Category: Blog

5 Essential HR Strategies for Small Business

Large businesses have the advantage of resources, time and capital to properly manage their workforce, none of which smaller business has in any abundance. This makes it difficult for small business to maximize productivity, avoid time crushing employee problems and compete on the same stage with their larger counterparts. It may be challenging, but it is essential for small businesses to proactively and effectively manage their workforce. The task boils down to 5 simple strategies that will vastly improve your workforce, your productivity and your profitability.


Know Who You’re Hiring Before They Punch the Clock the First Time
It’s easy to make a bad hiring decision. People are unemployed or looking for a new employer for a variety of reasons so it’s critical you find out why they are looking and why you would want to hire them before you make an offer. Have the post-offer candidate submit to a background check and a drug test before the deal is inked. Diligently check all references. Just a few days and a few bucks could save you from a major headache. Hiring is a process, create one, and follow it.

Orient the New Employee to Your Company, Their Job and Your Expectations
Employees perform more effectively if they know what their job entails, what the company goals and objectives are, and what your employee policies are. Take time when you hire new employees to introduce them to your company, your vision, and your expectations and explain what their role is. Train them on the particulars of their position and what benchmarks they should meet. Be sure to document all orientation and training sessions.

Consistently Manage Employee Performance
Poor employee performance can drag your business down and prevent it from reaching its true potential. It is critical to set positional benchmarks and then measure performance accordingly. Holding periodic performance reviews is important so that employees don’t progress too far into a behavior or habit that is counter to what you are trying to accomplish. Be sure to deal quickly with mediocre performance and create a defensible paper trail. Retrain, monitor and then take quick action on those who are unable to improve.

Accurately Record Hours Worked, Attendance and Employee Status/Changes
Employers must keep accurate time records including hours worked, overtime, vacation, attendance, and tardiness. Additionally, any employee changes including pay, exempt/non-exempt status, job title, pay structure and address changes should be immediately documented and kept on file. Have the employee acknowledge any changes in status or pay and make sure they fully understand the changes. Accurate pay and employee status changes are important to employees as well as most judges and labor boards you may come across during a legal challenge.

Terminate Decisively and Minimize Liability Exposure
Only after careful consideration should you terminate an employee, but when the decision has been made, do not delay the process. Be sure you have pursued all other options with the employee including counseling, disciplinary actions and training. Also, consider any factors that may cause a problem such as protected class (e.g., age, gender, race, religion), workplace injuries, age or other discrimination issues that may be lying under the surface. The employee should never be surprised that they are being terminated is a general rule as is providing all the necessary paperwork to protect your self in the event of a legal challenge.

Of course these are just summaries of employee management strategies but you get the idea. Employee management is important if you want to be the best at what you do. Take the necessary steps in house to develop a strategic employee management program or outsource those tasks that you cannot handle in house.

Dealing with Difficult Terminations

Avoiding Costly Mistakes

As business owners, we all know that terminating an employee is never an easy task to engage in. Additionally, and more important to understand is that terminations carry numerous legal pitfalls and must be accomplished with great care.

In today’s difficult economic environment, small employee problems can become big problems for you due to the potential for desperate acts of employees in fear of losing their jobs.

Couple a desperate employee with a legal system that gives far greater weight to employees than employers and you have a situation that will require cautious forward progress

Before you decide to terminate an employee, consider these steps:

  • Document everything! Disciplinary issues, pay raises, employee classification changes, job description changes, promotions and demotions must always be handled in writing so everything is clear and concise.
  • Do not let small problems go unanswered. If an employee is not acting as someone who really wants to be an asset to your organization, the time is now to begin dealing with the problem and move toward correcting the behavior or setting up a legal termination.
  • If an employee is not behaving properly, be sure performance evaluations are in line with the issues they are having. Make sure you do not contradict yourself when you decide to terminate.
  • Be sure you have properly counseled the employee to ensure there are no hidden issues and that you have given them every chance they deserve to improve.
  • When it is time to terminate, consider all pertinent information such as potential discrimination issues, recent injuries or job complaints, health issues and available performance documentation to name a few things.
  • Terminate decisively when everything is in line. Explain to the employee why they are being terminated but it is not advised you go into detail about the offenses or problems associated with their employment. This should have already occurred during counseling sessions.
  • The employee should never be surprised by the termination if you have done everything properly.
  • Be sure to provide the employee with all required paperwork, final pay, unemployment pamphlets, COBRA information and anything else required at the time of termination.
  • Do not deduct costs associated with unreturned tools, uniforms, loans or other monies owed to you by the employee. final paycheck deductions are rarely legal. It is best to handle these through other means.

This by no means covers everything you need to do before terminating someone but it does provide a basic guideline top stay out of trouble. Form ore information on terminating an employee or any other employee management issue, please contact Champion Employer Services at 800-513-2153.

Temporarily Reducing Labor Expense

Trimming Costs Without Losing Productivity

In today’s economy, it has become ever apparent important to keep your labor costs down while still providing for production, sales, marketing and customer service. With the labor market becoming saturated with workers due to layoffs, it is time to ensure that your workforce is performing at optimum levels and that all cylinders are firing. Here’s a few tips:

Manage Performance

Your employees need to know what is expected of them and how they measure up to those expectations. This can be done by first notifying  your employees that times are indeed tough and that means everyone needs to work harder towards the goal of maintaining a successful business, which in turn benefits them, as they will be more likely to keep their jobs.

Make sure they understand the performance standards you require and the consequences of failure. Once you have established this foundation, it is important to monitor performance and conduct regular meetings with your employees, as a group and individually to inform them of any shortcomings, encourage their good performance and update them as to the company’s situation.

Do not let poor performers drag your business down. Deal with problems quickly and effectively.

Trim Labor Cost

Many companies are trimming their work schedules in order to reduce costs and keep their current workforce. Employees may not want their pay to be reduced, but an explanation that this is necessary to avoid layoffs should help to maintain morale. There are several ways to accomplish this. Here are a few examples.

  • Switch non-critical employees to 4 day – 8 hours weeks
  • Shorten the day by 1-2 hours for non-critical employees
  • Ask employees to take unpaid leave or furlough’s
  • Switch some workers to a part-time basis

These suggestions need to be carefully considered to avoid issues with discrimination and other problems associated with changes in pay, status or work hours.

In general, it is necessary to take whatever steps are needed to prevent a catastrophic failure of the business. It is Champion’s goal to help you make whatever changes are necessary to keep your business operating efficiently without causing legal problems or negatively impacting employee moral.

Please contact Champion to discuss your particular situation before deciding on how to proceed.

Employees – Asset or Liability?

Effective Employee Management

Once you enter into the world of employment as a business owner, you enter a complex gauntlet of rules, laws and regulations defining how you treat your employees. These laws are unfortunately necessary to protect employees from unscrupulous employers and protect employers from the problems associated with employees. The key is to work within these limitations and provide your business with as much protection as possible with regards to employees. If you’re not doing a majority of the tasks below, you’re setting yourself up for a problem.

Here is a quick checklist outlining simple and effective things you can do to help protect your business.

Hire Smart

  • Develop written job descriptions before you hire.
  • Perform reference and background checks before you hire.
  • Provide a written job offer with detailed pay and job information at time of hire
  • Communicate company policy in the form of an Employee Policy Manual

Monitor Performance

  • Set clear and measurable expectations of each employee.
  • Execute performance reviews every 90 days first year of employment, semi-annually thereafter
  • Continue to set goals and benchmarks for future reference and review.

Deal with Problems

  • Quickly determine that there is a problem, i.e., tardiness, performance, attendance.
  • Counsel the employee on the issue.
  • Document the meeting and what the next step is.
  • Follow-up on the problem.

Document Everything

  • Document all employee issues, warnings and counseling sessions.
  • Track hours, meal and rest breaks and overtime.
  • Have employees sign all written communications, including payroll timesheets.

Terminate Quickly and Effectively

  • Don’t let problems drag on, you know when its time to call it quits.
  • Carefully consider all issues surrounding the employee and their performance.
  • Notify the employee in writing.
  • Pay all earned wages, commission and vacation at time of termination.

Again, this is just a quick overview of the very basic tasks an employer should perform in order to prevent employee problems. Maximizing their potential and creating longevity and loyalty is the next progression in the success of your business.

Effective Hiring Practices

Making the Most of your Hiring Decisions

Effectively hiring employees involves making informed decisions at the right time and executing them properly. Our focus this month is to highlight some effective methods that will help you make educated hiring decisions and hopefully avoid the cost, liability and stress of hiring the wrong person.

One of the first keys to a successful employment relationship is to have a very clear understanding of the position you are trying to fill what type of results you expect from the employee. Job descriptions change over time, but an initial description is necessary both for the employer and the employee. Informing a prospective employee of his or her job function and how

their job impacts the goals and objectives of the company is critical to a successful relationship.

Once you have a concise job description and a candidate in mind, discover all you can about the prospective employee before you hire them. A simple yet effective process of screening your employees before you hire them can be accomplished using the following guidelines:

  • Review several prospects before selecting the top candidates
  • Inform the top three candidates that they are in consideration for the position and will be required to provide references and background info.
  • Check all references carefully.
  • After selecting top candidate, provide a written “Contingent Job Offer” with requirements for a background check and/or a drug screen test or whatever else you require before hiring someone.
  • Job offer should include all pertinent information regarding job including tentative start date, wage and salary information, job description, supervisor, etc.
  • After successful completion of the background check, inform the employee that the job is theirs and they can start according to the agreed upon start date.
  • Provide the employee with all pertinent employee policy information at the time of hire before they start work, including new hire documentation, employee handbooks and employee benefit summaries.

Plan before you hire and spend more time preparing for their employment. Employee turnover is an expensive way to learn that someone is not right for the position.

Everything Has Changed

Why Proactive Human Resource Management
Isn’t Just for Big Business Anymore

Businesses have been forced to make drastic changes in workforce levels, employee policy and operations just to survive the economic downturn we’re facing. These actions include furloughs, performance related terminations, layoffs, wage reductions and temporary furloughs. Nearly every one of those moves carries litigation risk and employer liability if not performed correctly.

Employees are feeling the pressure as well. Their own lives are in chaos due to real estate woes, family job loss and other financial pressures. Many employees are becoming desperate to find a quick solution to their money problems.

With little to lose, more and more employees are willing to file labor board claims or other legal action, hoping to score a big settlement. Their allies are attorneys who will look for any reason to sue.  The smallest problems in the eyes of an employee can provide the foundation for an unwarranted claim and lawsuit.

So how does this change the workplace in regards to Human Resource Management? It changes it drastically, that’s the short answer. The longer answer involves a clear intention to build a solid foundation of HR strategies that are designed to maximize limited payroll dollars, protect business assets and set in motion necessary workplace changes designed to position the business for future growth and profit.

This solution is simple for larger businesses that have the resources and expertise to manage the complexities of HR. For small businesses however, they are highly disadvantaged in this area as it is usually the owners or unqualified staff that handle complicated HR related issues. Most must find creative ways to effectively manage their employees so they can succeed in a competitive marketplace but these methods usually lack any sophistication or focus. Without a concentrated focus on improving productivity, liability control and labor expense, businesses are doomed to mediocrity or worse, failure.

The most successful business have a clear focus on the human capital of their business. Now, more than ever, every business which depends on employees to get the job done must find ways to focus on strategic employee development and efficiency of human resource compliance.

If want succeed in a difficult economic environment, let Champion review your HR situation and see if outsourcing can help.