has the potential for creating an adverse effect on supervision, safety, security, morale or involves potential conflicts of interest without the written prior approval of the chief executive.
- If two (2) employees marry, become related, or cohabit and a conflict arises, only one (1) of the employees will be permitted to stay with XYZ unless reasonable accommodations can be made to eliminate the potential problems. The decision as to which relative will remain with XYZ must be made by the two (2) employees within three (3) calendar days or by XYZ on the basis of service value.
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