If you’re like most small business owners, you spend a lot of your time researching ways to save money. After all, running a business can quickly break the bank. There are office supplies to buy, employees to pay, and software to purchase and install, among many other things.

Don’t get discouraged over finances—there’s good news. Among other HR solutions, thorough documentation is a simple, effective way to protect your hard-earned money. Although paperwork is probably the bane of your existence, it can make a huge positive impact on your budget. Here are six ways good documentation saves your small business money.

Saving Money with Documentation

1. Tax Breaks
When you own a business, everything from gas mileage to business lunches can be written off as an expense and deducted from the amount of taxes you owe to the government. Even your internet bill can become a deduction if you work from home.

But what do you need to have in order to back up these expense claims? Documentation. Make sure to keep accurate records of all expenses you incur that relate to your business.

2. Hiring
Employee hiring is a time-consuming and often frustrating process. The cost of placing job ads and spending time reviewing resumes and interviewing candidates significantly affects your business’s bottom line, cutting into productivity and sometimes causing chaos in your office.

Proper hiring documentation—including employee applications—provides you with a reliable resource for finding the perfect job candidate in a timely manner.

3. Legal Compliance
Most forms used in the running of a business require certain legal considerations. Making sure your documentation is all-inclusive and meets these requirements saves your business money in legal fees.

4. Employee Efficiency
Policies and procedures manuals are vital to the productivity and engagement of your employees. When team members know what to expect right from the start, they have no loopholes to fall back on when they don’t want to comply with company policy.

Everything from time off to office dress code should be meticulously outlined, in detail, in your policies and procedures manuals. This could save your company money by keeping employees on track and productive.

5. Payroll
Sometimes small business owners don’t take payroll as seriously as they should. But that’s a mistake. Keeping proper records of things like hours worked, personal time used, and tax status prevents your business from inadvertently paying too much in taxes on the wages you pay to your employees.

6. Customer Satisfaction
In addition to improving small business HR processes, proper documentation helps boost customer satisfaction. When you keep accurate and detailed records of customer transactions and buying behavior, you’re better equipped to continue providing products and services that each specific customer needs and finds useful.

Working with MJ Management Solutions

Our HR WebForms service provides businesses with customizable, up-to-date, legal forms to meet all their documentation needs. With this service, you can easily get organized in your business and prevent unnecessary expenses. Reach out to us to learn how we can help you save money with HR Solutions for good documentation.

This article first appeared at M.J. Management Solutions, Inc.

Employee hiring is vital in building a desired culture within small businesses and organizations. Having a team that truly understands what your business is trying to accomplish and that works well together to meet common goals is the quickest path to success. But how do you get to that point? It all starts with finding the best HR solutions for the employee hiring process—more specifically, detailed employee applications.

You may think that accepting a resume should be sufficient, but using a comprehensive employee application saves organizations time and money in the long-run by making the hiring process more efficient.

Here are five reasons to develop and use a strategic employee application.

Reason 1: To Weed Out Obvious Wrong Choices
The employee application is your first chance to filter out those candidates who simply aren’t a good fit for your company culture. When you include relevant, behavior-driven questions, in addition to the basics, you’re better able to filter through applicants before ever meeting them in person.

Using the employee application form in this manner prevents wasted time on interviews that won’t produce qualified job candidates. It also frees you up to spend more time learning about potential employees in whom you’re genuinely interested.

Reason 2: To Be Prepared for Interviews
Scheduling and conducting interviews is a time-consuming process. More often than not, the majority of interview time is spent discussing job history, career and personal goals, and values. Knowing the answers to these types of questions before you begin each interview allows you to dive right in and get straight to the point.

A comprehensive employee application helps you prepare for interviews so that you can truly get to know every interviewee and determine if he or she is a good fit for your organization.

Reason 3: To Remain Legally Compliant
In today’s world, inadvertently asking someone the wrong thing can lead to serious legal repercussions. This holds true whether the incident occurs in person, in writing, or otherwise. Unfortunately for business owners and managers, there’s a fine line between getting the information you need and digging too deep.

It’s important to the success of your business that you know as much as is necessary to choose the right person for your team; the engagement of your employees depends on it. On the other hand, being too invasive could get you into trouble. Finding the right balance starts with developing an effective employee application.

Reason 4: To Eliminate Untruthful Candidates
When you use employment applications instead of relying on resumes only you have a strong base for rejecting candidates who are untruthful. Applicants can be required to sign an application and state that all information contained in the application is true. Failure to be truthful or omission of relevant information such as a criminal conviction can later be grounds for immediate dismissal. Resumes only give you the information the candidate wants you to have. An application can ask for information you need to evaluate the suitability of the candidate

Reason 5: To Streamline the Employee Hiring Process
Last, but certainly not least, developing a comprehensive and strategic employee application helps to streamline the hiring process, making it a more efficient and effective procedure. This relieves some of the stress that naturally accompanies times of transition and growth within organizations.

Now What?

At MJ Management Solutions, Inc. we offer HR solutions to keep your business in compliance while streamlining processes like employee hiring by providing customizable, downloadable forms. Reach out to us today to learn how we can help you customize an employee application, or subscribe to our newsletter to receive one free form each month.

This article first appeared at M.J. Management Solutions, Inc.

You found the perfect employee. She’s always on time, gets her work done quickly and efficiently, and regularly comes up with innovative ideas. But do you know where she’ll be a year from now? How can you make sure she’ll still be employed at your company?

It’s all about improving employee retention. Here, we’ll discuss the importance of high retention, as well as ways to improve the employee retention in your business.

Why Should You Care About Employee Retention?

For starters, too much turnover leads to chaos within an organization. The most successful businesses have at least a small group of workers who are all invested in the success of their company. They work together well and strive to meet common goals.

Aside from forming a steady and invested group of employees, employee retention is important for the following reasons:

1. It saves you money. Every business owner realizes the high cost of finding, recruiting, and training a replacement when a valued employee leaves. Focusing on retention helps you avoid those unwanted expenses.
2. It increases staff morale. According to a recent article in the Houston Chronicle, undesirable employee turnover has a negative impact on morale. But when retention is high, employees feel more secure in their positions and are more engaged in their work.
3. It boosts productivity. As a result of the sense of security that develops in employees when retention is good, productivity increases.

How to Improve Employee Retention

So now you know why employee retention matters, but how can you improve it? Plenty of HR solutions are available to you for the purpose of increasing retention, but when it comes to small business HR, these four actions make a significant difference in retention rates:

1. Show gratitude. The best HR management solutions include ways to show appreciation to your employees for all they do. From gift cards to team lunches, there are numerous fun ideas for expressing gratitude.
2. Be available. Having a boss who’s open to all forms of communication when needed is a sure-fire way to help employees feel valued and important. And when they feel valued and important, they stick around.
3. Introduce team activities. To increase retention, build up your team. Have them participate in team-building activities on a regular basis. This creates a sense of family within your company and reduces the desire for employees to seek job satisfaction elsewhere.
4. Reward regularly. Similar to showing gratitude, rewarding employees individually for a job well done leads to better retention. Rewarding differs from showing gratitude, however, in that gratitude can be expressed to all employees on a regular basis, regardless of where they are in meeting goals; rewards are designed to recognize specific employees for completing specific tasks.

When it comes to implementing HR solutions for the betterment of your business, keep employee retention at the top of your priority list. Doing so saves you money, increases staff morale, and boosts productivity.

Implement the four steps we’ve mentioned in this article, and you’ll be well on your way to success through high employee retention. Remember: Gratitude, Availability, Team activities, and Rewards. When you’re ready to learn more, reach out to MJ Management Solutions, Inc.

This article first appeared at M.J. Management Solutions, Inc.

MJ Management Solutions, Inc., is a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive.

Human resources is one of the most important aspects of small business. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most overlooked. Most small business owners don’t have the funds necessary to employ full-time HR staff, and they don’t have the knowledge to properly handle HR challenges alone.

Good news! The technology available today fully supports your human resources needs, without an in-office HR manager. Help is only a phone call or email away with HR Solutions. With us on your side, your small business can soar to new heights.

HR Solutions® helps you avoid costly employee challenges that distract from the productivity of your business.
Contact us right now and learn how easy it is to have expert HR advice.

Not convinced yet?  Take a look at these four ways HR Solutions helps your company grow.

Streamline the Hiring Process

The effort involved in the hiring process is worth every second when you find the perfect-for-the-job candidate. But what if you don’t find that person? It’s completely possible to waste valuable resources on a hiring and interviewing system that’s inefficient.

HR Solutions coaches you on the right way to streamline your hiring process and find top-notch employees, saving you time and money in the long-run.

Increase Employee Retention

Once you’ve found the right job candidates, you need to know how to retain them. Employee turnover costs businesses thousands of dollars each year. To combat this, it’s crucial to provide effective training for each new hire, as well as an environment that fosters employee engagement.

Don’t know where to start? HR Solutions provides you with practical advice customized to your business, so that you can better engage and retain staff members.

Remain in Compliance

No matter which industry you’re in, chances are, policies and procedures are constantly changing. Keeping up with this change can be overwhelming when you “go it alone.”  The professionals at HR Solutions are on top of changing industry regulations. Got a question about policy? Answers are quickly and easily available to you.

Boost Productivity

Taking the pressure of solving human resources issues off your staff gives them a chance to get back to the jobs they were hired for. The time that was previously spent on HR challenges can be devoted to growing your business. Working with HR Solutions is like having your own human resources guru on-demand.

Next Steps

Get the HR assistance you need with HR Solutions. Today’s technology allows us to provide you with a virtual HR expert on-call to help you navigate regulations, coach and manage employees, and to answer employment-related questions—all without breaking the bank.

This article first appeared at M.J. Management Solutions, Inc.

MJ Management Solutions, Inc., is a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive.

One aspect of small business HR that’s often overlooked is employee engagement. But getting your team members to invest emotionally in your company is a huge part of the equation for success. The benefits of employee engagement are numerous, and the strategies for achieving it are just as abundant.

1. career opportunities in your industry to a junior or senior high class?
2. If you have a retail business, how about a “buy one/give one” campaign where customers buy a particular product, like books or blankets or a specific toy, and you give the same product to a local children’s hospital, family shelter or inner-city school?
3. If you have a coffee shop, pizzeria or sandwich shop, how about holding a fundraising event and donating the proceeds for the day to a local homeless shelter or a local college scholarship fund or a charity close to the hearts of your employees?
4. Sponsor Organized Volunteer Days, that provide an experience with a low time commitment (1 day a year or a few hours every couple months) like a Habitat for Humanity build. Not every employee will want to take on big community investment projects, but many will want to feel a part of a corporate culture that values service.

Winning the Employee Engagement Challenge

When it comes to HR for small business, managers often neglect the philanthropic aspect of the job. Maybe you thought giving back only benefits the community—maybe you never realized it encourages employee engagement, thus boosting your business growth. Or perhaps you were under the impression that giving back and volunteering aren’t effective HR solutions. But science doesn’t lie. So if you’re not fostering prosocial behavior at your office, now’s the time to start.

At MJ Management Solutions, Inc., we know exactly what it takes to push your business toward success. We have the HR solutions to help you significantly increase your employee engagement. When you’re ready to learn more, give us a call.

Did you know that providing a chance for your employees to give back to the community boosts engagement? It may come as a surprise to you, but this theory is actually backed by science. It’s all about the concept of prosocial behavior, or doing something for the benefit of someone else. Prosocial behavior positively affects the individuals participating in it, and in return, their workplaces.

Creating an Environment Conducive to Employee Engagement

Of all the methods for increasing employee engagement preached about from business coaches nationwide, workplace philanthropy is possibly the least common. But it shouldn’t be. According to the 2011 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT Survey of employed adults ages 21–35, millennials who frequently participate in workplace volunteer activities are nearly twice as likely to be very satisfied with the progression of their career. In a report from Network for Good, “Employee engagement through cause is a vital means by which to strengthen employee relationships, enhance employee morale and even build critical skill sets and expertise. Plus, employees are hungry for ways to get involved in cause.”

Here are four ways that prosocial behavior through workplace giving and volunteering impacts employee engagement.

1. Productivity

Productivity increases when employees work together toward a common goal. This creates the sense that each worker is an integral part of a bigger team. As a result, every employee feels empowered and inspired to do their part, to not let the team down.

Workplace giving and volunteering is an effective method for fostering that desired team environment and the resulting productivity. Through this sort of prosocial behavior, employees strive to meet a common goal for their community—the community in which they all live and/or work. A common community equals a common interest.

2. Pride

Understandably, corporate pride is directly related to employee engagement. If an employee is ashamed of her company for whatever reason—whether it’s the culture, the lack of values, or management’s philosophy—she’s not going to hang around for long.

People desire to be a part of something bigger than themselves—now more than ever. In fact, last year the Huffington Post reported that Millennials care more about giving back than those who came before them. What better way to cultivate company pride and build employee engagement than by providing philanthropic opportunities for this social-conscious generation?

3. Gratitude

Gratitude is a strong emotion. It can change a person’s outlook on just about any situation, including a work environment. Employees who feel gratitude toward their employers are more likely to build a strong emotional connection with their workplace—and less likely to leave it.

We mentioned the desire of today’s worker to give back to her community. If you’re offering that as part of your company culture, she’ll be forever grateful to you for providing an outlet for her prosocial thirst.

4. Ethics

Philanthropic activity often results in a personal attitude that identifies with more ethical behavior. Think of it as do good, be good. Ethical behavior leads to ethical thoughts. Ethical thoughts lead to ethical people. And finally, ethical people lead to ethical businesses.

What happens when companies make a habit of practicing good ethical behavior as a whole? Employees begin to feel pride in their work, gratitude for their employers, and show a boosted level of productivity. See how it all comes full circle?

4 Ideas for Volunteer/Giving Opportunities

So you are convinced that volunteer or giving opportunities are a good idea for your business, but wondering what a small business can do? Your company’s cause initiative should be integrated into your employee engagement goals, workforce diversity initiatives, employee interests, and your investment commitment in your community. Here are 4 ideas, but you can come up with better ideas if you and your team put your heads together:

1. How about connecting with a neighborhood school and giving employees paid time to volunteer in primary grade classrooms, tutor in afterschool programs, or talk about career opportunities in your industry to a junior or senior high class?
2. If you have a retail business, how about a “buy one/give one” campaign where customers buy a particular product, like books or blankets or a specific toy, and you give the same product to a local children’s hospital, family shelter or inner-city school?
3. If you have a coffee shop, pizzeria or sandwich shop, how about holding a fundraising event and donating the proceeds for the day to a local homeless shelter or a local college scholarship fund or a charity close to the hearts of your employees?
4. Sponsor Organized Volunteer Days, that provide an experience with a low time commitment (1 day a year or a few hours every couple months) like a Habitat for Humanity build. Not every employee will want to take on big community investment projects, but many will want to feel a part of a corporate culture that values service.

Winning the Employee Engagement Challenge

When it comes to HR for small business, managers often neglect the philanthropic aspect of the job. Maybe you thought giving back only benefits the community—maybe you never realized it encourages employee engagement, thus boosting your business growth. Or perhaps you were under the impression that giving back and volunteering aren’t effective HR solutions. But science doesn’t lie. So if you’re not fostering prosocial behavior at your office, now’s the time to start.

This article first appeared at M.J. Management Solutions, Inc.

MJ Management Solutions, Inc., is a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive.

Many small businesses still manage human resources (HR) information manually—that is, paper records are kept either in file folders or in some cases, scanned and retained in a file on someone’s computer. When it is time to look for some information on a particular employee, or gather some data to support an initiative or set salaries for the coming year, there is no easy way to find the data.

Additionally, the person responsible for HR (generally the business owner or an “Accidental HR Manager”) finds that they are spending way too much time doing the paperwork involved in the routine, day-to-day activities instead of finding ways to save on employee-related costs, finding and hiring good talent and developing the workforce through training activities.

According to recent research by Ed Lawler and John Boudreau (Center of Effective Organizations), over 50% of an HR department’s time is spent processing information and answering employee questions.

Business challenges escalate the time and energy required by HR managers:

• Limited staff and resources: Many small enterprises have one person responsible for benefits administration, payroll and routine HR administration.
• Managing risk of litigation and compliance: How does one person stay on top of the ever-changing landscape of employment law and ensure that the business is in compliance and protected?
• Managing payroll in an accurate and timely manner: When paychecks are late or have errors, employee morale is damaged and the company bottom line is impacted. HR’s credibility is damaged as well.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) news release for June 2015 data states that private employers spent an average of $31.39 per hour worked for employee compensation. Salaries and wages account for 69.5 percent of the costs, and benefits added another 30.5 percent—this amounts to over 30 percent of the operating costs in a typical organization. It is necessary, then to identify ways to improve results, increase efficiency and lower costs.

Want to explore how an HRMS can help your small business, but don’t know where to begin? Contact us for HR Solutions that are customized for your business.

HRMS Technology

Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS) can help manage the time spent on routine HR tasks and mitigate exposure risks. This article is not to tout any particular HRMS system, but to inform the reader of the benefits of at least exploring the possibility of integrating such a system into the management of a business’s human resource function.

HRMS can eliminate much of the routine paperwork, automate many of the manual and time-consuming HR functions and free up the valuable time of those charged with the HR responsibilities.

For example, HRMS can impact your bottom line by:

• Providing standard processes for key HR activities, organizing all employee benefits, payroll, attendance, training and recruiting information to prevent having to spend time searching for data.
• Reducing the time necessary for data entry, creating reports and resulting in a more efficient operation
• Eliminating duplicate data entry since the information will flow across the system, thereby making you more efficient and productive.
• Helping to avoid fines, penalties and lawsuit threats by ensuring thorough recordkeeping and centralized data.
• Assisting employees to manage their own benefits and make routine changes to contact information and changes to dependent status. It also answers many of an employee’s routine questions about payroll, time off and benefits.

Adaptability of HRMS

Begin with a system that fits your company today and be sure that it will grow with your business. It’s generally easy to expand today’s systems to add functions such as Employee Self Service and benefits enrollment capabilities. Employees appreciate the ability to make choices about benefits packages by comparing costs and coverage among the plans offered. HR can monitor the status of enrollment in real time.

You can even add on-boarding capabilities as your workforce grows and eliminate the tedious and time-consuming task of processing hiring paperwork. When these functions can be handled on-line, applicants, employees and HR are happier. Add to this the elimination of all that paper and you are on your way to being “green.”

Bottom Line

Implementation of an HRMS can have a huge impact on your bottom line, improve your organization’s efficiency and productivity, and bring consistency to your HR processes. This can positively impact employee engagement and morale.

I mentioned earlier that this was not to tout a specific system, but I do want to direct your attention to a few platforms I find work well for small to medium size businesses—take a look at these and decide for yourself:

• BambooHR.com
• Zenefits.com
• UltiPro
• Advanced Payroll (APS)

Improving your bottom line and making your HR processes more streamlined isn’t difficult, and it doesn’t take a lot of money either. If you find your HR processes bogged down and a drain on your time and resources and you are beginning to think about how to use technology to fix this but don’t know where to start, we may have some HR solutions that will get you thinking and moving in the right direction. Contact us to begin the conversation.

Subscribe to Tips and Tools, our newsletter that provides human resources tips to grow your small business.

This article first appeared at M.J. Management Solutions, Inc.

MJ Management Solutions, Inc., is a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive.

When you run a small business, managing employees is a time-consuming part of your job. From schedules to vacation time, there’s a lot to think about when it comes to dealing with human resources within your business. Among the many concerns you face daily is employee satisfaction.

Don’t want to deal with these issues?
Want some professional help without breaking the bank?
Contact HR Solutions now.

Common sense tells you that engaged employees are more productive, so you strive to keep the peace. But in the midst of making everyone happy, you may be doing things that could land you in court or cost you in penalties. Even the most innocent-looking office policies can cause problems. Take a look below for five legal issues to be aware of when dealing with small business HR.

1. Exemptions
An “exempt” employee is paid a predetermined amount of money, regardless of hours worked. According to federal and state laws, salaried employees are sometimes exempt from mandatory breaks and overtime pay. This classification is often easier for employers to manage since there are no timesheets to track, meal breaks to deal with, or overtime to pay.

The problem with this arises when some disgruntled nonexempt employees are misclassified as exempt, and sue their former employers for overtime they were not paid. In order to prevent this from happening to you, check with the Department of Labor, as well as your own state labor office, and learn about what qualifies employees as exempt.  Or consult an expert in human resources or an employment law attorney.

2. Independent Contractor vs. Employee
There’s more to hiring someone under the term “independent contractor” than simply not providing the new employee with benefits. This tricky subject can quickly get you into trouble with the IRS or lead to disgruntled workers. Sure, Sally Mae is more than happy to work as an independent contractor—until an accident happens and she doesn’t qualify for worker’s comp. If the case goes to court and the employee is found to have been incorrectly classified as an independent contractor, you may be forced to pay the worker’s comp benefits, unpaid overtime, penalties and more.

To avoid these costly repercussions, take into consideration these distinctions and make sure you’re in compliance with the law—before hiring someone under the wrong classification. Unlike an employee, an independent contractor minimally:

• Advertises his or her services,
• Works for more than one client,
• Sends client an invoice for work completed,
• Keeps his or her own records,
• Sets his or her own hours and terms.
• Is responsible for his or her own business gains or losses

3. Flexibility With Schedules
You think you’re being nice by giving employees a bit of freedom with their schedules, and they likely thank you for it. But this kind of flexibility often comes with a whole set of problems. For example, if you allow employees to work longer days but fewer of them each week, you may be breaking overtime laws.

Some states only allow workers to be on the job for a certain number of hours each day without incurring overtime, so the best way to counter this issue is to familiarize yourself with your state’s specific requirements. Otherwise, you may be held responsible for lost overtime pay.

4. “Use It or Lose It” Vacation Time
Many employers seek HR solutions for small business that include a policy stating that if paid vacation time isn’t used within a year, the employee loses it. This is an effective policy for saving employers money, but may actually break the law in your state.

Some states require all earned but unused vacation time to be paid upon termination of the working relationship. So before enforcing the “use it or lose it” rule, find out what the legal requirements are in your area.

5. Harassment and Discrimination Training
Not all states mandate harassment and discrimination training (although some, like California, do), but training your first-line supervisors on what to do in certain situations can save you from lawsuits. If you’re not sure what to do or where to start with this training, check with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunities Commission) for resources. Also, consider human resources management solutions outside your office.

HR for small business can be overwhelming at times. Knowing what the law says about everyday activities is crucial to your success. To make sure you’re in compliance and to eliminate the risk of repercussions, reach out to an HR solutions professional today. Schedule a consultation online or call 480.924.6101 to learn more about safeguarding your business from legal troubles today.

This article first appeared at M.J. Management Solutions, Inc.

MJ Management Solutions, Inc., is a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive.

When you run a small business, human resources can often be the bane of your existence. And HR paperwork? Forget it! There go hours and hours of valuable time and resources. What you need is a simple, cost-effective solution. Enter: HR WebForms®.

The Solution to HR Documentation

HR WebForms help to effectively manage the day-to-day needs of your company, keeps all necessary human resources information organized, and ensures your organization remains compliant with state and federal regulations.

Ready to save time and money? Head over to HR Webforms
for all your HR document needs in both English and Spanish.

Not convinced? Here are three ways they save you time and money:

1. Pre-Designed and Professionally Crafted. HR WebForms already include all the info you need for managing the HR side of your business. There’s no time spent researching what to include in each form, and no money spent hiring someone to carefully design forms from scratch. Everything is there—created by human resources professionals who know the ins and outs of all things HR.
2. Conveniently Customizable and Easy to Use. Although pre-made, they are easily customized to meet the needs of your organization. And customization is simple. Just fill in a few blanks, add your logo, and print. And, voila! You’re done. No formatting, no writing, no designing—no hassle.
3. Legally Compliant to Save You from Penalty Fees. Legal requirements must be considered for various forms. Our webforms are inspected for compliance and updated as laws change. It’s one less thing you have to worry about, giving you peace of mind so you can sleep better at night.

If you’re overwhelmed and drowning in human resources paperwork, HR WebForms is your new best friend. Cost-effective, comprehensive, and simple—these documents offer everything you need to efficiently manage your company’s HR.

Choose from eight different packages, or select individual HR WebForms, based on your needs. Each document is available in both English and Spanish for your convenience.

Give us a call to learn more—and simplify your work life.

This article first appeared at M.J. Management Solutions, Inc.

MJ Management Solutions, Inc., is a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive.

According to a recent article on Forbes.com, HR executives indicate that their biggest challenge today is the skills gap, which seems to be widening instead of closing. A trend that is impacting the skills gap is the explosive growth in the use of technology. More and more employers see and are pained over the lack of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) skills in the current and future workforce. College curriculum is not aligning with needs of the job marketplace. About 70% of employers believe that learning is required for employees just to keep up with their current jobs—especially true in the technology and healthcare fields.

It is imperative then, with today’s rapid pace of change, workers must continuously educate themselves in order to avoid stagnating the economy.

So, whose responsibility is it to curtail this inclination and close these gaps in workforce skills? You might say it is the education system or the employee’s job to keep their skills up to date and you are right on one level. But, there are definitely benefits to the employer to provide some of the continuing education or training to upgrade employee skills. Small businesses especially need to become more aware of new HR solutions to this problem.

What are the benefits to the employer who provides on-going education and skills training? Let’s look at just these four:

1. Increase in creativity, skills and income for the employees. When employees are provided with the opportunity to learn something new to make their jobs easier and more relevant to the business, they are likely to stay longer in their job. A Lifelong Education and Labor Market Needs study proposes that continuing education increases both employee income and business productivity. About 96% of employers said continuing education improves the employee’s job performance and 87% said there is a positive impact on the pay scale because employees can advance when employers factor education into promotion criteria.
2. Increase in the bottom line of the business. As employees become more skilled, they are able to apply their education to making the company money. Continuing education means you can have employees who are familiar with the latest innovations in your industry. They can help you apply these innovations to your processes so you can stay ahead of the competition and increase your profitability. Employees who are learning spend more time actively using their minds than employees who may have done the same job for years and basically complete their tasks by rote—boredom sets in rather quickly. The continuous education students may also perform tasks more quickly because they are energized and excited by trying their new ideas and skills. The time saved in production can add up quickly to money saved in wages. This can easily offset the cost of continuous education benefits to your employees.
3. Decrease in staff turnover. When a small business supports employee education for advancement, turnover costs are decreased because fewer outside hires are necessary—this also translates to money saved and efficiency increased. Employees value education benefits and understand that tuition reimbursement for specialized training enhances their marketability for the future and their promotability within the company. Education benefits demonstrate that the business values the employees and their future with the company. In a recent study conducted by Spherion, a staffing and employment firm, 61% of those responding who received training said they were likely to remain with their current employer at least for the next five years.
4. Identification as an Employer of Choice. Over the last number of years, companies have downsized, restructured and pushed people to work harder than ever before…leaving workers feeling overwhelmed, under-appreciated and disengaged. Current market pressures are creating a need for businesses to become more innovative and to grow. The power is shifting as high-performing employees begin to exert greater control over their careers. Companies that can’t attract, engage and retain the right talent will lose out. By providing on-going educational opportunities and benefits such as tuition reimbursement, your small business will become identified as an “employer of choice” giving you an edge in the talent market.

Recently I came across a comment by a graphic designer who was responding to some points in an article on employee training. His parting words were, “I find I have no sense of loyalty to an employer that invests nothing in me as a professional. If I invest my own funds in the software and train myself on my own time, I don’t really care whether my current employer reaps any benefits or not.”

If that does not convince you of the importance of providing continuing education for your employees, you will probably find your business in a downward trajectory, employing people with yesterday’s skills in today’s fast-moving economy.

If your employees are asking for skills training and you are beginning to think about how to implement a program, but don’t know where to start, we may have some HR solutions that will get you thinking and moving in the right direction. Contact us to begin the conversation.

This article first appeared at M.J. Management Solutions, Inc.

MJ Management Solutions, Inc., is a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive.

Nothing…and I mean nothing is worse than following a rigorous interview process only to disover the candidate lied! Ack!  Especially after the time and expense of bringing them on board. 

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Guess what? You’ll never be fooled again when you read Margaret Jacoby of MJ Management Solutions, Inc. list of the most common lies you’ll hear during the interview. 

The process of employee hiring can be a daunting one. Research shows that the wrong hire can actually cost companies as much as $50,000. That’s a lot of money to throw away on someone who won’t add value to your business—or worse, someone who will actually hurt things like employee morale and productivity.

But, how do you make sure you’re hiring the right candidate for the job? It’s not as easy as it may seem. In fact, many employees lie on their resumes and in interviews for the sole purpose of landing a position. Take a look at these common lies to watch for during the employee hiring process.

1. Dates of Employment. Lying about dates of employment is an all-too-common occurrence. Fortunately, this is an easy one to spot; simply verify work history with former employers.
2. Level of Education. Does your job ad state that a minimum four-year degree is required for consideration? If so, you can bet at least some of the resumes that come across your desk have false information regarding education. Verify through the college issuing the degree.
3. Previous Salary. Who doesn’t want to give oneself the best chance for the highest salary? Many job candidates believe beefing up their last pay will make them seem more desirable, and lead to a better pay in their new position. Whether this is true or not, you’ll want to confirm pay with former employers.
4. Previous Title. People want to sound important on their resumes, in hopes of securing a higher title with new employers. This is also an easy one to verify.
5. Criminal Record. While someone with a wild past from his younger days may not miss out on a job because of it, he certainly will if he lies about being locked up. A simple background check is all you need to learn the truth about someone’s history.
6. Future Goals. Job candidates may fudge a bit about their goals in order to sound more desirable to potential employers. There’s not much you can do to catch this lie; you’ll want to just go with your gut feeling and probe during the interview.
7. Technical Skills. Much like fibbing about a degree, employment seekers often find it necessary to inflate their technical skill level to appear qualified for the desired position. This one may be more difficult to spot, but with a little research, you can determine the likelihood of reported skills. Or, consider skills-based testing prior to hiring.
8. Reason for Employment Gaps. Maybe a candidate has been honest about his dates of employment, but doesn’t want you to know the real reason he was unemployed for six months was because he was partying it up in Cancun. Social media research may uncover this gap.
9. Project/Task Results. Everyone wants to be seen as successful. It’s no surprise that some job candidates beef up their work experience with stories of unprecedented results for projects they headed up. Again, use behavior-based interviews to uncover abilities and skills.
10. Reason for Previous Termination. Someone says they were terminated because their position was being outsourced, but what she fails to mention is that she was a lazy, unengaged employee. The good news? This lie can be uncovered with a little research.
11. Second Language Skills. With today’s diverse society, many employers need staff members who speak more than one language. Don’t shy away from testing a candidate’s abilities during an interview.
12. Former Working Relationships. “Oh, I loved my last coworkers! We were like a family.” Really? Then why did you leave? This should be a red flag unless there was a legitimate reason for ending the working relationship.
13. Greatest Weakness. Employers love to ask this question; it often stumps people. But beware. If someone says her greatest weakness is being a workhorse, she’s probably buffing.

Employee hiring doesn’t have to be something to dread. With the right HR solutions, you can find the perfect candidate for your company. You want someone who is engaged, boosts productivity, and brings a good attitude to your environment.

This article first appeared at M.J. Management Solutions, Inc.

MJ Management Solutions, Inc., is a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive.