Tag Archives: Employee Management

Small-business entrepreneurs have a love-hate relationship with teamwork. It’s gets even harder as they grow into a big enterprise. Too little teamwork creates skill and knowledge silos, too much to duplicated efforts and bland conformity. Achieving a balance is difficult. Getting the ball rolling in the right direction takes more than a little push. ForContinue Reading

What kind of stats do you need to measure your employees’ abilities? What is enough? And how do you apply them when looking for new talent? Those who’ve seen the movie Moneyball know the devil’s out there, somewhere, in the data. Most businesses, however, don’t track their employees as if they were baseball players, norContinue Reading

New federal rules that control when workers are paid overtime wages are changing what it means for employees to be “on the clock.” For Texas businesses, the changes signal a whole new set of regulatory compliance challenges come December 1, 2016. Overtime pay is common among hourly employees, who typically earn time-and-a-half wages for hoursContinue Reading

As the vast body of labor regulations continues to grow and ratchet ever tighter, companies must keep abreast of and comply with hundreds of new workplace requirements each year. This means hiring bigger HR departments, contracting with more outside experts, or both. To staunch administrative outflows and cut through the complexity, many businesses are lookingContinue Reading

You love setting goals — too much, perhaps? Yes, goals can be great. Used the right way they bring teams together, drive effort and announce to the world your intentions to achieve. But there is a darker side to goal-setting, one that can undo everything it’s meant to accomplish. In 59 Seconds: Think a Little,Continue Reading

Tobacco use is the scourge of workplaces everywhere, just ask any smoker who works in an office setting. Businesses ban lighting up in buildings, penalize users through their wellness programs, and relegate smokers to taking their breaks in out-of-sight crannies near alleyway dumpsters. As the vilification movement continues to swell, an unlikely hero — orContinue Reading

The decision to screen job candidates for criminal backgrounds and drug use is often a hard one for businesses to make. Finding the right balance between protecting themselves from liability while still attracting the best job applicants can be tough. But with the right policies and application process, screenings can help a business without hurtingContinue Reading

More than stacks of money, more than lines of customers — even more than the knowledge contained in a thousand books on small business — an entrepreneur’s ultimate success depends on the people he has at his side. That’s the opinion of Garry Bradford, founder and president of UniqueHR, who started his life as anContinue Reading

They’ve been called cocky, tech-obsessed, entitled and impatient, although the same traits have also been described as confidence, tech-savviness and openness to change. These are the qualities of youth — regardless of generation — yet we’re told Millennials are a different breed. Just how different is a matter of perspective. And to motivate them theContinue Reading

Social media use is so ingrained in our behavior that employers need policies to manage employees’ online behavior—both on the clock and off. Although businesses that prohibit social media risk more than irking affected tweeters, allowing employees unfettered access can lead to reduced efficiency and heightened risk of liability exposure. In crafting a social mediaContinue Reading

Health care is expensive for businesses. Those who go through insurance companies must deal with rising premiums and growing uncertainty. And the ones that self-fund health benefits are only so insulated from increasing costs. In the search to buttress the bottom line, corporate wellness programs are doing a good job of improving worker health soContinue Reading

One part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that has business owners shifting toward offering more voluntary benefits is the Cadillac Tax. Due to go into effect in 2018, this 40 percent levy on “high cost” health care plans was created to offset the costs of the ACA. Exposure to the tax is based onContinue Reading