In a tight labor market and with a large percentage of new hires carrying student loan debt, student loan repayment is a great benefit to recruit new hires. Whether it’s paying a portion of the debt every month or paying off chunks of debt at a time, it helps employees alleviate the burden of debt. The benefits are fully taxable to the employee and to you, so there’s no tax advantage. But unlike salary, you will not be paying FICA or other employment taxes on the amount. There are a few companies out there to help with setting up a program like this such as Tuition.io, Futurefuel.io, and Vault. Check them out!
If you’ve experienced mis-hires before and prefer to try out a candidate before you hire them, it is absolutely fine to hire someone temporarily on a contract basis. By doing so, you could treat them as an independent contractor or a short-term employee.
Be sure to provide an engagement letter discussing the scope of the engagement, the length of the project, the work expected, the pay rate and, importantly, include your "at-will" language specifying that the engagement does not constitute an employment contract and can be severed "at-will" by either party without notice or cause.
Do you need some creative benefit ideas for trying to recruit new talent? Here are some things you can offer: additional vacation days, reimbursement on student loan or credit card debt, allowing your employee to work from home once a week or to work from the office one weekend day a week, offring a sabbatical after five years of service, reimbursement for transportation or child-care expenses, paying for continuing education, and, of course, teaching your prospective employees about any retirement benefits, such as 401(k) benefits. If you do get creative with your benefits, present them with your offer so that the candidate can weigh the benefits along with your salary offering. Good luck!
Affinity HR Group is BSCAI's endorsed HR partner, providing HR support, recruiting and employee engagement services. For a link to our menu of services for BSCAI members, go to www.AffinityHRGroup.com/BSCAI
The workplace is changing. Many employees are telecommuting and others are working “flex” hours. Instead of taking an account of where each employee is throughout the day, the modern-day manager must now gauge their employees' performance by their output.
For many, this is a difficult transition, but the harder you push against this new workplace, the more out-of-step you will appear to your employees. Our advice is to decide what level of performance you want to see from your employees and from each particular role. If your expectations are met, then how, where and when the employees do the work should be of little concern.
Terminations are the hardest part of any manager’s job. The best way to terminate an employee is to handle it with dignity and respect. A progressive disciplinary program is the best way to do this. Start with a conversation outlining your concerns and listening to theirs. From there, move to a written warning, probation and termination. You should have a formal disciplinary policy that describes this process so everyone knows what to expect. Finally, if behavior does not improve and you must fire the employee, do so in a setting that is dignified, private and safe for all parties.