How to help recent hires thrive in your company from their very first day. Most business owners recognize that finding, interviewing and hiring new employees takes time and money. Ultimately, it’s an investment in their company. But they don’t always give as much thought to onboarding—to making sure that new hires are effectively integrated into the organization. The first three months, in particular, are critical. With planning and a little…
Several years ago, I had an employee who made a decision I wouldn’t have made, and it cost me a lot of money. At the time, my company provided digital prepress services to professional portrait photographers. One particular customer was unhappy because we hadn’t done some pretty extensive custom work that had neither been ordered nor paid for. Because I had empowered my employees to make decisions and meet customer…
As a small business owner, it’s understandable if keeping up with the requirements of the Affordable Care Act doesn’t top your list of priorities. After all, the law’s primary mandate for employers—to offer a certain level of affordable health coverage to employees—applies only to employers that have 50 or more employees. (Even that requirement is being postponed for a year.) However, at least one upcoming requirement of the ACA applies…