One of the primary responsibilities of a nonprofit board is to hire and supervise the executive director (if there is one), including setting appropriate compensation every year. Setting compensation is important for two reasons, one legal and one equitable. Legally, the IRS doesn’t like to see executive directors being paid … Read More
When people sit down to focus on a job description, they usually start with the tasks assigned to the position: bookkeeping, answering the phone, stocking shelves, designing products, leading classes, etc. This is the heart of a job, but it needs to be fleshed out for a complete description. A … Read More
Montana has long had a work injury rate 40% higher than the national average, resulting in high levels of injuries and expensive Worker’s Compensation rates. The federal OSHA program is geared toward national issues, which don’t always address Montana’s safety problems. In an effort to improve Montana’s safety rates, the … Read More
One of the things that makes it tricky to set hard and fast ethical standards is that every ethical dilemma is different. Academics who study ethics have come up with Ethical (or Moral) Intensity as a way to describe the various dimensions along which dilemmas can differ; each one will … Read More
The fun part about writing job descriptions – ok, the part that most people focus on – is the list of tasks that an employee is responsible for: answering phones, accounts payable, supervising, scheduling, etc. These are the obvious parts of a job, but there is more to it than … Read More
Whether you are trying to introduce consistency to tasks being done or to make it easier to train new employees, work instructions, sometimes referred to as standard work, can make life much simpler. It is easy to see how specific instructions on how to do a job would be helpful … Read More
One thing board members, especially of nonprofits with 1-3 employees, often have trouble wrapping their minds around is the idea that they are an employer. That seems too much like being a business, not a nonprofit. But the organization is an employer with the same responsibilities as any for-profit employer, … Read More
One of the lesser-known aspects of the ADA is that it makes it illegal to discriminate against someone because they “associate” with someone with a disability. According to the EEOC: The ADA prohibits discrimination based on relationship or association in order to protect individuals from actions based on unfounded assumptions … Read More
Having volunteers seems like a no-brainer for every nonprofit, but there are some things to think about when you do. In no particular order, a few of them are: Get applicable releases from volunteers before they start work, starting with a medical release. For minors, get a photo release from … Read More
Little-known fact: All Montana companies with five or more employees are required to have a Safety Committee. Even companies that do have one don’t always know how to balance the committee to make it truly useful. Sometimes everyone on the committee is a line employee; sometimes everyone is management. Neither … Read More