As I've mentioned in other posts, I'm doing a bunch of networking these days. Once I got used to the process and walking into rooms full of people where I may not know anyone, it's actually turned out to be fun and very interesting.

The interesting part was finding there are two basic types of business owners. One type is the person who was technically skilled enough to start his/her own business rather than working for someone else. This person fully understands how to do the work but is often lacking in general business knowledge. The other type is the person with the business knowledge who may seek or partner with the technology his/her business idea needs. This post is dedicated to the first type … the technically skilled.

 I just want to mention a few very, very basic rules of business that they (and maybe you) don't know or have forgotten that really makes a difference in how professional or experienced you appear to other business people.

• Get a domain name that matches your company name or reflects your business. This is the "name" people type to find you on the internet (mine is www.HRjungle.com. Pay attention to how it reads so the squashed-together name doesn't also spell something not so wonderful. Also keep it simple so people can easily remember it.
  
• You need a website. It doesn't have to be big and flashy, just a 1-page site will do as long as it has basic information about what you do and how to contact you. Take a digital picture of your building, you, your team, or your logo to put on your website. People now look online for information about businesses before they'll check the phone book. If you're not online in even the simplest forms, you won't appear to be current with the marketplace and you'll miss out on customers.
  
• Make sure your email address uses your domain name and not some free email account. Your business looks like a hobby when your email address is sexy1234@yahoo.com rather than cj@HRjungle.com.
  
• Follow up that business email address by making sure you have configured Outlook or whatever email program you use to show your company name on emails. I have a client who set up Outlook to show his wife's name (probably before they got into business) even though the actual email address uses his domain name. I thought his first email to me was spam because I didn't recognize his wife's name. When people get emails from me, what they see is that the email is either from "C.J. Westrick" or "HR Jungle." Remember, you want people to open your emails!
  
• Get an address. The lack of an address implies that you don't have an office. It only costs $48 a year to get a small box at the Post Office so there are few excuses. I know many people work from their homes and may be internet-based, however appearances are everything and you don't want people to think you're not a legitimate business.

Okay, lesson over for today! Let me know if you need to know how to do any of these things at a very low cost. It doesn't have to be expensive to look professional.

I just attended another HR legal update this week and, yet again, learned something new. If you didn't already realize it, California law may say one thing but the outcome in court cases are constantly giving us new ways to comply.

According to a 2007 California Supreme Court ruling, bonuses must be part of your overtime pay calculation. The exception was if the bonus met the regulatory definition of discretionary bonus … which is not that easy to meet. If you have a plan where an employee can expect to earn X dollars or percentage based on certain criteria, then you probably don't have a discretionary bonus plan.

So what does this mean? If your hourly employees work overtime, you need to pay that overtime based on both their hourly rate and earned bonus amount. Here's an example of this: your non-exempt employee earns $50,000 for the year and periodically works overtime hours. There is also a $10,000 end-of-year bonus based on goals. The overtime rate would be calculated on the $50,000 plus the $10,000.

This means the $50,000 (if the employee was full-time) would be $24.04/hour and typically the overtime hours would be paid at $36.06 (1.5 times that hourly rate). However, since the bonus is "expected" you instead pay the overtime hours at $43.27 ($60,000 broken down to an hourly rate and then 1.5 times that rate). This calculation is called "expected" wages.

I know, confusing and a real pain to calculate! However, if an employee ever takes you to court for non-payment of full wages, you'll likely get hit for this if you don't consider bonuses. As a side note, this doesn't affect exempt employees since they don't get overtime pay.

Of course if you prefer to have a discretionary bonus plan that wouldn't fall into "expected" wages, I highly recommend you have an employment attorney review your plan to make sure it meets the regulatory definition. Or you could hide a few $100 bills around the office and tell your employees that if they find one, it's their discretionary bonus. However, that might have a negative effect on productivity since the employees would spend all their time on the hunt.

It's funny how life can move along smoothly where the worse thing happening is that you're feeling a little overworked. Then BAM, suddenly life gets complicated. If you're a regular reader of my blog, you already know I've been "bammed" lately.

It all started with just trying to watch a pay-per-view movie on television. Ordered the movie but couldn't get it to start playing. After several attempts and 40 minutes I finally called the support number. However, I wasn't the only one with this problem because it took 20 minutes to get through to a real person. A half hour later, the problem was fixed but I was no longer in the mood for a movie.

I decided to get on my computer and upgrade my blog software. As you've seen, that didn't really go well. As I'm looking at my upgraded site it becomes obvious that my blog posts are missing. I tried to call my web host to send me a backup, thinking the non-upgraded site was better than an empty site. Surprise, my cell phone (my only phone) isn't working. It looks like it's calling but never connects.

An hour later my phone decides to work again so I could call my web host and order the backup. Over the next week it became obvious that it's important to read the fine print. The web host said they would put a folder in my root server (like I knew where that was!) but it was up to me to rebuild the site. The support group for the blog software said it wasn't their problem. Hmm.

Meanwhile, when I mentioned all this to a friend, she merely nodded and said, "Of course, Mercury is in retrograde and that affects technology." Of course.

I didn't have the time to work on rebuilding this blog until this Sunday. Guess what? The backup they sent was created AFTER the disastrous upgrade attempt, so it was still missing my posts. When I called my web host again I was informed that they only keep backups for 3 days so … too bad, too late. What you are looking at is the upgraded site. I've had to spend hours searching Google for any of my posts they had cached and that's how I'm recreating my blog.

Now it's only Tuesday but I discovered that Mercury is still affecting me. I was at a meeting this morning and, afterward, was waiting at a red light  when a car hit mine. A woman caught her heel in the floor mat of her car and used my car as a brake, punching a hole in my rear bumper. Bam.

Then I stopped at the phone store. Did I mention that my cell phone is three years old and apparently doesn't like the technology of the company that recently bought out the original carrier. I've been told I need a new cell phone or I have to keep staring at the never-disappearing voicemail reminder (no, it doesn't go off).

I started using a phone service reseller when I first moved to San Diego but no longer find it advantageous to stay with them so I plan to contract directly with the carrier now. However, I was told that it could take up to 3 days to transfer my service from the reseller to the carrier. When can I be without phone service for 3 days? While it might not actually take that long, they say it could so that's what I need to plan for so I'm not caught unprepared. Bam.

So … how's your month going thus far?

Bear with me … I was attempting to upgrade my software and managed to crash my blog! Yikes! Check back on Monday please. Meanwhile, wish me a whole lot of luck!

In my previous post I talked about the fact that a bonus plan can be bad news if insufficient thought has gone into the planning and implementation. The last part of that sentence is really the answer to creating a better bonus plan … thinking through the planning and implementation.

I know for a fact that if you are considering, or have, a bonus plan that you expect something in return for it. And you should. But, be honest, are you and your employees getting what you wanted and expected when it's time for the bonus to be paid?

It may help to think about your employees with the same mindset that you use on your suppliers when they create a product specifically for you rather than pulling an item off the shelf. How do they know what you want? You've told them. You probably put together a spec sheet that has every possible measurement and a detailed description of the materials you want used. You also expect to receive exactly what the spec sheet stated … or you'll request a replacement or withhold payment. That's why your suppliers are also very careful about what the spec sheet says and they make sure they absolutely understand what you want.

So why does it go so wrong when you try to motivate your employees in exchange for a bonus? Most of the time I find you're missing that spec sheet. Oh, you may think you have one but I bet if I asked your employees they'd tell me they didn't really understand what you expected or what they were supposed to do to earn the maximum bonus amount.

Did you even tell them what the bonus had to do with your company goals? Often companies base a bonus program on the overall success or profit of the company for that year. However, your employees don't know what role they played in that scenario because it wasn't defined.

Good bonus plans have goals attached. Otherwise, you aren't involving the employees in the plan … you're just tossing them some cash that doesn't reward them for anything other than showing up.

So, try this. (Note: Items listed may take more thought than they seem!)

1. Determine a time frame for your bonus plan. This could be quarterly, 6 months, or a year. The key to deciding on the period is to choose a time frame that is controllable while still giving you sufficient time to achieve goals. For instance, if your business is young or changing, a year is probably too long because your focus may be different in a year and the goals no longer viable or valuable. In this case, 6 months is more practical.
   
2. Determine what company goals you want to achieve in that time frame. If you know how to set goals, you already know they need to be very specific (see the spec sheet above), measurable so everyone is using the same yardstick to determine success, achievable within the time frame, relevant to what you are doing as a company, and timely (with a deadline). Write them out and review them to make sure they move the company in the desired direction.
   
3. Take those company goals and break them down into what each department needs to accomplish for their role in each company goal. Work on the department goals in the same manner as you did the company goals. Write them down. If you don't have departments, skip to the next step.
   
4. Every employee also needs specific goals that help the company achieve the big goals. So go through this process on an individual basis. Depending upon your company, several employees may have the same basic goal list … but you still want to have something that sets them apart unless you have designated them as a team that wins or loses as a team.
   
5. Determine how your bonus amounts will be earned. I've seen a company use 50% toward achievement of the company goals, 25% toward department goals, and 25% for personal goals. This takes into account that a department may not hit all their goals but the missed ones didn't delay the company goals. Whatever you decide to do with the money, just make sure it's very, very clear to everyone how any and all bonus amounts are earned or lost.
   
6. Make a huge deal out of the bonus plan. Put up posters announcing the company and department goals, have monthly update meetings where you cross off (on the posters) any goals achieved and talk about how to ensure overall success. By the time the bonus is paid, every employee should be able to tell YOU what they earned because your plan was so clear and communicated so well that they knew exactly what to do to earn it.

I'll admit this is an oversimplified view of creating a workable bonus plan. However, I think it's sufficient for you to recognize what you may and may not be doing correctly. Remember, a bonus plan is supposed to be seen as a benefit so make sure it's actually viewed that way by your employees!

You're probably thinking that a bonus can never be bad news, but you'd be wrong. Before I go into that let me discuss briefly the whole point of a bonus plan.

A bonus plan is intended to focus your employees on your company goals. As a side benefit it's a motivator and gives employees a reason to be more productive and work together better.

Have you heard the phrase "working ON your business rather than IN your business?" Usually this means to focus on building your business rather than getting caught up in the details of the day-to-day business that can eat up your time so you never get ahead. However, a bonus plan is another way to work ON your business because you are ensuring your employees have an eye on achieving the company's goals for you. If they are working on the goals with you (as opposed to just showing up each day), then the achievement of those goals will also help grow your business.

So, what's the bad news? A bonus plan is only as good as its planning and implementation. If you come up with a bonus plan that's weak, then your employees will view it more like that carrot that is forever out of their reach. Very bad news! Suddenly the bonus becomes a demotivator for your employees and the lack of goal achievement means you aren't growing your business.

Does your bonus plan create excitement among your employees? Do they give you a big smile when it's mentioned or do you get that half grimace-half grin (perhaps accompanied by rolling of the eyes)? If your bonus plan isn't the big news when your employees are talking to job candidates or among themselves, then you need to take a hard look at it and ask yourself if it's achieving what you want.

I'll talk more about how to create a better bonus plan in my next post. This will give you a couple of days to look honestly and your own bonus or commission plan … or to consider whether one might be a good idea.

Yes, the holidays are behind us and all the things we put off until "after the holidays" are now crowding our to-do list. I've been in meeting after meeting since everyone returned to work and it appears I'm not the only one who's busy this month. Of course, Januarys are always like this because many of us have our fiscal year start on the 1st and are gung-ho to work on our goals.

However, we are in California so we can't forget that most new laws go into effect on January 1st. The changes for us, thus far, include:

• AB 1835 — An increase in the minimum wage to $8.00 per hour. We've known about this for over a year so shame on you if you don't already have posters in place reflecting this amount.
  
• AB 392 — The Leave for Military Spouses was effective last fall but this is the time to make sure you have included it in your Employee Handbook if you have 25+ employees.
  
• AB 14 — The Unruh Act amends the Civil Rights Act of 2007 by making sure businesses do not discriminate against customers. This aligns the non-discrimination policy you already follow for your employees and forces your company to widen the protected group to include your customers. Since an unhappy customer is even more likely to complain than your employee might, pay attention to this. While this does not apply to every type of business, you should check to see if it applies to you.
  
• AB 102 — Now domestic partners and married spouses have the freedom to change their last name to match the other's upon marriage or domestic partnership registration. Yes, this means a husband could change his name to match his wife's. Plus it gives the same naming opportunity to domestic partners that married spouses have.
  
• AB 812 — Apparently there are companies who have refused to share payroll information with their worker's compensation carriers. It seems that not all companies are being honest about how many and what type of employees they have. Under reporting is viewed like running a scam against the carriers. This bill is supposedly the cure by providing big penalties (read "up to 3 X your annual premium") against an employer who does not provide reasonable access to payroll records during a worker's compensation audit by the carrier. Ouch!
  

The first of the year is always a good time to review your Employee Handbook, practices, and policies to ensure they are all legally compliant and consistent. Also make sure that all supervisors understand (or can look up) their responsibilities.

I've tried numerous ways to keep track of all my to-do's. Each method offers advantages and disadvantages, depending upon our personal likes and dislikes. For instance, I hate to file paperwork. Once I finally get myself doing it, it's never is as bad as I felt it would be and it normally takes me less time than I thought it would. It turns out my procrastination makes a mountain out of a molehill, to use an old phrase.

You and I both know there are certain things we absolutely must do as part of our work. Some of those things have the added pressure of drop-dead deadlines. I am the type of person who actually excels with deadlines. I find myself more organized, better at prioritizing, and much more focused.

When I have a deadline that has dire consequences if not met … such as not getting insurance enrollment forms to the carrier in time so insurance coverage isn't delayed another 30 days or sending stock option repurchase letters out in time so the purchase agreement isn't negated by the company's lack of action … I always successfully meet the challenge. What I find exhilirating about those deadlines is the almost tunnel-vision focus it gives me. Suddenly I have no problem putting some of my other to-do's on the back burner.

What's interesting about those back burner items is that, depending on my schedule, some of them never do get completed. And you know what, it's okay. Because we all have items that would be "nice" to do but aren't critical to our work. It's actually developed into a variation of a time management system for me.

Once you start realizing that your world or business won't fall apart without certain things being done, you find yourself opening up that crack a little wider and letting more things fall through it. We can't do everything so we need to choose how we're going to spend our time.

Which of your to-do's are going to save you time or money, earn you money, create a pipeline … which will actually affect your bottom line or future? That's what to focus on. What about those other things? Ask yourself what's the worse that can happen if they aren't done. Strangely enough, I find that if a to-do was really important it seems to come back around to my attention at a future date where I can better see the need and find a reason for completing it.

Don't let the little stuff bury you! If it's not going to affect your job or business, it's probably busy work that could be replaced with something that has a more positive effect on your life.

I probably should have written this particular post a couple of months ago but better late than never! Especially if your company isn't throwing a holiday bash for your employees.

Even taking religion out of the mix, December has become the traditional party month. Some companies throw a huge, formal party while others go the Scrooge route. I think you do your company and your employees a disservice by ignoring the celebrations going on all around you.

If your company is doing the big bash, then you've been planning this for months and don't need my advice. But what if you're a company that would love to do the big bash and just doesn't have the money? Then you need an alternate plan that will be appreciated for the effort, not the cost. And if you're not doing anything, keep reading.

Involve your employees! You'll be surprised at the employees who love to be challenged with creating a party atmosphere on a limited budget. Give them a budget and let them be creative. Often you just need to keep an eye out for certain things (like requiring employees to chip in or participate).

Potlucks are usually popular and only need a few decorations to make it festive. You might even make it formal dress if the employees want to make it a "special" event. One of my companies did cookie swapping … each participating employee made up dozens of one type of cookie and all the participants swapped cookies so everyone had a mixed batch when done. Try a holiday costume contest. Or a cube/office decorating contest and let employees choose a small group of judges. Create a booklet with memories of employees' favorite holiday events from their childhood. Collect toys to give to children's homes or abuse or homeless centers.

The important thing is to allow your employees to be in the holiday spirit this month and to help this in whatever way your company can (or can afford).

Have you already planned out your company's holiday events? Did you include the company itself in those plans? I don't mean your employees, I really mean the business.

Employees will stay more engaged … more connected … to your company when they know more about the company. This is a great time of year to proclaim to your employees all the accomplishments they have helped you achieve this year. Make it part of a company meeting or part of your speech during your company's holiday party. Give them something to cheer about!

How large or small your company's accomplishments may have been over the past year will dictate what you present. If sales have continued to grow, compare last year's with this year's. Even consider a month to month comparison. If you have found and fixed problems in your product or production line, talk about the advantage you will see from that. If you've added more leads to your database, give your employees the credit.

All you have to do is think about all the big or little things that have helped your company grow, change, or compete. Your employees were somehow involved in all of that. This is the time to remind them of their role in the company's success and thank them for their help.

You'll be surprised at all the things that come up when you really take time to review the year. This is also a good time to discuss the plans you have for the future and how this past year's accomplishments have made those plans possible. Share with your employees and you'll be rewarded.