HR Ideas Newsletter Archive

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Ten Tips for Small Businesses

The following tips will help you avoid some of the most common and expensive errors small businesses (and some larger ones!) make.

1.         Paying employees a salary rather than an hourly wage does not mean that you are not required to pay them overtime. Generally, all employees are considered to be “non-exempt” (meaning they must be paid overtime) unless their jobs qualify for an exemption from overtime under Federal, State, and in some cases, local laws.

2.         Background checks are an essential tool for a hiring manager. They are relatively inexpensive, and can help manage liability for negligent hiring, verify a candidate’s qualifications, and avoid a variety of “bad hires.”

3.         Email is not the same as conversation. It is not as effective as face-to-face (or even telephone) conversation for correcting employee mistakes or reinforcing positive behaviors. In addition, casual inappropriate coments documented in email may be used against you in litigation.

4.         All employee handbooks are not alike. “Adopting” a handbook from the compnay where you used to work, or where your brother-in-law works, may be tempting. Unfortunately, those companies probably developed policies based on their employment liabilities, philosophies, industries, and competitive pressures that may not work for your company at all.

5.         Don't ask all new hires for their Social Security cards and drivers licenses to satisfy your obligation to verify employee identity and authorization to work. You must accept any acceptable document or combination of documents approved for the purposes. Specific information about acceptable documents is provided on the I-9 form.

For the other five tips, please email us at info@cornerstonehr.com. We'll be happy to send them to you.

Performance Appraisals

The dreaded annual performance appraisals are behind us, but it's not too early to get started on this year's performance management cycle. Here are some suggestions for those who never know what to write at the end of the year:

• Make up file folders and/or electronic subdirectories for all your direct reports.
• Each week, jot down a note on something done well or poorly that you have discussed with the associate. Try to choose something that represents the week's work. Don't forget to date the note. This takes less than 5 minutes. (If you haven't provided feedback on that topic yet, now's your chance to catch up before it's ancient history.) File in his or her folder.
• Use your electronic subdirectory to file any compliments or complaints, including e-mail. Make sure you've discussed them, too.
• Periodically (at least quarterly) speak with the associate about overall performance and jot down a summary with the date. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to review the notes in your folder and summarize them, provided you haven't put it off for 6 months! Add another 5-10 minutes for the discussion.
• At year end, you'll have information at your fingertips and there won't be any surprises.
• Positive feedback can be delivered privately or in groups. Negative feedback should be given privately.

Sites with useful information:

You will be able to find a variety of helpful information on the sites below. Click on the site's name to go to it. Use your back button to return to Cornerstone HR.