The idea that your employees might have a complaint about their work is either laughably obvious or unpleasant to think about. Either way, it can help to have a grievance policy written down so employees know when it is appropriate to involve the boss, and what kind of information will … Read More
Somehow paying employees is never quite as easy as it seems like it should be. How hard can it be? Multiply hours worked by wage and that is what you owe, right? Wrong, of course, what with overtime and deductions. And even that apparently simple calculation has pitfalls. First, how … Read More
Return to Work Plans are usually created and used in conjunction with Worker’s Comp injuries and focus on getting a recovering employee back to work as soon as practical. But they can end up connected to ADA issues following serious injuries, which can cause problems for a business if the … Read More
As more people are using service and emotional support animals, it is getting trickier for business owners to know how to handle them. Service animals must generally be accommodated in all areas where members of the public are allowed to go, while emotional support dogs don’t have to be. So … Read More
In any organization, there is the chance of money going missing between income and outgo. Financial or internal controls are the policies and procedures that minimize this leakage – and protect people handling the money from charges of fraud. Businesses tend to have internal controls because the owner is keeping … Read More
One of the trickier issues in an employee manual is how to handle discipline.There are three tendencies that commonly cause problems: state the ideal process as an absolute, list what will get an employee fired, and spread discipline throughout the manual in bits and pieces. The first one is the … Read More
Training picks up where procedures leave off, and they should work together to make sure employees are doing the job the way you want it done. Much training can be done on the job, but sometimes it is worth putting together materials to make the process go more smoothly. Training … Read More
When should you write down how you want things done by employees? When: You keep explaining the same process over and over. A certain process occurs so seldom that everyone forgets how to do it. You want everyone to do things the same way. You want to set a baseline … Read More
When should you write job descriptions? When: Tasks keep falling through the crack or being duplicated. You hear “It’s not my job” more than you like. You are hiring and need to explain the job to candidates. Hand-offs between employees make tasks more complicated than they need to be. Before … Read More
When should you develop an employee manual? When: You keep making the same decision about maternity leave or how to handle complaints. Employees keep asking the same questions. High turnover makes consistent training hard. Employees respond with “I didn’t know” when disciplined. The goal is to create a handbook so … Read More