Integrating Wellness Programs for your Business

Wellness plans are a great benefit that are worth looking into for your small biz.  They can help your employees to help themselves by offering various incentives, and also help an employer to reduce absenteeism as well.

Before you decide to implement any program there are a few things to keep in mind.  Read the following article for some added advice and upcoming rulings by the EEOC.

Wellness rulings: 8 things employers should know

Hiring New Employees for the Small Office

When hiring new employees for your small-office environment, keep a few of these items in mind….

Personality does matter

When working together in a smaller and tight knit office, employees need to be comfortable around each other and be able to get along well on a day-to-day basis.  You will greatly rely on each other to get the work done and need to know that each of you can be trusted to follow through.  Most small offices are very busy and no one wants to feel like there are personality clashes or someone is always picking up the slack.

Offer competitive total compensation packages

To attract top talent, you need to pay a good salary and offer the benefits employees will be expecting.  Today’s workforce is really expecting a lot out of their employers as well as flexible working arrangements.  When budgeting in salaries, keep these items in the back of your mind and it may mean you have to cut someplace else. 

Describe what a typical day will be in the office and offer the whole picture of what the new employee will be expected to do.

Consider using realistic percentages in your job descriptions of the amount of time for each area of responsibility.  You want to be sure you have the right fit for the position since turnover costs the company much more money in the long run.  Working in a small office may mean people are often performing multiple jobs, working in a fast environment and need to multi-task at a high level.  Not everyone is capable of handling that atmosphere and not everyone will want to. 

Challenges of HR Administration for Small Biz

This article from HR Morning speaks to some of the challenges you may face and the importance of utilizing social media to help with your recruitment efforts.

Difficulty of HR Administration

Importance of Succession Planning in Small or Family-Owned Businesses

Interesting read in regards to succession planning for smaller businesses you may not have thought about.

SHRM Article: Succession Planning that works

Paid Sick Leave Mandates May be Soon On the Way

In Western Washington local leaders have already implemented paid sick leave polices in areas such as Seattle, Tacoma and it is only a matter of time before it becomes mandated for all; talks have already begun regarding a statewide initiative. There has also been much news regarding Obama's latest proposal  and also there seems to be frequent news about other states, or cities who are already passing local bills.

As a small business owner, you will most definitely be impacted and need to plan accordingly. I would anticipate that if it is not already mandatory in your area, then it will be soon, so if you currently do not offer sick pay to all it may be good to have plan for action and budget accordingly.

The proposal is for all employees to get sick pay regardless of being part time, full time and even temporary and the details can be read below

Obama's proposal

FREE Recruiting Management System Which Looks Worthwhile

The system looks worth checking out and they seem to have all the basic tools you need to manage your recruitment cycle from start to finish.   Best of all it is FREE, forever, from what the website says and they offer webinars to help teach you how to use their program. 

Qandidate Recruiting System

Interesting and Somewhat Disturbing Stats - Engagement and Employee Commitment

Below are some numbers that i have seen tossed around by various surveys and employee engagement seems to be a never ending challenge for many.  It is impossible to please everyone and no matter what, will always have some employees who just do not want to put in the effort.  To help raise the level of employee commitment, which in turn will help increase engagement, they need to feel like their job matters and that they actually have an impact on the overall success of the 

company.  Employees also need to feel they have an equal chance at being considered for promotions and the ability to move up within the ranks if she or he has the motivation.

Research performed by the Corporation Leadership Council shows statistics in regards to how committed employees are to their jobs.  The more committed they are the longer and employee tends to stay and the harder they will work for you.  Below is what they had found:

Those employees, who were highly committed…try 57% harder, perform 20% better and 87% less likely to leave compared to those with low commitment.

Research by SHRM found the following statistics in regards to engagement:

17% actively disengaged (these employees tend to actively show their unhappiness and this in turn undermines what the organization is trying to accomplish)

54% are disengaged (basically sleepwalking through their work day; putting in the time and hours, but not the passion into their work)

29% are engaged (working with passion and feeling connected to the organization)