Employees  |  Contractors  |  Contracts

Hire or Fire Employees (even telecommuters)

Congratulations!! You’ve grown your business to the point where you need to hire employees. Condolences, you have to deal with a complex and sometimes onerous system of wage and hour laws; payroll taxes; anti-discrimination laws, and the list goes on.

One of the biggest problems with hiring and firing employees is that if you do make a mistake, much of the system is one-sided in favor of the employee. The penalties for minor mistakes can be stiff, and often you have to take things up through multiple appeals before you get out of a very employee-centered administrative system.

As a result, this is an area of business law where careful planning and a little bit of knowledge can save you a lot of aggravation (and money) down the line.

In spite of all of the California and Federal employment laws, I don’t believe “one size fits all.” Smaller businesses need more flexibility when it comes to their employment practices, and in fact, they are given that. Some laws have “small business” exceptions, and many others have a “reasonable business practices” requirements which will be different for different sized businesses.

When it comes to ending an employment relationship, many small business owners are their own worst enemy. Unemployment insurance is thought of as an employee benefit, but it’s also an employer benefit. Do you know how you can protect your business by understanding the UE system?

Manage Telecommuters

Telecommuting is one of those great win-win things. Employers get higher productivity and lower over head, and employees get flexibility. However, many companies fail to think through this wonderful concept and then blame telecommuting for any issues that arise rather than their own lack of foresight.

Questions to ask yourself if you have employees working from home are: if they get hurt, does workers compensation cover it? How do you know if they have a safe work environment? Can you go check? What about trade secrets? Does letting employees work from home put your trade secrets at risk? And what about vacations? Where do you draw the line between working at home; working at a second home at the beach; working at a beach resort?

Telecommuting will become more and more popular over the next few years. Do you have an appropriate telecommuting policy in your personnel manual?

Whether it’s a short phone call to find out “can I fire this employee now” to a full blown custom personnel manual, I can help you navigate a course that reduces your risks and allows you to get the maximum benefits from your employees.

Where to go from here ...

Click here to learn a little about dealing with “The Powers That Be”

Click here for some information and links to Labor Law in California

Also search my weblog for various posts on telecommuting