Category: Human Resource

Human Resources (HR) departments serve a valuable role for business owners who are intent on achieving higher levels of success. For starters, they are a gatekeeper of sorts, making sure only the best applicants possible receive consideration for hire by first scanning their resumes and screening their backgrounds, sometimes even holding the initial interview so, by the time they make it to you, they are fairly vetted.

Then, once new staff is hired and brought on board, HR is responsible for ensuring that the rising starsare adequately trained, that their benefits and compensation packages are in order, and—perhaps most importantly—that they’re happy in their roles and achieving their peak levels of performance, bothfor themselves and the company as a whole.

But setting up and running an effective HR department also involves knowing what individuals in these roles can and what they cannot do so that you’re compliant with the rules and laws governing employee practices. How do you know that? While a complete answer would take thousands of pages, you can begin by knowing more about these three classes of regulations.

1. Hiring and Firing Regulations

“Discrimination” is a word we hear a lot about these days and one which can do a lot of damage to your business if you participate in these types of practices. Sometimes this damage comes financially, which can occur if you are taken to court for discriminatory business practices and lose, and other times it comes in the form of a tarnished reputation, hurting your business in a more indirect, yet equally as powerful manner.

Each governmental body has their own laws in this regard, so the key is knowing what they are for your business’s geographical area.In the U.S., for instance, hiring and firing regulations are dictated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but if you live in the U.K., you have different discrimination guidelines, many of which you can find on Gov.UK.

If you’re not in either of these locations, simply Google “hiring laws and regulations” + “your location” and you will receive search results for your particular area.

2. Pay-Related Regulations

Your pay-related regulations also depend largely on where your business is located. For example, if you operate within the United States, the U.S. Department of Labor has an entire Employment Law Guide which covers minimum wages and overtime pay requirements, many of which vary by state.

This guide also discusses otherpay-related topics, likeregulations for youth workers, which change depending on their age. Violate any of these regulations and you could be fined as much as $10,000. Do it a second time and you can be incarcerated.

And if your business is located in Australia, your pay requirements are different yet. For instance, one that is relatively new is that you much have Single Touch Payroll by July 1, 2018 if you have more than 20 staff and July 1, 2019 if you have fewer.

Roubler explains that Single Touch Payroll is “a change in the way businesses report their PAYG and super contributions to the Australian Taxation Office.” While enforcement is expected to be somewhat lax during the first 12 months, failure to comply after that point can result in you being penalized.

3. Regulations About Benefits

Do you have to offer benefits to your employees? If you don’t already know the answer to this question, you want to find out so that you’re in compliance with your local laws.

Within the U.S., these laws are dictated by the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration and include direction on what is expected in regard to employees’ retirement and health care benefits. In the U.K., there are requirements regarding when you have to enroll your staff in a workplace pension plan and, in Australia, these are dictated by the National Employment Standards.

Businesses that Cross Borders

What do you do when you have a business that crosses borders, employing staff in various locations around the world? Certainly, this happens more and more nowadays with many jobs conducted online. However, the answer to this question is not as simple as one would like as New to HR explains that “a fully global employment law does not exist.”

With each geographic location having different rules and different meanings for basic terms, it can make knowing what to do in this situation rather complex. So, if you’re unsure what your obligations are to employees in different regions, you may want to consult with an attorney or other legal expert who specializes in labor law. Ideally, he or she should have experience with global businesses that have faced similar situations themselves.

As you can see, HR-related regulations vary greatly depending on where your business is located and are rather complex in nature. Thus, knowing what these regulations are—and following them—is critical to not only having an effective HR department, but also to creating a company that is free from possible penalties.

Article Contributed by Noah Rue

If you’re beginning a journey into the business world for the first time, I imagine you are feeling a whole combination of emotions, including anxiety, stress, fear, excitement and joy. You are going to be the boss for maybe the first time in your life and you’re nervous about that — it’s understandable. But making sure you have the necessary resources to help grow your business into a shining success will help alleviate some of those negative emotions associated with running your own business.

Workplace culture can be a really easy thing to maintain, but it can be a very challenging thing to create, especially for an up-and-coming business. Where does all company culture grow from? The individuals who work there and people vary in nearly every way. We have different views, different backgrounds and different values. Sure, these differences are what make the world so diverse and rich, but if there isn’t a clearcut understanding of the values of a company, it can be difficult to hire people who fit the mold you’ve established.

Before the Grand Opening

The hiring process is the best place to begin to sift through the available candidates to find the one who matches your company culture. Be sure to angle your interview questions so that the answers you receive help you gain better insight into who the interviewee is on the inside. Try to avoid vague or irrelevant questions and focus on the questions that you want to know the answers to.

An easy way to achieve this is by putting your interviewee in metaphorical scenarios. For example, ask them questions like, “what would do if you were shrunk down to the size of a nickel and dropped in the bottom of a blender?” Or, “if you could choose one superpower, what would it be and why?” Asking these types of questions helps you discover more about a person’s character than simply having them tell you their strengths and weaknesses.

Leadership Is Key

Company employees are not the only element necessary to establish company culture. Strong leadership is a critical aspect to running any business as well. If you want to be a CEO, you have to maintain a certain level of professionalism, kindness, ferocity and innovation. Leaders are the people in a company who set the expectations for everyone around them. Make sure you’re maintaining high expectations and terrific employees will follow.

There is a common phrase which says, “work harder, not smarter.” In this case, it couldn’t be more true, especially for the leaders of a business. The leaders must be the ones planning ahead, setting schedules, establishing expectations, and setting the business up for the highest amounts of achievement that you can. If instructions are not made clear, deadlines are not set and goals are not reached, it forces all the employees to work much harder to gain success.

Establishing Engagement & Having a Purpose

Human beings are interesting in that we need to have some kind of purpose in order to complete our best work. If we don’t have some kind of internal desire to do something, often it leads to lack of energy or efficiency. Employees are the same way. Establishing a company purpose for everyone really helps create high levels of engagement from your team.

If you have fully engaged employees, work quality goes up and the general sense of positivity around the office is visceral. Unengaged employees tend to waste more time, submit poor quality work and represent a poor image of the company. Engagement is crucial to the success of any business because it opens the floor for frequent and valuable communication, it provides employees with necessary resources and tools for accomplishment, and it rewards quality behavior and production.

Respect, In All Ways

Whenever you put 100 people in a building together to create some final product, you can be assured that at some point in the creation, an argument or disagreement will unfurl. This cannot be changed. Disagreements will happen for all time as long as people are independent and critical thinkers and willing to stand up for their own opinions, which is a great thing. If everyone thought exactly the same, the world would be a far less interesting place.

However, in the workplace this can lead to unproductivity and resentment among employees. There are a few things as leaders that you can do to ensure these kinds of arguments don’t unfurl into something especially disruptive. Setting company rules and expectations for following these rules is critical. For example, if you have made a rule that smoking is not allowed in your business, it’s important to uphold the expectation that those who vape at work need to also follow the same guidelines for cigarette smokers and take their vaping outside.

Respect plays a big role in the rule setting of businesses. Rules must not be discriminatory; they must be inclusive and everyone must be upheld to the same standards for following these rules. I know, rules seems a little juvenile, but you can refer to them as guidelines if the jargon is too serious for your style of leadership.

Top performing managers and business owners understand the importance of employee morale. When morale is high, employees are motivated and firing on all cylinders. They enjoy coming into work and feel more fulfilled when they leave.

Many workforce experts will argue that if you have productivity problems, morale is most likely at the center of the issue. It could be isolated to a single department or widespread across the entire office. Either way, boosting office morale has to be a top priority.

The more you invest in employee happiness and satisfaction, the higher the morale will be. The good news is there are easy ways to do just that by making a few managerial decisions.

Gourmet Coffee Service

There are a fair number of people who don’t fully feel like themselves until they’ve got that first cup of coffee in hand. A gourmet office coffee service is one break room investment that will really pay off. Given that a cup of java puts a pep in people’s step, it’s worth spending a few more dollars for high-quality coffee and machines.

Workout Room

Another invigorating perk that’s showing up in more offices is workout rooms. It can be a space for stretching and yoga, a studio with resistance machines or a cardio cinema room. The point is that employees are given a place where they can beat the sitting syndrome and boost their endorphins.

A residual benefit of this perk is healthier employees. Healthy employees take fewer sick days and help keep health care costs in check. So encourage your employees to get up and get moving during short breaks.

Encourage Philanthropy

Corporate philanthropy is a win all-around. A worthy cause gets help, your employees feel the reward of volunteerism and it helps your company connect with the community.

Giving back as a company and allowing employees time to volunteer is a powerful sign to job applicants. If you want to recruit the top applicants and retain employees actively encourage philanthropy.

Find Ways to Infuse Fun

It’s hard not to like working at a fun office, but fun doesn’t have to mean unproductive. As long as you make it clear the office isn’t a playground and deadlines are serious business, a bit of fun will have a big morale boost.

For example, instead of having a company email, a gregarious employee can make a regular podcast to keep co-workers up-to-date on company information. Or you could knock off an hour early one Friday of the month so everyone can enjoy a fun outing.

Preach Positivity

High morale creates a positive vibe around the office. It also works the other way around. Maintaining a positive mindset helps keep morale high. Preach positivity from the top down to make it a part of your company culture.

Give Employees More Control

Autonomy is an immediate morale booster for employees. It shows that managers trust them to make sound decisions and want them to grow in their job role. You can go a step further by handing an employee the reigns on a project.

But projects are just one way to give employees more control at work. Flex schedules are becoming more common because it allows employees to gain a better work/life balance. Instead of being focused on how many hours are clocked at the office, the emphasis is put on meeting deadlines and hitting goals.

Micro-Management – The Morale Killer

Nothing kills office morale quicker than a helicopter manager. Employees will always be on edge and creative thinking will fall off the radar when micro-management is the norm. When managers can step back and be leaders rather than the person handling every detail things run more efficiently and office morale gets a lift.

It doesn’t take much to make employees more motivated to do their very best at the office. Trying the ideas above is a good start to creating an office environment that boosts morale.

Employee engagement is a hot button topic for many companies and entrepreneurs across the globe. In fact, employee engagement has risen in the ranks as a strategic focus in the minds of high-level leadership.

Employee engagement has a huge impact on the overall health of a business, especially of small businesses and newer start ups. A recent poll of over 1.4 million employees found that the top 25% most engaged teams experienced lower turnover, lower absenteeism, higher productivity and higher profitability. Here are a few low cost ways to take on the employee engagement challenge and give your employees what they need and crave:

Offer Frequent & Individual Feedback

Feedback is important to all employees and it should come more often than during the performance review process. A recent poll found that 65 percent of employees would like to receive more feedback. Modern talent development research suggests that employees prefer frequent and informal feedback with their managers rather than the more stuffy formal review process.

Employees are more receptive to both positive and negative feedback when it happens in real time as they can connect more closely with the comments. This strategy also ensures you correct issues in a timely manner and provides encouragement when needed creating a more personal connection between the organisation and each employee.

Promote Learning & Development

Learning and professional development are important components of a healthy organization. Many employees are motivated by the opportunity to learn new ways of doing business and taking on new responsibilities. Many organizations will offer tuition reimbursement and the opportunity for GRE tutoring. Other companies will focus on internal workshops and certifications. Either way, an organization focused on employee engagement should invest time and dollars into the training of the staff. This ensures your team is continually learning and equipped with the tools and knowledge to take your organization to the next level.

Incorporate Community Service

Community service initiatives are a great way to boost employee morale. Workplace volunteerism provides team building in a natural way and can create a deeper connection to the workplace. Employees overall want to feel empowered and appreciated and volunteerism gives them this sense of value.

In addition, employees who are offered the chance to volunteer through work are much more likely to share it with others. This paints your organization in a positive light and can have a huge impact on your reputation.

Invest in the Right Tools

In today’s fast-paced business environment, employees are under immense pressure and stress to complete a lot of work with limited time and resources. As an employer committed to employee engagement, you want to provide your employees with the tools and infrastructure that will allow them to complete their work in the most efficient way possible. This step alone will dramatically improve the employee’s perception of the company and will maximize the effectiveness of the organization.

Communicate Laterally

Many organizational leaders make the mistake of limiting their communication with the lower levels of the organization. Unfortunately, many organizations are structured hierarchically which stifles communication flow. Important messages get lost in this communication pathway and employees on the lower end of the totem poll aren’t updated on the progress or challenges of the company. If you want engagement at all levels of the organization, your leaders need to be visible and available to all employees. This creates a sense of connection and teamwork that can’t be beat!

These are just a few of the many strategies you can implement when focusing on employee engagement. There is no doubt, employee engagement is crucial to the overall health of the organization. It may take a little time and research, but the results are well worth the investment.

Launching a startup business can be extremely exciting. A successful new business venture brings forth a tremendous sense of success and accomplishment. Hopefully, the venture provides a pathway to financial freedom — always a great added benefit to any entrepreneurial endeavor.

Successful startups do need a talented, driven entrepreneur at the helm. The proprietor, however, can only do so much. He/she must hire employees to help the business move along in the right direction. Hiring decisions must be done with careful deliberation and a smart approach.

Keep these points in mind when thinking about hiring new employees to help steer the startup ship.

Don’t Wait on Hiring an Employee

Hiring the first employee for a company often relies on timing. When duties and tasks become too enormous and veer into becoming overwhelming, hiring an employee probably would be a good move. Waiting too long to hire that first employee creates risks. An over-extended entrepreneur may not be as effective as he/she otherwise would be if tasks were delegated to someone else.

A caveat does exist here. Hiring should only commence when doing so is affordable. Prematurely hiring an employee without taking budget matters into consideration may lead to a disaster. Be sure the money and cash flow are there to pay the employee.

Seek a Committed Employee

Certain applicants look great on paper, but they might not work out. And no, this does not necessarily mean their performance turns out to be undesirable. The employee may not be committed to the success of the startup and could bolt for “greener pastures” with no notice. Sometimes, it may be best to look at the overall potential and commitment level of an applicant prior to hiring. Loyalty might be the most important trait an employer could look for in a first and subsequent employees.

Develop a Strong Training Program

A confused employee hardly can contribute most effectively to the operation. While spoon feeding an employee every task may not be feasible, properly training all new hires is. More than just feasible, supporting reliable training methods makes practical sense. The better trained the employee is, the better apt he/she becomes to perform the job. The business ends up on a better path to success as a result.

The types of employee training vary. Maybe hiring a third-party to handle the expert training would be advisable. Bringing in experienced, skilled trainers could be another worthwhile investment for the company.

Devise an Onboarding Strategy

Prior to training, the new hire should go through an onboarding process. An onboarding process is akin to a mix of welcoming the new person combined with introducing him/her to the company and required tasks. Onboarding, sadly, can be ignored or dismissed by start up entrepreneurs. Even sizable corporations may not enact a viable onboarding strategy. Whether the company is big or small, a startup or an established entity, an onboarding system should be in place.

Acclimating and introducing a new employee to the company the right way increases the chances of a smooth start. Rocky starts undermine long-term relationships.

Be Sure All Legal Contracts are Taken Care Of

Does hiring the first employee require signing a contract or a non-disclosure agreement? Any issues or matters associated with legal contracts and matters may be best served through speaking with legal counsel. Printing out documents off the internet for employees to sign might not be the right thing to do. An attorney can draft up correct documents and provide vital legal counsel.

Hiring is Never Easy

Hiring employees comes with many responsibilities and a lot of thought. Starting up a busy can be extraordinarily difficult. The right approach to hiring may help alleviate some of those difficulties. Remember, getting the right employee onboard could assist setting the startup on a proper course for success.