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150: Thank You and Goodbye

It’s time to turn my attention toward executing the business plan I’ve been working on for the past 12 months. Hey everybody, welcome to the FINAL episode of SmallBiz Brainiac! Yes… I’m ending this podcast. That’s hard for me to say, actually. This has been a labor of love for me and I’ve learned so…

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149: Managers or HR, Who Should Handle Hiring and Firing?

Empower your Managers to make their own hiring and firing decisions.  Who in your organization should be responsible for recruiting, interviewing and hiring candidates? Who should be responsible for carrying out the unenviable task of letting employees go, regardless of whether it is for performance, behavior, or just downsizing? I’m a firm believer in tasking…

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148: Should I Buy EPLI?

It doesn’t matter if you are guilty or not, an employment discrimination claim is going to cost you. EPLI stands for Employment Practices Liability Insurance. The free report available on our website, smallbizbrainiac.com, called “8 Steps to Lowering Your Employer Liability”, is all about buying EPLI insurance. The very process of preparing the complete the application…

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147: Understanding Total Compensation

Total compensation statements show employees how much you’re actually investing in them. Today I want to talk to you about your employees total compensation. No, total compensation is not simply the employees annual salary. It is more than that. It refers to the total cost of employing an individual. Why is this important? I believe…

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146: Minimum Wage Madness in Minneapolis

The city of Minneapolis has bought into the voodoo economic theory that they can regulate the labor market and bend it to their will. Even if you don’t have employees in Minneapolis, you need to stay on top of all the local HR laws because they are a sign of things to come. Especially if you…

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145: Challenges With Remote Employees

A Big challenge with remote employees is communication. Some managers fall victim to the “out of sight, out of mind” syndrome. Having remote employees away from your main or corporate office is nothing new. With today’s technology however, it has become increasingly more prevalent. Businesses are no longer forced to look in their local market…

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144: How HR Should Prepare For A Recession – Part 4

Nine million people lost their jobs in the Great Recession, and over 150,000 businesses shutdown.  Create a plan for dealing with it before it happens again. I’ve spent 3 episodes teaching you what a recession is and what economic indicators you should be watching to signal danger. I’ve tried convincing you that we’re on the verge…

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143: Be Serious About HR

If you don’t take HR seriously, no one else in your company will either. I know you are serious about your business. You’re serious about the work that you do to service your clients. Are you carrying this seriousness over to your own employees? You want, and frankly need, your employees to be your biggest…

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142: How HR Should Prepare For A Recession – Part 3

Yahoo Finance reported in 2016 that 93% of the entire stock market move since 2008 was caused by Federal Reserve policy. In parts 1 and 2 we learned that a recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months. We also learned there’s NOT a consensus among economists…

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141: Form I-9 Revisions

Even though Form I-9 revisions seem insignificant, failure to comply can result in fines. Today we’re going to focus on some changes that have recently been made to the Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 by the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services. Overview of Form I-9: The Form I-9 has been in use since 1986 for the…

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