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I know there are some of you business owners who think you can wait to worry about HR until you’re a little bigger. My question is, “what are you waiting for?”
Recently I had a business owner call me in a panic. He was a one-person business who happened to be using an unemployed friend once in a while for the past few months. The friend was paid in cash.
One afternoon the business owner had to run home for an emergency and had his friend hold down the shop while he was gone. As luck would have it, a rep from the Labor Board stopped by and learned the friend was working for this company… off the books. The business owner returned to his office to find a $1,000 fine for not having workers’ compensation insurance and a stop-work order, preventing him from using his friend until he was legit.
I was able to give the business owner the advice he needed to deal with this situation and to prevent future problems. Sadly, I also had to let him know that he should expect a visit or call from EDD and the feds regarding the unpaid payroll taxes, plus fines and penalties for [click to read more ...]
We’ve been waiting for an update to the Immigration and Naturalization Services’ (INS) I-9 form since the last version expired and it’s finally here. Delete the version you’ve been using and replace it with this NEW I-9 Form!
This new I-9 form expires August 31, 2012, so it looks like we can stop worrying about which version to use for a while. However, with Homeland Security calling the shots on what’s considered the best documentation, don’t be surprised if we see changes before 2012.
Remember that every employee needs to complete this form upon hire and, if they used identification that needs to be renewed, make sure you get the updated information as needed. You don’t have to have current employees fill this out again. However, read the instructions that are part of the form whenever you have questions about what to do.
When promotions aren’t a reward or even a good career move
Let’s see if this sounds familiar. Bob has been a fabulous employee but you’ve been concerned lately because he’s been in the same position for over two years and you’re afraid he might leave the company. The answer seems obvious… you’ll promote him. In fact, you believe that he’ll be such a great influence on the people reporting to him that you’ll end up with a whole team that’s fabulous. You pat yourself on the back while thinking you’re pretty fabulous, too!
There are two big problems with this solution. The first problem is the way we think about promotions. We’ve all gotten wrapped up in the belief that success requires climbing the corporate ladder. Don’t take it personally; both employees and management have gotten stuck in that mindset. Since there are fewer and fewer positions available the higher you go in a company, it’s obvious that promotions are limited. Think of your business first: did someone leave to create a job opening or do you have a legitimate need for this new role? If you create new positions just for the purpose of rewarding someone, you’ve set a [click to read more ...]
I’m typically very healthy and rarely catch whatever bug is going around. But last month a series of early morning meetings and late nights (aka lack of sleep) resulted in a minor cold that lasted about three days. But two weeks later it came back with a vengence. I’ve now had this latest cold more than two weeks and it’s still hanging on just enough to be irritating.
There were a few days when my brain was working at about half speed, I was really tired from not being able to sleep through the night, and I was sucking down cough drops in such quantity that they were making me slightly nauseous. My question for you is … at what point do you want someone in that condition to stay home from work or come in?
Sick time is a tough issue. You may provide paid sick time and find it’s abused by use of the ever-popular "mental health" day. You may offer a bonus for perfect attendance but find you have employees who come to work and contaminate others just to say they never missed a day of work. PTO plans have similar issues because vacation and sick time is blended together and employees want to save [click to read more ...]
No matter how many times I might offer suggestions, train managers, or talk about it, there will always be a few of you that are not properly dealing with your bad employees. Why is that?
The most common reasons were compiled by the CNN.com staff. After reading what they put together, I have to agree with most of them. Listed below are the ones I’ve seen most often:
The employee brings more value to the company than s/he costs. I’ve seen this in companies where the technological knowledge of the company is connected to this employee. Prevent becoming too reliant on one employee by ensuring every employee keeps accurate and consistent logs of their work. While you may be reluctant to fire that employee, you need a backup plan for any type of "what if" that would prevent the employee from returning to work. The boss is afraid of the employee. You can laugh but some employees can be downright scary! You hire someone who, at first, is great because they are proactive and take charge of their job. Unfortunately, over time they also take over the whole office and appear to be telling everyone else what they should be [click to read more ...]
If you’re around me much, you know I preach consistency when making HR decisions. However, now I’m going to flip that around and say that the same action does NOT work in every situation. Am I being inconsistent in my teachings? Not at all!
Consistency is needed when making decisions to ensure you aren’t being discriminatory. If you are making a decision that will create policy, you must be consistent in how that policy is applied. I think the problem with remembering to be consistent comes when you are too focused on solving the problem without backing away to see what or who else your decision may affect.
Here’s an example of a narrow focus with attendance. You have one employee, Roger, who always shows up late to work and you’re trying to figure out how to make Roger arrive on time. This is only one of the problems you have with Roger, but it’s the one you’re currently going to fix. So you think, think, think. Aha, you’ll tell Roger that in the future if he is late to work again, he’ll be written up and continued tardiness will lead to termination. Perfect, right?
Did you give any thought [click to read more ...]
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