DoD, GSA, and NASA Adopt Final Rule on Notification of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws.

DOL Finalizes Investment Advice Regulations.

On average, there are 75 mandatory labor law posting changes a year. So who has time to stay on top of all the nuances of complying with labor law posters, following the correct processes, and staying abreast of recent immigration issues?

Fortunately, Ashley Kaplan (pictured) helps small businesses comply with these types of urgent matters. With more than 15 years of labor law experience, Kaplan is the Senior Employment Law Attorney for?G.Neil, a leading provider of human resource and employment compliance products for small businesses.

Now, as an advisor to?Intuit’s Labor Law Poster Compliance Service, Ashley is providing small business employers with an easy way to mitigate the risks of audits, fines, and employee lawsuits by complying with federal and state requirements on an ongoing basis.

We asked Kaplan some questions about the moving target of labor law compliance.

ISBB: Can small businesses comply with labor law posters themselves?

Kaplan: Given the risks of non-compliance and the time and resources required to get it right, small businesses shouldn’t be doing this on their own. There are so many compliance requirements and so many ways to make a mistake. For example, small businesses have to post five separate federal labor law notices to their employees. In addition, they also have to worry about individual state law requirements, which can include as many as 12 additional postings. The notices range from Equal Employment Opportunity to?OSHA?safety rights, to military and family leave, minimum wage, unemployment and workers’ compensation, fair employment, and immigration.

Is there a one-stop shop to get all of these compliance requirements from the federal government?

Not from the government. To get them on your own, an employer would have to contact as many as seven different federal and state agencies, depending on the state. You’d also have to know which specific posters to request for your business.

Couldn’t you go to your state labor department to get the right posters?


Yes, you can get the ones enforced by that agency, but there are sister agencies you may not know about that have other labor law poster requirements. Each agency is responsible for issuing its own posters, and there’s not a common source for all federal and state posters.

What happens if you don’t follow the right processes?

There are major penalties and fines associated with non-compliance, which can be as high as $17,000 for federal non-compliance. The worst of it is if there’s an employee lawsuit over employee rights covered by a poster you failed to post. By failing to post, you can lose your best defenses such as “good faith” in a discrimination case. It can also extend the statute of limitations forcing you to defend time-barred claims and increasing the period of recovery for back wages. The results can be devastating to a small business.

How often do the labor laws actually change?

These requirements change?constantly, and the government does not notify business when changes occur. There are, on average, about 150 changes per year and half of them require mandatory updates. It’s not always easy to determine which changes are mandatory and which are cosmetic.

A lot of these posters have requirements as to size, font, and color, so you’d have to figure that out by doing some research. You need time, knowhow and resources to get it all right.

Do the “labor law poster police” ever visit an office to see if you’re compliant?

There are federal audits around employment law compliance, but typically it’s not just about posters. When they occur, government officials begin by asking to see your employee posters.

Recently in New Jersey, the Attorney General “raided” a bunch of businesses in retail centers and strip malls and found them to be non-compliant with a specific state poster that had just been updated.

How have recent immigration issues impacted small businesses?

We’ve seen huge movement in the current administration to increase enforcement and penalties, and a lot of states are now being required to participate in the?eVerify program, a government database of over 1 billion people connected to Social Security records. Six states now require this. There’s also a mandatory requirement for an eVerify poster in these states and for federal contractors across the country.

In eight states, with more to come soon, if businesses violate employee immigration laws, they can have their business license revoked. States are starting to implement more severe penalties than we’ve ever seen on a federal level.

There are 279 similar measures that were introduced into various state legislatures in just the first half of the year, and over 2,300 audit notices issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that enforces immigration compliance.

by?Gil Zeimer

When working to grow their companies, entrepreneurs often overlook a valuable resource: their employees. “Many business owners regard their IP, products, real estate holdings, and equipment as their greatest assets,” says Frank Goley of?ABC Business Consulting. “Unfortunately, employees come way down the list — and sometimes don’t even make the top 10. This is a huge oversight and a huge waste.”

Here are a three tips for making sure you maximize your staff’s potential while expanding your operations.

Look beyond immediate needs.?Rather than just hiring people who have the experience you need to run your business, look for employees who have other helpful skills, even if these talents seem unrelated at the time. For example, Goley used his internet-marketing background to help his employer develop related new offerings for clients.

Empower people to speak up.?When employees know that their ideas and suggestions will be heard, they are more likely to think creatively on the company’s behalf. Make employees feel like they’re a part of your team by inviting them to regular?brainstorming meetings?and maintaining an open-door policy. Let them know that if they want to acquire more skills to promote company growth, you’ll consider footing part of the bill (provided that they agree to stay for a predetermined time period, of course).

Reward innovation and creativity.?Employees won’t be motivated to help the company grow if they don’t reap any of the rewards. Share your success. For example, you might promote an innovative employee by making her the head of the new department she helped inspire. Or offer her a loftier title and a salary increase. When people see that you appreciate and value their support, they’re more motivated to contribute.

“Employees — if well trained and cared for, if stimulated and challenged, if respected and sought after — can bring huge innovation, find great opportunities, and cause sustained company growth,” Foley says. “Companies that understand this invest heavily in them, and the return is a better ROI than any advertisement, marketing campaign, or sales ploy that a company can cook up.”

by?Suzanne Kearns

Given the current economic climate, small-business owners may hesitate to award year-end bonuses. However, financial uncertainty should give them even more reason than ever to make the effort, says Art Jacoby, a business-growth adviser at?JACOBY.

“A Christmas bonus during these difficult times is worth its weight in gold to you.” he says. “It’s the gift that will keep on giving, because your employees know how bad the economy is — and a small amount of economic thoughtfulness when the chips are down will build extra loyalty and be remembered and appreciated for years. Anybody can be thoughtful when things are going well. It takes a special leader to be thoughtful even when it’s tough to be.”

And employers won’t be weighed down with government regulations when it comes to giving bonuses.?The U. S. Department of Labor considers them to be an agreement between an employer and employee, so they’re not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. Likewise, the IRS gives employers the flexibility to choose between an optional flat rate withholding or using the aggregate procedure?if the conditions permit it.

Here are three types of year-end bonuses to consider:

Longevity bonuses.?According to the?U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, people 35 years and younger change jobs every 18 months, and people of all age groups do so every three years, which motivates some companies to offer employees an incentive to stay put. For example,?NorthStar EMS, a private ambulance company in Texas, offers employees up to $5,000 after 5 years of continuous employment, and?Wil-Trans, a trucking company, offers drivers who have worked for it at least 5 years a $10,000 bonus.?When awarding longevity bonuses, divide employees into groups according to the number of years they’ve worked for you and then give the individuals in each group a specific amount of money based on your budget. For instance, you may choose to reward $500 each to employees with 5 years of service, $1,000 each to employees with 10 years, and so on.

Non-performance bonuses.?Some business owners prefer to reward everyone in the company with a bonus as a means of showing their appreciation for a collective job well done. This can be tough to do amid economic turmoil, but it’s still possible if you use a little imagination. Consider offering employees a percentage of their salary (which, of course, would give larger bonuses to your higher-paid staff) or give a set amount to everyone on staff. If your cash flow isn’t sufficient to cover monetary rewards for the entire staff, think about giving turkeys or holiday baskets filled with holiday treats, grocery store or gas cards, gift certificates to a favorite local restaurant, or paid time off. By making sure that everyone in your company receives a fairly distributed bonus, you’ll avoid any hard feelings among employees, says Jacoby.


Performance bonuses.?Jacoby says that he supports paying for expected results and that to get the most for their money, many business owners are turning to performance-based bonuses. Each employee is given an individual goal at the beginning of the year and rewarded with a bonus at the end of the year if they achieve it. ?This, he says, will work to motivate employees to do the best job they can, which typically results in higher profits for the business. You can keep employees on track with quarterly reviews, so they can chart their progress toward meeting their goals. Jacoby says that will result in fewer?hurt feelings when bonuses are handed out, because everyone will understand up front that if they don’t meet their goals, they won’t receive a bonus. The best way to do that, says Jacoby, is to communicate large bonuses as a percentage of an employee’s salary to be given only if they achieve specified results. ?For smaller bonuses, he suggests setting a specific dollar amount up front, and then making the bonus contingent on the employee reaching the goal.

Do you plan to hand out bonuses this year, and if so, what’s your strategy? Share your thoughts with us in the Comments field below.

by?Suzanne Kearns

When you need to hire someone for your small business, you have to be sure you’re getting a person of integrity, honesty, and reliability.

Because this person may play a key role in your company’s success, after the interviews are done (or while they’re going on), it’s critical to ask the right questions when checking business and personal references.

Here are five questions that have been helpful to me as a small business owner who has frequently hired contractors throughout my career:

1)?Are they punctual??A lack of punctuality is a personal pet peeve because I hate to wait for other people to arrive for client meetings, lunches, networking meetings, or projects that are on a deadline. If a person is continually late, I feel they don’t value other people’s time. And if they’re working for me, that will be a major problem.

2)?Are they trustworthy??Is this employee going to handle payroll? Cash? Company checks? Will they be in close contact with customers or clients? If you can trust this person to behave in a professional, courteous, and honest manner at all times, he or she should be a good hire.

3) Do they play well with others? Or do they play too much??If the person being hired doesn’t share his leads, referrals, or details about projects, he or she may not become a very good employee. Business is a collaborative effort, so sharing and playing well with others is a must. On that note, I would check a candidate’s social media profiles on?Facebook?and?Twitter?for their latest activity. If they play too much and too often, gauge it against your trustworthy scale.

4) Can you provide an example of how this person handle pressure??This question is always a great barometer for how someone handles stress, as in especially tough client, a volatile situation, or a possible failure. This answer can be the linchpin between being hired, or not making the final cut.

5) Is there?any?reason you would not hire this person yourself??Is there anything the candidate did in the past that stood out as unprofessional or unethical? It’s always good to ask one final question of business references to put them in your shoes. Their answer can confirm your intuition about this person’s qualifications or condemn them to the reject pile of applicants’ resumes.

by?Gil Zeimer

How good an interviewer are you? The questions you ask during the interview process are your only real chance to get to know the person you’re about to give tens of thousands of dollars per year to.

With that in mind, here are three of the best interview questions you can ask during the interview process… and three of the worst. Remember, of course, that good interviewers will prepare for all kinds of questions, so you may have to tweak these queries or dig deeper to get a true and natural response.

Best:?What’s your ideal job?

A recruiter once suggested that this single question tells a lot about a person. Someone who answers, “No more than 45 minutes from my house and being allowed to telecommute part of the time” indicates one type of candidate. But here’s an answer you might hear: “I like a challenge, so my ideal job is one that challenges me. I like people, so I’d like to work on a team. But I also like being given responsibility for creating something, so ideally I’d like to work on my own part of the time, too.” If you want to find a candidate who will be an asset to your organization, make questions like this a key part of your interviewing process.

Best: What do you do in your free time?

This is a standard interview question, so candidates may be expecting it and have a prepared, half-true response. But, like the ideal job question, the answer (if legit) can tell you a lot about the person, namely whether they’re well-rounded.

Best: What have your colleagues said about you?

This is another question to help you learn about a candidate, but it lets you get away from the overdone and boring “Tell me about yourself.” It’s also enlightening to see stories what the person picks to relate to you.?You might?follow that question with “Why do you think they said that?” to learn even more.

Worst:?What’s a problem you’ve encountered and how did you solve it?

There?has to?be a business book promoting this question, because it’s a favorite among interviewers. Granted, how a candidate answers this question reveals a lot about him or her as a problem-solver. But not everyone has had a huge enough problem to relate. What is that person supposed to say? A better question is “Tell me about a memorable experience you had on the job.” We’ve all had one of those.

Worst: Where do you see yourself in five years?

Candidates usually know that to be on the safe side, they should answer along the lines of, “I would hope to be promoted during that time as a result of my hard work.” ?It sounds as if the interviewer is fishing to see if the person plans to stay around and the answer rarely has any value.

Worst:?What kind of animal are you most like?

Some prospective employers actually ask this question (and others like it), probably because they’re trying to be creative or see how creative the candidate is. But it reveals very little other than what exhibits the candidate may like to check out at the zoo. There’s just no rhyme or reason for including this question or similar ones.

by?Patricia Olsen

Golden State Update.

Littler's Tammy McCutchen Examines Department of Labor FLSA Enforcement Issues at Congressional Hearing.

California's 2012 Minimum Hourly, Monthly and Yearly Rates for Exempt Computer Software, Physician and Surgeon Employees.