Learning how to be a good manager is a combination of effort, understanding your role as a manager, your team’s role as your employees, and a bit of practice. Whether you were just promoted to your first managerial role or if you are simply looking for ways to become a better manager, this article is…
About the Author
Christy Hopkins
Christy Hopkins, PHR, specializes in full-spectrum talent management (including recruiting and performance management), organizational change, and implementing HR systems. Christy maintains her HR consulting and recruiting firm that boasts over 30 small business clients spanning the US from Vermont to Seattle.
How to Set Up a Profit Sharing Plan
A profit sharing plan can be an innovative compensation strategy for business owners to motivate and reward their employees. There are 2 kinds of profit sharing plans: those that defer profits to a retirement plan and those that make profits a part of the base compensation plan. We also will talk about gainsharing here, another…
Salary Comparison: How to Know If Your Small Business is Paying Fairly
Performing a salary comparison should be an annual activity for every business owner, or HR manager. Doing annual salary comparisons ensures that you are paying your employees fairly and in line with the going local market rate for their position. Not only is this the best practice from an HR standpoint, but it will also…
Social Media Policy Template & How To Guide
Having a social media policy is important for small business owners, especially those with young employee bases or those that rely on social media for promotion of their business. Though you may be wondering if a social media policy is necessary, having boundaries on using social media on company time, and clarifying what is and…
Self-Insurance: Definition & How It Works
Self-insurance (also known as self-funding) allows small business owners to create and manage their own insurance plans, without being subjected to the restrictions and costs of working with larger traditional insurance carriers. However, self-insurance does come with a high level of risk and liability. We want to preface this article by stating that self-insurance is…
Best Talent Management System – Small Business
Talent management system software helps you manage the entire employee lifecycle— from recruiting to onboarding to performance management. For this guide, we looked at the most popular options and rising stars and decided to review BambooHR, , and . These companies covered the range for small businesses in terms of price and ability to grow…
How to Prevent and Deal with Discrimination in the Workplace
Discrimination in the workplace is still an important issue to understand and be informed about, even in 2017. Specifically, it’s important to know the laws, recognize what kinds of discrimination are out there, become aware in general of how to prevent discrimination, and learn what to do if it happens. It’s noteworthy that, in general,…
Performance Improvement Plan Template & Instructions
A performance improvement plan is an HR-term for a development plan that usually is given to underperforming employees as a form of probation. Akin to a written warning, a performance improvement plan, or PIP, is being used by more companies who realize that showing a path to success and setting goals for underperforming employees is…
Fringe Benefits: What They Are & How They Work
Fringe benefits is the umbrella term for any benefits, from health insurance to paying for weekly team lunches, that an employer provides to an employee, contractor, board member, or business partner. Many fringe benefits are considered tax-free by the IRS and can be a great value-add for your employees. In this article, we will explain:…
How to Find & Hire A Technical Recruiter
You probably are coming to this article if you are a small business owner in need of tech help, and are considering using a technical recruiter to help save you time. We are going to explain how to tell if you really need to use a technical recruiter, where to find one (and their corresponding…
Commission-Based Jobs: Ultimate Guide to Working In One or Hiring Them For Your Business
Sales is a necessary part of every company, and whether you call it business development, client relationship management, or account management, it’s still sales. Jobs in these spaces tend to have a heavy commission element to them in order to incentivize people to perform. In this article, we are going to look at these commission-based…
How To Offer Life Insurance As An Employee Benefit
Life insurance pays a lump sum of money in the event of death to the designated beneficiary. As an employer, life insurance is an inexpensive and easy benefit to offer to your employees, and it can mean a lot to your employees if many of them have families or children. In this article, we will…