Category: Business Legal Concerns

How to Stop Harassment in the Workplace Before It Starts

June 26, 2024

As an employer, you’re expected to provide your employees with a safe place to work. Whether it’s doing background checks, offering safety training, or encouraging open communication, you have a lot of responsibilities in this respect. And that means you’re going to have to do whatever you can to prevent harassment in the workplace, or risk facing the consequences. In my experience, for whatever reason, many employers tend to overlook…

How to Terminate an Employee With Confidence, Clarity, Commitment, and Kindness

April 12, 2024

As an employer, you want to cultivate respectful relationships with everyone who works for you. And you want to do whatever you can to build a solid team that will help you ensure the long-term success of your business. But some employees may hinder the respect, success, productivity, and teamwork you’ve worked so hard to build, and it’s in these kinds of situations that you may have to terminate an…

What is the Difference Between a Contractor and an Employee?

July 11, 2022

With so much at stake, you’d think more employers would know the difference between a contractor and an employee. Still, despite the consequences of not understanding this distinction, this is an issue I’ve had to help clients with time and time again, and it doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon. According to a survey from Gusto of more than 1,200 American business owners, since 2017, the ratio of…

What the Paid Sick Leave Extension Means for You

January 15, 2021

A new $900 billion coronavirus relief bill is now law. The question of whether or not the federal Emergency Paid Sick Leave (EPSL) and Emergency Family and Medical Leave (EFMLA) will be extended has been answered: yes. However, as part of the new $900 billion coronavirus relief bill that recently became law, an employee will no longer be entitled by law to take EPSL or EFMLA—even if they have a…

The Employee COVID-19 Risk You Could Be Missing

December 15, 2020

When business owners think about employee health and safety, their thoughts are generally focused on the physical. Things like avoiding hazards that could cause a staff member or customer to slip and fall. Understanding the laws around testing for COVID-19 in the workplace. However, keeping your workforce safe and healthy includes prioritizing employee mental health. As your workers are coping with the pandemic, they’re under a great deal of stress—even…

Don’t Get Burned By A COVID-19 Employment Lawsuit or Fine

October 15, 2020

You may have noticed I’ve been very focused on this topic in the past few months. It’s because I’m really concerned for small and medium-sized business owners. Each day I’m seeing articles like “A ‘tidal wave’ of Covid-related workplace lawsuits could be on the way” and noticing the numbers going up on Littler’s COVID-19 Labor & Employment Litigation Tracker. According to Littler, an international employment law firm, since March 12…

4 Tips on Choosing Employee Benefits for 2021

August 11, 2020

2020 has presented HR professionals (not to mention everyone!) with some unique challenges. Many organizations have had to make changes to employee benefits because of COVID-19. Despite the unknowns around the pandemic as many organizations forge ahead, it’s time to think about coverage decisions for the coming year. Generally, insurers provide health plan costs for the following year in October, which is approaching quickly. Employers continue to protect the health…

Updating Your Workplace Policies & Procedures During COVID-19

April 16, 2020

From hospitality to education, the coronavirus has impacted every industry. Also known as COVID-19, the pandemic has led to more than 100,000 deaths worldwide, and we’re self-isolating for an indefinite period of time to prevent the spread of infection as much as possible. I don’t doubt that COVID-19 has affected your business, and it will continue to do so for at least the near future. It can feel scary not…

5 Myths About Succession Planning

April 4, 2019

As a professional HR consultant, I find that bringing up succession planning is a bit like talking about wills—people get uncomfortable, change the subject and put it off rather than facing the facts. However, if you want to have a sustainable business that succeeds after a key player or players are gone, you NEED to have a strong bench in the wings so that you can protect what you’ve built.…

How to Avoid 7 Common Employment Law Violations in 2019

February 7, 2019

Can you believe we’re into the second month of 2019 already? Each year brings changes in employment law and reminders to familiarize ourselves with the ins and outs to avoid fines, damage to reputation, loss of employees – or even our business. Let’s take a look at some of the top workplace violations so that we can move forward in 2019 informed and prepared. Remember: ignorance is not an excuse…