This past week, one of our concierges, Brad, decided to leave us for a new full-time job. That hadn’t happened in awhile, but it was a surprisingly easy transition (technically). However, I still had to dust off a few cobwebs to remember exactly what to do when an employee resigns.

My initial thought was to make sure that there were no outstanding client issues. No matter what, we have to take care of our clients first. But Brad is a conscientious guy, and he made sure that all of his clients had finished traveling before he left. So there wasn’t anything difficult to handle in that respect.

Next, I thought about all of the places where Brad had a presence in company materials. I needed to adjust those. To this end:

• I changed his email password and set his account to forward any messages to our general inbox, in case a client used it;
• I deleted his phone extension and re-recorded our company greeting, because it lists every person’s extension by name; and
• I removed his bio from the website and his extension from the contact page.

Once I’d handled the basic customer-facing tasks, it was time to turn inward. I had already paid his last check, so that wasn’t a concern. We had done this via email, which counted as a written notice, so we were set legally. I also made sure that our office chief knew not to send future clients to him.

Of course, I also emailed everyone else in the company to let them know that Brad was gone. I wanted to make sure they knew not only that he’d left, but also that he had done so to take another job (and not because of any internal issues with the company). I think people are always interested in knowing the real story behind someone’s departure. In this case, there was no juicy gossip to be had.

In the end, we will miss having Brad on our team, but the transition was about as painless as could be.

by Brett Snyder

Many people decide to become entrepreneurs while they’re slogging away for someone else. If you’re passionate about your job — yet would prefer to be your own boss — shifting into a consulting role may be the ideal path to becoming a small-business owner. As a consultant, you can use your accumulated knowledge to help others learn to manage their operations more effectively, perhaps even starting with your current employer.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the top six fields for consulting are accounting, computer and information systems, environment and conservation, human resources, management, and sales, marketing, and public relations.

Here’s how to evolve from an employee into a consultant:

• Make the transition slowly. It may be difficult to give up your full-time job — and the security of a steady paycheck — to launch a small business. If that’s the case, don’t be afraid to wade into the consulting pool instead of diving in head-first. As long as you don’t compete with (or poach clients from) your employer, they’re unlikely to take issue with you starting a consulting agency. Consider these tips for starting a business while still employed from the National Federation of Independent Business. Once you’ve established that a client base covers your basic expenses, you can leap into full-time consulting.
• Tout the high-profile projects you worked on as an employee. When you create your consulting website and other marketing materials, provide comprehensive details about the role you played in your employer’s initiatives — and how your efforts helped the business. Invest time and effort into producing these case studies, because they’ll help you to sell your experience to future customers. You may want to run any potentially sensitive material by your boss as a professional courtesy; she may ask you to keep certain details confidential (particularly if a third party is involved).
• Obtain the certifications you’ll need to get taken seriously. Even if you have decades of experience in your field, you may want to beef up your credentials as an independent consultant. For instance, if you’re billing yourself as a PPC marketing consultant, your experience running keyword campaigns for a large company will certainly count, but getting certified in Google’s AdWords program may give you a better shot at winning business.
• Determine your marketing strategy. Being a free agent means you’re now responsible for promoting your own business. If your previous employer dissolves or scales back, you may be able to take on some of its clients as your own. Otherwise, you’ll need to start from scratch. Analyze your competitors to determine what services they offer — and where they advertise and promote themselves. Follow their examples, but don’t be afraid to conceive and test new initiatives, too.

Don’t know what to do? You should. Situations like this happen all the time. The employee you’re counting on to open up shop, to fix the ice machine, to watch a classroom full of toddlers, etc., isn’t going to show up today, on very short notice.

You could call a temporary employment agency, of course, but for many small businesses that’s not an option. Temp agencies tend to be pricey, and some prefer to do only volume business or to work only for large companies with massive credit reserves. What’s more, temps may be unfamiliar with your industry, your business, and even the job at hand. You risk getting a short-timer whose under-performance could harm your reputation — something that you simply cannot afford.

So, what do you do? Here are three tips for hiring temporary employees to avoid permanent problems:

1. Plan. You knew this day would come, so don’t let it surprise you. A temporary workforce should be part of your business plan. You never have one position to fill; you have three. Every time you hire an employee, recruit two temporary workers for the same job.
2. Process. Don’t manage your temporary payroll with cash under the table. We all know where that can lead. Hiring temporary employees requires special paperwork and agreements. The basic forms to have ready include the I-9, the W-4, state withholding forms and agreements, a temporary employment agreement letter, training agreements (we’ll get to that in a moment), and a valid temporary employee contract. The latter will bring clarity should issues of unemployment compensation arise. Temporary employment contract templates abound on the internet, but always check with your business attorney to be sure the agreement you use is legal and binding in the state(s) where you employ people.
3. Prepare. Trial-by-fire is not the way for temporary employees to learn the job. Begin training them the minute you hire them, right alongside the regular employee. Call them in for any new training, and schedule regular refresher training. If you don’t hold regular refresher training sessions for all employees, schedule it now. And when you get that big job, notify your temporary employees that they must be prepared — and standing by — should something happen to your regular staffer(s).

Of course, these tips are not a comprehensive guide to using temporary employees, but they will certainly start you down the path to managing employee absences smoothly with minimal disruption to your business.

by Tere Bracco