Create a Committee

So, nobody likes to be on a committee, especially at work. However, this committee is special because its members will develop ways to make the workplace more enjoyable. Recommendations might include giving employees one or two days off during a slow period for your company, offering on-site childcare, and giving wellness incentives. Some of these measures can save employers money in the long run in the way of lower healthcare costs and fewer sick days.

Offer Flexibility

If you don’t feel like you can give your workers additional time off, be creative in developing other ways to reward them. For example, find out if some jobs could be performed at different hours. Some parents might welcome the chance to work earlier hours so they can end their work day at the same time the kids get out of school. Additionally, many employers are making 30 hour work weeks available for certain positions. (Ideally, the employee continues to receive benefits, including health insurance.) There are cost savings because the employees take home three-fourths of the pay they received when they worked 40 hours per week. It’s a fair trade for many employees who enjoy having additional time off.

Keeping your employees happy may cost you up front, but many of these measures save you time and money in the long run.

• It is important that you know your role. Be sure that expectations are clear and concise. You need to know exactly what the client wants and expects. Get it in writing and pyrefer to it often.
• Invite client input. If the client feels that they have made a significant contribution to the project they will be less likely to request major changes. They have a stake in the finished product due to their contributions.
   

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• If you have messed up admit it. Clients do not like excuses. They want results.
• Do not take every project you are offered. Too many companies just starting out are desperate for work and are tempted to take on projects that they know they may not be able to complete or do successfully.
• Be on time. When you say you are going to deliver the results do it.
• If the partnership just isn’t making progress ending the relationship may need to be considered. If you are miserable chances are the client is miserable. Part ways peacefully.

Client relations are the bread and butter to any business. Follow these tips for a happy, successful client relationship which will lead to a successful business.

1. Hiring immigrants instantly reduces the amount you will be spending on salaries. Immigrants, although highly talented, usually ask for lesser pay as their English may be flawed or they may not have enough local experience. With a little bit of training they can become high performers.

2. A lot of female executives leave their jobs to concentrate on their families once they have children. Often, however, they look out for part time jobs or work as consultants. They can provide you with much needed expertise at a discounted price!

3. Look out for people who work on contract basis. If you think you will need additional staff for a single project, hire employees on a contract that lasts the duration of the project. This way, your work will get done and you won’t have to pay for employee idle time.

4. Interns are a great way to fill up positions that don’t require a lot of experience. They look for jobs solely to gain experience and don’t expect much of a pay.

5. Encourage employee referrals to avoid paying huge commissions to agents.

1. To begin with, try hiring top managers as consultants. There are many chief officers who work part time or as advisors in smaller companies. You will be able to gain a lot from their knowledge and will pay only a fraction of the cost of hiring a senior manager on a full time basis.

2. Several educational institutions like colleges and universities have highly educated and experienced staff who are available as advisors or consultants. Many such institutions also run programs that provide free leadership and mentoring to budding entrepreneurs. Check if your company can qualify for any such program.

3. Even when you hire top management on a consultant or part time basis, encourage a team atmosphere. Making them feel that they are as much part of the company as a full time manager will motivate them to perform better and give the organization their best.

4. Before you hire anyone for a top management post, go through a proper reference and background check procedure just as you would for any other employee. Top management are the leaders of a business and you need to be sure they are genuine.

1. If you have a small company, chances are that you will know what skills and abilities every individual working for you has. Make a list of all their educational and professional qualifications as well as soft skills that your employees may have.

2. Keep an eye out for high performers. People who are willing to go the extra mile and show an interest in development are likely to evolve into better roles over a course of time. Remember to be unbiased in your evaluation of your employees.

3. Make sure that every employee has a career path to follow. Have your HR team have one to one sessions with each employee to know how they see themselves progressing in the organization and plot a timeline based graph for their growth.

4. Have in-house training courses arranged that aim at developing employee skills that will benefit your organization. Keep a check on which employees shine during these training sessions.

5. Let your employees know that you are interested in promoting them and encourage them to approach you when they feel they are ready to take on more responsibilities.

1. Have a good orientation plan. Bombarding a new employee with a load of information on the first day is never a good idea so spread your orientation over the period of a month.

2. On the first day, make sure the new employee gets introduced to all their colleagues as well as department heads.

3. Appoint someone from the employees’ department as his or her ‘buddy’. This person will be responsible for making the new recruit comfortable in the new work environment and help them adjust.

4. Create an Employee Handbook that contain all the policies pertaining to HR, administration, benefits, holidays and almost anything that an employee can have a question about. Give this handbook to the employee on the first day and ask them to read it thoroughly, indicating that their knowledge will be tested shortly.

5. At the end of the first week, conduct a quick test to know if the employee understand his or her job role and how their own department functions.

6. AT the end of the month, arrange for an employee orientation day for all the employees recruited that month. Have senior managers and executives of each department brief them on how their department functions. It would be great if you could get a chief officer to explain the organization’s goals, mission and vision.

7. Conduct a final test to know if the employee is aware of all policies of the organization.

1. Form a training ‘Union’ of sorts with other small business owners. Use each others expert staff to share knowledge and skills. Each company will have employees with unique skills who can act as trainers for others.

2. When purchasing equipment of software, include product training as part of the contract. Get the manufacturer to send a representative to your office premises and train the employees on how to use the equipment of software. This will cut the cost you would incur in training the employees while your staff will get trained first hand by the manufacturer’s experts.

3. Form in-house training groups consisting of employees who have been identified as having good leadership and mentoring skills. Encourage them to set up weekly training classes for colleagues. Give them an incentive in the form of performance bonuses. This way, your employees will get trained for a fraction of the cost of hiring a professional trainer.

4. Try out one of the many online training courses available. Several sites provide free training material that can be utilized by your in-house training groups.

5. Send a single employee to a professional training camp and have the employee pass on the knowledge and skills to colleagues.

1. Set clear goals based on your business objective. What are the skills you want your employees to develop? Is training going to be enough or does it have to be backed up by some formal education? How will the training help employees drive towards business objective?

2. Think from an employees’ point of view. They will be more interested in the training if they believe that they too will gain something from it. Link training programs to promotion or salary hike prospects. Make training a part of the performance appraisal process.

3. A lecture lasting several hours can be extremely boring. Make the training interesting by using multimedia like videos and presentations. Engage the attendees by interacting with them during the course. Conduct a quiz or debate o stir up some excitement.

4. Have clear expectations on what you want the training to achieve. If you are aiming at improving communication skills of employees then set a bar which every employee must cross after the training is done.

5. Training would be pointless if you can’t measure its effectiveness. Conduct a test or survey post training to see how the employees have progressed and encourage them to take further training if they miss the bar.

The more organized an idea the better result will be for all involved. Using ERP, a enterprise resource plan, will help business owners, future employees, and potential lenders see how the business can benefit the community, if it will survive the first year, and what alternatives or contingencies the owners has should the business begin to fail.

There are many business plan templates available on the internet, and even if you have to pay for one, it’s worth it. Business plan templates guide you through the important information you’ll need to really lay out your new endeavor. Think of it as a wordy math formula. Once you’ve filled in all of the blanks, does the sum add up to a positive answer?

Often times, it’s the business plan that reveals the sad truth. Maybe that awesome idea really wasn’t so awesome. That’s not to say it’s impossible, it just means you’ve got to get back to the drawing board.

Some things that are included in a business plan are:
Mission Statement – This is where you really focus on what you plan to do.
Start Up Capital – You’ll need some money to start that business.
Key Players – Who are the owners, officers, managers, etc.
Products – This is where you discuss what you will be selling.
Location – This is where you describe where your business will be located.
Overhead – This is where you try to budget the various costs of running the business.
Income – Figure out what you’ll be charging for various products. Also, this is where you try to set a monthly goal.

These are just a few of the components of a business plan, and if they don’t add up, you’ll know before you start. Always work through this part of starting a business so that you can be successful in your new adventure.

Resume

When looking for a potential employee, the first thing you will see is their resume. It’s not just an outline of their work history or their education, it’s also a glimpse into their personality. If you receive a beat up, poorly printed resume full of misspelled words and outdated information, you probably aren’t looking at the next great employee. Only let the applicants through that meet the meticulous standards your company warrants.

Education

While looking at resumes, you will also be looking into the applicants education history. You first want to make sure that they meet the minimum education requirements that the position needs. It doesn’t matter whether it’s from junior colleges, online schools, or even ivy league schools, a commitment to education shows a lot about your applicant. A couple of red flags you want to look out for may be if they changed their major a lot, never finished, or got horrible grades, because indecisiveness, lack of commitment, or doing the absolute minimum required are all qualities you want to avoid in an employee.

Interview

You can learn so much about a person when you meet them face to face. When interviewing potential employees, you want to try and absorb as much about them as you possibly can. The person you want working for you will exude confidence, look you right in the eye when speaking to you, and seem comfortable around you. Although, you may want to be a bit understanding when it comes to nerves, because you don’t want to miss out on a great employee because they were a little nervous in the interview.

If you are planning to train a large group of employees it is a good idea to start out with what all of the employees need to know.  Maybe a video presentation or a talk from your Human Resources representative on hours, time off, break time, lunch time, benefits, etc.  Laying out in clear terms what is acceptable and what is not will alleviate problems later.  Having done that, it is probably a good idea to break the training session up into groups.  The training can then be concentrated on each different department or job.  The employees need only learn what is needed by them.

One of the most important parts of the training session is the question and answers.  Listen to the questions, ask some yourself.  Let your employees know that at any time if they have further questions they will be directed to the proper channel and make sure the question is answered.  Make sure that everything you have gone over is either accessible on the employee’s desktop or hand out a folder or packet with all the necessary information, as well as contact names and numbers.  Make sure the contact people are aware that they may be contacted.

Proper, thorough training benefits the boss as well as the employee.  The employee feels confident that he has learned what he needs and the boss gets confident employees right from the start.

The general contractor is the guy who oversees the entire project.  He has limited knowledge of each part of the job, and his major area of expertise is making it all come together.  He does this by contracting out certain parts of the work.  If plumbing is needed, a plumber will be contracted to do his part of the job.  The electrician will be contracted for the electrical work, right down to the plasterer and painter who will be contracted for their expertise.  The general contractor has a crew of his own, who probably started the construction.  Obviously everybody is getting their fee.  The general contractor commands a fee, as well as each individual contractor.  The general contractor can save money on the job as well as make more for himself is he has reliable people in his crew with at least a general knowledge of all parts of the construction.  Maybe the painting and plastering part of the job is just a quick fix, something that can be done by a general contracting crew.  By not calling in a separate contractor for this job and using his own crew, the general contractor has saved money for the client, as well as made some extra for himself.

Continue to get to know the person when you call to set up an interview.  Make the call yourself.  You can have an impression of the person through their voice and the way they present themselves.  Did you like their voice?  Were they articulate?  Were they able to answer your questions without hesitation and with confidence?  The answers to these questions will help you decide if indeed, you want to have the person come in for a face to face interview.  If you found anything questionable on the submitted resume, straighten out.  Ask the person to clarify any misunderstandings or explain something to you.

When you do see the person face to face, read their body language.  All employees on interviews are nervous.  This could be the career they have been searching for.  Put the person at ease and you will get much more information than if they feel intimidated.  Give them the opportunity to ask you questions.  You may learn exactly what they are looking for in this business relationship.

You need to deal with an employee in this situation very carefully. This person may have a personal grudge against you or your business.  He may be someone who just needed the money and knew he was good with the books.  Whatever the reason, terminating a disgruntled employee can go badly very quickly.  Hopefully your business has rules about weapons and/or firearms and is diligent in making sure those rules are followed.  You just never know.  If you have to confront an employee who is breaking the law, make sure you have legal back up.  Call the local law enforcement if you need to.  Consult your attorneys on what should be done.

While you know this employee needs to leave, you have other employees and their safety to consider.  Take every precaution when terminating someone who has done something illegal.  If they are capable of that, you do not know what else they are capable of doing.

There are those employees who just never seem to catch on.  You are beginning to think that this may not be the right job for them.  You obviously hired this person because you felt they were good for your company.  Maybe there is another position they are better suited for.  Unfortunately when all avenues have been exhausted it may be time to terminate your relationship with that employee.  It may just not have been a good fit.  Obviously he or she is not the right person for the job.  They may feel the same way.  Maybe this is not what they expected this position to be, or it is just too different than what they are used to.  They have tried, but nothing seems to be clicking.

It happens.  At times like these a boss has to do the one thing he probably enjoys the least, let the person go.  Be the consummate professional.  Sit the employee down and let him know you feel he or she tried and that you hope he or she realizes that you did too.  However, you feel at this time that this is not the right position for him, it is not working out for you and you think he should look elsewhere for employment.

Screening for this position should be rigorous.  Present many different situations to the employee to see how they would deal with them.  This is the person who will field complaints as well as requests from your clients.  He or she should be able to think fast on their feet, be able to come up with at least a temporary solution while a permanent solution can be sought.  Once they have developed a rapport with the customer this is also your go to guy when you want to know about the customer and his dealings with your business.  Is this a good time to let the customer know of new services?  Your client liaison will be know if this is something the client would be interested in at this time.

The person you choose should also be a stickler for detail.  He will know your customers personally, their birthdays, anniversaries, do they have children, what kind of wine do they like?  These little nuances can separate your product or service for other businesses out there trying to take that customer away from you.  A good working relationship with that customer can insure the customer stays with you.

Maybe van pooling is the way to go.  This became very popular during the gas crunch and is not a bad idea.  This type of transportation saves wear and tear on the employees automobile, and the ride to work can be a mini meeting in and of itself.  Many good ideas have come out of the ride to work.  When employees are in a group they are most likely going to talk about the job.

If you cannot offer company cars, perhaps you can share the expense of a car, its maintenance and gas with the employee.  Offering to help defray the costs of the transportation is certainly better than requiring the employee to absorb the entire cost, and is an important way for your company to trim the budget.

First and foremost is the salary.  The salary you offer new employees should be commensurate with the experience you require, as well as the experience the employee has.  If you are hiring management, the expense will be even higher.  The old saying, “You get what you pay for” is very true.  If you want to attract highly qualified individuals, you must be willing to meet their salary demands.  You do not always have the luxury of hiring someone on the ground floor so that they can work their way up, gaining the necessary experience along the way.

Another expense to be considered in your hiring costs is the benefit package.  In today’s economy the benefit package can be the big attraction.  While many positions can garner around the same salary from business to business, the benefit package can differ dramatically.  By offering more benefits, or better benefits, you may attract the cream of the crop.  Just remember to budget for those benefits.

You may need to consider the additional cost of training.  New employees need to learn the ropes.  If trained properly the first time, you will save money in the long run.  More employees mean more computers, more work stations, maybe even more bathrooms or a bigger break room.   Remember to keep all of these costs in mind when considering expanding or taking on more employees.

While there are certain things you can count on, he will be nervous, he may stumble a little, but you will get to know him a little better.  You can overlook the awkwardness that comes with nerves.  You realize that putting him at ease will make this interview a lot easier on both of you.  Making him nervous will only cause him to lose confidence and you will not get to know exactly what he has to offer.  As well, you will come off as a rigid boss, and perhaps one he would rather not work for.

The face to face interview is the last piece of the puzzle.  If all goes well, you will offer him a position with your company.  If it does not go well, he will leave and you will feel as though you have wasted valuable times.  If you have interviewed dozens of people for positions you probably have a good routine.  You know the obvious, he has the qualifications you require, you liked the way he looked on paper and you have spoken to him.  During the face to face interview, make sure you cover everything you will require of your future employee.  Make your business practices well known.  Converse about how he will be an asset to your company.  Remember, as much as you are learning about him, he is also making his final decision, and if he is what you are looking for, let him know it.

Then there are those positions which require a signed contract, an agreement between boss and employee on different points of the job.  Most contracts state what is required of the employee, what will be done if those requirements are not met, as well as any bonuses or extras if the job requirements are met regularly.  When you are hired, your boss or your Human Resource representative will approach you with the actual contract.  This is most likely something you discussed with your employer at the time you were hired.  You may have even negotiated some of the terms of the contract, for example giving up some paid time off for a little more in the paycheck.  All of these things should be listed in your contract.

Just remember not to sign a contract that does not clearly state exactly what was agreed upon between you and the boss.  It is the duty of the Human Resource department to make sure that you understand every aspect of the contract, making sure that both boss and employee are well represented and have agreed on all points of interest in the contract.

It is difficult during a recession to keep the bonuses and free lunches coming.  This may be one of the first things that needs to be trimmed from your budget.  If this is the case, make sure that management are not still continuing to collect fat bonuses while the lesser employees are working hard and not seeing the bonuses.  Let your employees know that you appreciate everything they are doing to keep the business going strong during a recession.  Make sure that management and higher paid employees are proportionately taking the same cuts.  It is not good for the employees to see management padding the expense accounts with lavish lunches and overnight trips to nowhere.  Let your management team know that you appreciate them as well, and that everyone has to give a little across the board.

Find some inexpensive ways to let the employees know that they are appreciated.  Have contests with prizes for good production, positive attitudes or other employee positive situations.  Keep the communication open, giving everyone the opportunity to air grievance, as well as share ideas on how to make it through the recession.

Honing good people skills is a good idea for any person in management.  Being able to speak to the employees, as well as the customers, is an important skill, and one that has never been so important.  Having the right words, as well as the right mannerisms to assure your customers that you are still providing a quality product or service is a very marketable skill.  On the flip side, the boss who can speak to his employees, from management right down to the guys in the mail room, will be able to gather the troops and instill trust and camaraderie in his work force.  A loyal staff, one willing to go the extra mile during difficult times, can mean the difference between going under during a recession and actually surviving or even flourishing during a recession.  Knowing and acknowledging that your staff is that important will keep your head clear, keep you focused on getting your service or product out there, knowing that the people behind you are going to be there, working harder than ever.

Entry level positions are obviously the easiest to fill.  The salary is not as high and the requirements are not as extensive.  Entry level positions are great ways to train people on how your company works, start at the bottom and learn the ropes, work your way up.

Another great way to recruit employees is to go to technical schools and vocational high schools.  These schools have their students divided by the occupation they are seeking.  You can forge a relationship with the head of the department of the type of employee you are looking for, and this will help you get quality employees who are trained and schooled in the area of expertise you are looking for.

You can also recruit at the colleges in your area, contacting the head of the department of the area of expertise you are hiring for.  A student fresh out of college has the latest in education, as well as the drive to succeed, along with a willingness to start at a lesser salary in order to gain badly needed experience.  There are good quality employees out there, and they are probably looking just as hard for you as you are for them.

Start with defining exactly what the need is.  What exactly do you need from this employee?  Is manpower the main motivation, or is there a certain expertise required?  These are all things that need to be considered.  Once you have narrowed the field, you can begin to search for the right people.  There are many, many ways to do that.   The three line ad run in the local paper is not going to attract the person you need.  We do have the Internet, with literally the power to reach thousands of interested applicants.  There are job websites that you can utilize, where you can define the job description, have prospective employees submit resumes and you can choose from there.   There are also technical schools, if there is a certain area of expertise you are looking for.  A lot of these schools have school-to-work programs that will allow the students to work part of the school day.  This is a great way to see if a young student is the right fit for your company, and they may work for free or less of a salary, as they are getting course credits.  Once graduation comes, you may be in a position to offer that person a full time position.

Defining exactly what it is you are looking for is more than half the battle of hiring the right person for your company.  This process can be beneficial for boss as well as employee.

There are job search engines.  You can post the position and its requirements, and prospective employees can respond by sending in a resume.  You can also search these sites for already posted resumes, and you can do your own search, contacting those who you feel have the initial qualifications you are looking for.  Face to face interviews can now be saved for the select few who meet your rigorous criteria.  You will not have to spend days in interview sessions with people who you know from the first “hello” are not what you are looking for.

In recruiting for employees, be as specific as the job description.  This will help those seeking employment to know if they have what you need from them.  List the exact amount of schooling required for this position, the special skills needed, even the hours required, and mention if travel is required.  For some people, this may be the difference in sending in their resume or looking elsewhere.

In these precarious financial times, time is money.  If you have to spend your valuable time sifting through many employees, you are wasting time you can be using getting your product or service out there to the consumer.  There are a lot of people looking for work out there, let the right one find you.

Occasionally, more so in certain businesses, you need to call on someone outside of your company for help.  You need to contract someone to come in and perform a service within your business.  Of course, looking within your company is the best way to get things done for your business.  If you have an employee with the expertise that you require, obviously that is the most economical route as well.  However, each individual situation must be looked at to see if the best way is to contract the work out.  The most obvious example would be the construction business.  Not all construction businesses have electricians, plumbers and plasterers on their payroll.   They need to call the experts in these fields, and they pay these experts with the money they have budgeted for that particular service.

You may have an office full of computers and a staff that is well versed in working with them.  However, if a new program is instituted that will help your business, you may have to call in an expert trained in installing and using that program to train your employees.  It may be something your employees can maintain once they know how everything works.

Calling in a contractor when needed is a good way to make sure you have done your job to the best of your ability.

Maybe this job was really just not the right fit for the employee.  They just don’t seem to be catching on as well as they should have.  The job seems to be too difficult or confusing for them.  You have spoken to them and given them a second or even third chance.  Still not working.  It is time to let them go.  After all, you are running a business and if the employee is not performing as is required, that employee is no longer an asset to your company.

You are not a horrible person and you feel bad about having to let an employee go.  It would be easy if there was a blatant serious infraction.  It is not so difficult to let someone go who is stealing from you or deliberately trying to undermine your business.  It is easy to let the person go who does not care about their job and really has no intention of performing in the necessary capacity.  It is the gray area that is more difficult.

If your employee handbook is clear about job duties and responsibilities, this should make your job easier.  You can easily point out where this particular employee is not working out.  Being a good boss means knowing how to be tactful when necessary.  If you have to let someone go who is just not doing what you need them to do, let them know that you appreciate their effort, but this is just not the right fit for either one of you.   Your reputation as a boss depends on you being able to handle this very difficult part of management.

With careers becoming more and more defined and broken down into specialties, you might find that the guy who comes and installs your new computer is not the same guy who can load it with what it needs to run.  If you have further trouble with it, there is the trouble shooting guy, etc.  When computers first became part of the household all of those jobs were done by one computer specialist.  Doctors, nurses and professional medical people all specialize now.  If you have a bump on your foot, your family doctor will send you to the foot doctor, who may send you to the surgeon, and so on.  While it is encouraging to know that we are getting the experts in the field, it would have been nice to just have one stop.

The same thing applies to your business.  If you have an employee who specializes in one thing, and that particular job has some downtime, the best thing for both of you would be to have the employee pitch in and help in another part of the business.   As a prospective employee, make sure you let the boss know of any special skills you may have.  You may be applying for a higher level position, but you know how to type.  This one skill could make the boss see you as the best employee for the position.  Let the boss know you have the skills he needs, and a few extra.

Obviously the first step is to decide exactly how many people you need in management.  Too many chiefs and not enough Indians can have an adverse effect on your business.  Decide how you are going to divide your company responsibilities.  You may need a general manager, someone whom all the department managers can report to.  Hiring a general manager can take a lot of the day to day burden off of you.  This will free up your time so that you can devote your time to keeping in touch with your clients, and basically overseeing your business.  It can be difficult to let go of the reins, but it will be worth it.

Decide exactly how you want to divide up the responsibility.  Perhaps you can create your management team from your employees.  You obviously already trust these people, and they would not be with your company if they were not knowledgeable of the way you want things to be run.  You may need to hire someone outside of the company in order to find the person with the right qualifications to handle groups of your employees in the right way.

The main thing is this is your business.  You get to decide how things are done.  You get to personally choose people to work for your company, from the highest of management to the ground floor entry employee.  You care about your business, and with the right management team, your employees will see that you care and your business will flourish.

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”  We are in a time where management needs to get creative and find ways to keep the employees happy.  There are lots of little ways to say thank you to the people who make your business run more smoothly.  You should keep in mind that your business would not be where it is if every employee were a guy in a suit, sitting in a meeting, talking about how to make the business more successful.  Without the little guy, the worker bee if you will, your business would not be where it is.  While management is important, and a good management team will keep your employees, as well as the higher ups happy, bonuses and “thank-you” perks should be fair across the board.

If your business is one in which everyone needs to look professional every day, maybe you could allow a “dress-down” day for a profitable week.  Everyone can wear casual clothes, with some restrictions.  If your employees all work on computers, perhaps a wrist rest or new quality headphones for those who are in compliance and going the extra mile.  Of course cash bonuses are always welcome, and they should be awarded when your employees cause your company to have a successful quarter, there are lots of small ways to say thank you, and let your employees know you appreciate what they do.

Dealing with an Employee Resigning

First and foremost, when an employee comes to you and informs you of his or her resignation, you are going to want to ask for the employee to give you an official written letter of resignation with the final date of employment. This is generally going to be able to protect you from fraudulent unemployment claims, among other things.

Next up is whether or not you are going to allow the employee to complete their work term, or dismiss them immediately. If the employee is valued and/or trusted, then you can benefit greatly by keeping them for the term. You can have them finish up any open projects, document and detail steps and processes for any projects that can’t be wrapped up, and possibly even help to transition another employee into those projects if the original employee cannot reasonably complete them. If the employee is not valued or simply is not needed to finish out the term, then you should politely inform them that they will be paid for the remainder of the time until termination, and that their services are no longer needed.

When an employee resigns, as their former or their soon to be former employer, you are going to need to know how to announce the employee’s resignation to the rest of the company and the rest of your staff. This is both beneficial to your company as a courtesy to keep everyone informed, and to make it clear that things will be changing and there may be some title changes and/or promotions, etc. in the works accordingly. What you say in the e-mail or any other form of official correspondence is more than likely going to differ depending on the circumstances of the employees resignation.

If the resigning employee is being let go immediately due to untrustworthiness or some other less than happy reason, immediately send out a company e-mail simply stating that X employee has left the company to seek other opportunities as of that days date. You could also add a polite wish for success in the search for those opportunities if you felt so inclined. For an employee who is well liked and trusted and will be working up to the date of resignation, a more cheery e-mail might be more appropriate in this type of situation.

You would still want to state specifically that the employee is leaving the company to seek new opportunities, but you would also note the final day of employment at the same time. You could then go on and wish the employee well on the search for new opportunity, and if you so desired, state plans to hold a small get together on the employees last day to see them off and wish them well in person. These things can help foster morale amongst your employees to know they are valued and won’t simply be dismissed. Having an employee leave is very rarely an enjoyable situation, but you can lighten the stress level associated with a resignation by making it smooth and easy for everyone who is involved.

Not all employment ends amicably. One of the unpleasant aspects of owning or running a business is termination of employment. Depending on the laws of the state your business is in, you could find yourself in a position of defending against legal challenge. Many states have “at-will” employment laws which protect against much of this, but there are still some things to watch for. Claims of discrimination are on of the ways a former employee could attempt to make a claim on. Any such claim of discrimination based on a protected status will require the former employee to provide proof. Some other common claims that can be made are that the former employee was defamed by the employer making disparaging and false claims or comments regarding them to others, that they were treated in such a way as to cause emotional distress, or that their privacy was in some way invaded by failing to disclose the reason for involuntarily being terminated.

Some simple things for an employer to ask themselves before following through with a termination would be: Does the employee have legitimate reasons or explanations for the issue at hand? Does being terminated from employment fit the offense? Is terminating the employee for the given reason in line with previous terminations? Are there any pre-termination rights the employee should be aware of? Is the decision to terminate employment being made prematurely, or in haste?

Lastly, the likelihood of termination being challenged can be lessened by doing these things: Be sure that proper post-termination procedure is followed. Be honest with the employee, do not soft-pedal the issues. Be respectful of the feelings and privacy of the employee. If there are any severance benefits involved, be sure to obtain a release. Lastly, keep and maintain all of the relevant documents.

A very common question among business owners and workers relates to what human resources is, and what the purpose of such a position or such a department could possibly be. Human resources is described as the people that operate and staff an organization rather than the people that handle the material or financial resources of the organization. In other words, Human Resources is the department that handles the people aspects of the organization, including the hiring, the firing, the benefits, the vacations, promotions, salaries, resignations and all other aspects of the company and its functions that relate to the employees, workers, contractors and other human individuals.

In some businesses, human resources is essentially a single person that handles all of these basic tasks on a day to day basis. In other larger companies, human resources can be an entire department of people, and there may be a person for each of the different roles. Some companies rely heavily on human resources software, which juggles a lot of the human resources tasks automatically, like payroll, paid time off and other benefits so that the human resources people do not have as much on their plates.

As a business owner, it is essentially up to you to decide how you will handle your human resources tasks. You might hire a single person to handle the bulk of your human resources needs, or you may hire several people and give each one a set list of tasks that they are responsible for. Some businesses rely on human resources software suites while others do much of their human resources work by hand. Ultimately, you need to find the system or setup that is best going to meet your needs in order to truly thrive as a company and to meet the basic needs of your employees on a day to day basis.

It is not uncommon for trends to change, as well as attitudes and practices, when it comes to compensation and salary in the work force. As shifts occur in the attitudes and the practices regarding compensation and salary, more and more people begin to research salaries, salary surveys and basically everything pertaining to salary. The reason is because more employers are trying to understand how to stick with the trends when it comes to hiring employees, because competitive salaries garner better workforces.

Organizations no longer give equal increases to all of the members of their organizations. These salary increases can range from 1 percent to 5 percent, and can give the wrong message to an employee that is not performing up to par. Forward-thinking companies and organizations are now beginning to rethink their compensation and salary principles in completely new ways.

To attract, keep and maintain better performing employees, it is recommended that organizations offer a pay rate that is variable between seven and eight percent in addition to the base salary. Systems that reward better performers will not be able to reward every staff member in the same way. Not only does this send the wrong message to everyone, but you must also consider your pool of money, which will never be unlimited.

It is important that you use the way that you compensate your employees as one of the most important of all communication tools within your organization. This is going to send a very powerful message to your organization regarding what your company’s expectations are, and how your goal achievement rewards are offered.

It is important to occasionally rethink your salary and compensation protocols. Are they following the trends? Are they allowing you to retain the best possible work force for your organization? If you are having great difficulty retaining a high quality workforce, then examining your compensation protocols may be well worthwhile.

Organizations need to be able to develop a philosophy for compensation and a direction in writing that everyone in the management agrees to. A company that is entrepreneurial and market-driven should have a compensation philosophy that includes a method allowing the business to group similar jobs for broad banding principles. This is because there are only limited opportunities for promotion. This should include a measurement system that is responsible in the ways that it awards variable pay. It is recommended that you put less emphasis on the increase of base pay and place more emphasis on the distribution of gains through bonuses rewarding the actual attainment of goals.

Goal attainments need to awarded not only for individual goal achievement, but also organizational goal achievement. It is believed that this will foster a feeling of teamwork and will eliminate the “lone ranger” type of mentality in workers. The real achievement of goals should b attached to deliverables or outcomes that can be measured and should offer a shared image of what true success looks like. This has nothing to do with simply checking things off of a to do list. As the cost associated with benefits has seen increases, the place for benefits within a total package for compensation has also increased in importance. Shifting costs for some of the benefits to the employees themselves should only be a worst case scenario, and should not be your primary plan when it comes to compensating your employees for their hard work.

Another option that is available to your company is rewards for quality of work life. This is a compensation strategy that you may want to look at, as more and more companies are trending toward it and similar compensation strategies for learning how to garner better, higher quality workers.

If an employee brings up a human resources issue regarding another employee, the human resources department or manager in the company should reassure them that the right actions will be taken accordingly. You should tell the employee that the company is absolutely committed to complying with the law and all of its policies, and that the company will conduct a thorough investigation in order to determine whether or not inappropriate conduct has actually occurred. If improper conduct has in fact occurred, then the conduct is going to be stopped properly, and an appropriate corrective action is going to be taken.

You are going to want to make sure that the complaining employee knows that the human resources interview is designed to obtain a complete and thorough understanding of the situation that has occurred as well as to identify any and all witnesses and evidence that may have some knowledge of whatever incident has occurred. Make sure that the complaining employee knows that his or her name will only be used in the investigative process if absolutely necessary.

It is also important for you to make sure that the employee knows that there will not be any retaliation against him or her for making a complaint in good faith. If you believe that retaliation has occurred or that it may be occurring, then you need to notify management immediately. Otherwise, make sure that the matter is being kept confidential so that the investigation’s integrity is maintained from beginning to end.

Depending on what the nature of the complaint is, the employer may need to consider his or her options for separating the accused employee and the complaining employee, at least during the duration of the human resources investigation. The investigation needs to be kept quiet and confidential until both parties are talked to, and a conclusion is arrived at.

If an employee brings up a human resources issue regarding another employee, the human resources department or manager in the company should reassure them that the right actions will be taken accordingly. What you tell the accused employee is going to differ from what you tell the complaining employee. You should tell the accused employee that you are investigating a complaint relating to alleged inappropriate conduct and that he or she is involved. Informed the respondent for each allegation using sufficient enough detail that they can make a full response.

Make sure that the accused employee understands that the purpose behind the interview is to obtain a complete, accurate and thorough understanding of the situation that has occurred, as well as to identify any and all witnesses or evidence that may shed some light on the situation at hand. Make sure that you are keeping the matter entirely confidential in order to protect the integrity of the entire investigation from the beginning to the end.

Keep in mind that it is entirely against the law and against most internal policies for people to retaliate against another employee when they have filed a complaint against another employee, or when they have participated in an investigation regarding a complaint. Make sure that the accused employee is aware of the company’s policies in terms of retaliation to prevent any retaliation from occurring. Notify the management or someone higher up in human resources if you believe that retaliation may already have occurred or that it may be occurring to prevent the situation from becoming more severe.

Complaints that come to human resources are serious business, and so you should take them as seriously as humanly possible. Make sure that you keep the situation completely confidential until the point where the investigation has completed.

For each and every single allegation that a complaining employee raises, you are going to want to ask a specific set of questions. This set of questions is going to help you determined what happened, who was involved, who was at fault and what you need to rectify the situation. Here are the questions that you should ask the complaining employee:

Ask what occurred. Ask when it occurred, including the date and time, and ask where it occurred. Find out how it happened in as much detail as possible. Find out who said what or what was done, and in what order. Find out about any physical contact, and ask to have it demonstrated. Find out how the complaining employee responded.

Find out if the incident has been reported before. If it has, to find out who it was reported to and when, then find out what response has already been carried out if any. Find out if the complaining employee has already discussed the situation with anyone else, and if so, who. Find out if there have been any other incidents involving the same person, and if so, who, what happened, where and when.

You are also going to want to ask the complaining employee if he or she knows why the incident occurred, what his or her relationship is with the respondent and why he or she is coming forward at this point? Are there any additional pieces of evidence that support the claims of the employee, such as notes or documents? Has the respondent given you anything in writing or any other items? Who was nearby, and were there any witnesses or people within earshot that can attest to the incident occurring?

All of these things can be important in determining what happened, who was involved and who can corroborate the story so that you can investigate the incident properly and completely.

For each and every single allegation that a complaining employee raises, you are going to want to ask a specific set of questions. This set of questions is going to help you determined what happened, who was involved, who was at fault and what you need to rectify the situation. Here are the questions that you should ask the accused employee:

First ask what occurred. Ask when the incident happened, where it happened and how it happened. If the accused employee is denying the accusations, then ask why the accuser would have a reason to make up such an allegation. Ask the accused where they were when the incident occurred; ask for an “alibi witness” if one exists.

If the incident is not being contested, then find out how it happened in as much detail as possible. Find out who said what or what was done, and in what order. Find out about any physical contact, and ask to have it demonstrated. Find out who did what or said what, and in what order these things were done in. Find out if any other incidents occurred involving the complaining employee, and if so, get details on this particular situation. Ask the accused employee if they know why the incident occurred. Find out if there is any evidence supporting this employee’s version of what occurred, such as notes, documentation, witnesses or other evidence. Find out if there is anyone else that may be able to provide you with relevant information about the incident. Find out if the employee has talked to anyone else about the incident prior to the meeting as well.

All of these things can be important in determining what happened, who was involved and who can corroborate the story so that you can investigate the incident properly and completely.

If you want to attract the best possible hires to your organization, then there are a number of things that you can do in order to make it happen. The job interview is not a time for you to chat with an applicant, but rather it is time for you to really dig and investigate an applicant prior to hiring them. Preparing for an interview is actually a two step process. First you are going to want to use the job description so that you can identify what skills, traits and abilities you actually need. If you do not already have a job description, then you need to write one before you look for the employees that you need.

Next, you are going to want to determine how you are going to figure out if a specific candidate has these traits or qualifications or not. You cannot outright ask “Do you have such and such skill?” because applicants are likely to say yes even if they are not the right candidate for the job. Instead, what you are going to want to do is pick out key issues in a job description and design your questions that are going to help you to get at those specific issues. Ask routine questions that will be deal breakers, such as “Do you have the degree we require?” But also make sure you’re asking questions that are going to help the applicant actually tell you whether or not they are ideal for the job. When you ask questions that do not allow for yes and no answers, then you are much more likely to find out good information from the applicants rather than simple and meaningless answers.

You need to have an interview strategy so that you can benefit from the interview process rather than accidently hiring someone that you are not satisfied with down along the road.

Severance pay typically amounts to between one and two weeks of pay for each of the years that the employee worked for the company. For an executive, the severance pay may actually constitute as much as a month of pay for every year of service. On the other hand, for a senior position, the severance pay may instead be dictated based on an employment contract. In certain circumstances, severance packages may also include specific extended benefits as well as outplacement assistance.

Is an employer required to pay severance pay?

No, there is no law that requires for an employer to pay any severance pay. According to the Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA, an employer needs to pay an employee the regular wage through the completion of their employment as well as for any time that has been accrued by the employee. This is normally going to include any vacation time that has been accrued, but it will not typically include any sick days. Severance pay on the other hand is up to the goodwill of an employer, unless an employment contract requires that the employer pay. If the employee handbook requires severance pay, then that is a binding contract that the employer must pay out in the event that employment is severed.

Paying severance out in a lump sum during a single weekly paycheck is typically the best course of action based on how unemployment compensation is generally calculated in most states. This will reduce the unemployment compensation for the week of the payout, but it will allow the employee to collect more unemployment during following weeks.

There are a variety of different considerations that need to be made when setting up a business and planning out its structure, especially when it comes to human resources and human resource policies. For example, you need to have worker’s compensation insurance and you need to have a general plan for how your company is going to respond to worker’s compensation claims and other issues.

Worker’s compensation laws make sure that when an employee becomes injured on the job, he or she will receive the right amount of medical benefits and compensation accordingly. This is especially important in situations where the employee becomes injured on the job, or contracts some kind of disease as a result of job performance. Every state has a requirement that employers with employees purchase coverage for worker’s compensation in order to ensure that their employees are protected against any hardships in the event of an injury, an illness or a death on the job. Worker’s compensation insurance coverage protects not only the employees, but their dependents as well.

The worker’s compensation concept was designed both to protect the employee and the employer, since both can be forced to deal with hardships and costs when an employee becomes injured. The employee is going to receive medical benefits and compensation when an illness or injury occurs. In turn, the employer will not be sued by the employee for the injury or illness having been caused. The employer, then, is going to benefit from the immunity from any lawsuits, in most circumstances at least.

As an employer it is important for you to ensure that your management staff and your employees know what to do when something happens. When an injury or illness is claimed, an accident report must be filled out completely so that a claim can be made and so that the worker’s compensation insurance can be benefited from.

If you want to attract workers to your business that are high caliber, then you need to offer things like medical insurance, competitive pay and a 401k retirement plan. According to studies, if you emphasize the offering of better benefits, then you will be able to attract a higher caliber staff as a result. This is going to make benefits such as a 401k retirement plan a real cornerstone when it comes to human resources recruitment and your retention strategy for the workforce in your business as well.

Human Resources: What is a 401k Retirement Plan?

A 401k retirement plan is designed to provide employees with a means to accumulate some income for their retirement. The government allows employers to sponsor these 401k plans so that employees can be encouraged to save for their retirement. These plans make it possible for employees to take a fixed percentage of their base paycheck that they can apportion as savings, pre-tax, before most of their withholding taxes have been deducted. This money is then deposited into a special trust account with either a bank or another financial services company so that it can be used for retirement investment purposes.

401k retirement account balances can be maintained individually for each of the participating employees, and the investment earnings will then be sheltered from any and all taxation. This makes it possible for savings to compound at a rate that is more accelerated. Regulatory restrictions as well as penalties may exist for any withdrawals that are made before retirement.

This is one of the most flexible types of retirement plans that you can buy into, making the 401k a great benefit to add when trying to hire better employees for your company. This is definitely something to keep in mind when you are trying to beef up the benefits package that your company offers.

There are a lot of rules and regulations that tell companies and business owners what they can and cannot ask during an interview process. The last thing that a business needs is to have some type of legal lawsuit against them for age discrimination or religious discrimination. If you are considering hiring some new employees here is a look at what you can and cannot ask during an interview process.

Age. You cannot ask a job applicant their age. This is viewed as age discrimination if you do. However, you can ask birth date so you are welcome to do the math and figure out the age. There is a way around the age law. If your company or business has laws and restrictions that prohibit people of a certain age working for them you may ask if the person is over a certain age. An example of this is a job that handles alcohol where people need to be over the age of 18 or 21.

Religious Background. You cannot ask a job applicant what their religious affiliation is. Even if the job is around a certain religious organization you are not allowed by law to ask about their religious beliefs.

Sexual Orientation. You are also not allowed to ask any job applicant their sexual orientation. This includes whether they are gay, straight or bi-sexual. This question is completely off limits.

Veteran Status. You are allowed to ask job applicants if they have served in the armed forces. Many jobs will give special consideration if the person applying for a job is a veteran. You are also allowed to ask if they were disabled in the line of duty.

Credit History. While you cannot directly ask if a job applicant is in debt, you can run a credit history. However, the job applicant must sign legal documents that grant you permission to run a credit history for the job application process.

Here is a look at the different types of business loans and financing that are available to business owners.

Term Loans. These are the common loans that any business can apply form. Term loans require that the bank give the business owner a set amount of money and the business owner will pay it back over a period of time. Term loans are generally used to develop some type of capital for the business.

Short Term Loans. Short term loans are similar to term loans but instead of being paid back over a period of years. These require that they be paid back over a short period of time. Short term loans are usually used for seasonal business needs or an emergency repair job.

Equipment Financing. These are the easiest types of loans to get for businesses. An equipment loan is where a bank or financial institute gives business owners money to get equipment for their business. However, the equipment or goods are collateral and can be collected if the loan is defaulted on. This collateral option is why this financing option is so easy.

Lines of Credit. Lines of credit allow businesses to have a set amount of money that businesses can borrow from. The money is only used when the business uses it and it does not have to be repaid back until it is used. This flexible option is great for businesses that only need to use the money temporarily. However, if you default on these types of loans interest rates are really high.

One of the least talked about types of financing that is available for businesses is known as factoring. In fact it is so rarely talked about that most business owners have never even heard of it or know what it involves. Despite it’s rare usage factoring can be really helpful for certain businesses. Here is a look at what exactly factoring is and what businesses might benefit from it.

Factoring is the process of a business selling their invoices and bills from clients to an outside company. For only a small fee this company will go ahead and issue your company a part of the invoice up front and the rest when the client or customer pays on the bill. Many businesses consider this a great way to be able to get money up front without having to worry about the client paying. The waiting period that clients have to pay the bill or invoice disappears when factoring is used.

What businesses should use factoring?

Factoring will generally only work for businesses that are just starting out in the business world. That is because these businesses will need the capital ahead of time and not have the luxury of waiting for customers and clients to pay on their invoices. Once a business is established and there is a little wiggle room for clients to pay there is no reason to pay another company to give you money up front, you might as well collect the money yourself.

How Much Does Factoring Cost?

Factoring is a fairly cost effective financing option. The company will generally charge a fee of around 2-3% to run the service and collect the money from the customer. The money upfront that the business receives is usually 75-80% of the invoice with the rest of the invoice being paid when the invoice is paid by the customer.

If you are trying to build a strong team, then ice breakers can be really beneficial to you. Try this team-building ice breaker that generates laughter and fun. First you are going to want to divide all of your participants into groups of between four people and five people. Do this by having them number off so that they are paired with people they do not know. Tell them that they need to find ten different things that they have in common with all of the other people in the group.

Make sure that you tell the people what things do not qualify, such as body parts. You cannot say that everyone has arms or everyone has legs, and you cannot say clothing, but if everyone is wearing a bracelet, or if everyone is wearing earrings, that kind of thing might be able to fly depending on your personal preference. Tell the group that they need to select a single person that is going to take notes, and that person will represent the group and will read the list out to the other groups in the activity.

Because of the fact that people tend to be the best source for fun and laughter, reading the entire list of ten things is generally going to incite not only a whole lot of discussion, but fun and laughter as well. This activity only takes between ten and 15 minutes and yet it can have a profoundly positive impact on allowing people to get to know each other, so if you are working with a large group and want to introduce them quickly and effectively, then this is the way to do it. A small activity can really have an excellent impact on your team when you get everybody talking about something interesting and revealing.