Should Every Small Business Benefit for Employees Be Available to Every Employee?
Consider the following small business situation.
There is a small printing business that takes orders over the Internet, prints on modern machinery and ships finished work through UPS within three hours.
The company has no more than 10 employees, and is run by a kindhearted and socially responsible owner who wants to extend every small business benefit she can think of, to her employees - generous periods of time off for pregnancy-related situations, included.
The proprieter wishes this, because she is a mother herself.
But then, an employee, just a few months after reporting for duty, asks for a full three months off for maternity purposes with benefits and some pay (with help from the company's disability policy).
Then about a week after she shows up for work at the end of it all, she quits for good with no consideration for all who worked hard to cover her shift.
How far should a small business go in extending benefits, and how does a business protect itself? As a small business benefit to extend, maternity leave can be particularly difficult.
The Family and Maternity Leave Act of 1993 requires that any small business that has 50 employees needs to offer three months of unpaid leave (not to mention job protection) and benefits not just after the birth of a child, but also after the adoption of one.
Many small businesses, in an attempt to be compassionate, offer these benefits even when the law clearly doesn't apply to them.
Here's how you can protect your business just as well as to protect the interests of your employees, as a small businessman.
The best rule here would be to talk about it openly, so that there is transparency.
Employers need to accept that certain life changes involving accidents, elderly care or childbirth really will need some downtime for an employee.
They just have to plan around these.
Open discussion here is key.
When it's all out in the open, everyone can discuss how to pick up the responsibilities of person who'll be away.
Of especial importance to the open consultations will be including the employee who plans to be off work for some time.
Make sure that no one assigns blame for the extra responsibility they will have to bear; make sure you have the person who is leaving, train everyone else who will be picking up the slack.
If you want to be fair to your employees, but you just cannot afford to pay them when they are off on maternity leave, consider offering them disability insurance that pays than half of what they would have made, working.
You can also let them use their vacation or sick leave in place of maternity leave.
You need to be consistent in how you extend benefits to your employees of course, but sometimes, inconsistencies may be a good idea too, if you make sure that you explain to everyone what your reasons are.
It isn't the law that every small business benefit be equally granted.
A great employee really does deserve special treatment that a mediocre employee does not deserve.
You could hire a lawyer to help you think things through sometimes if things get too complicated.
There is a small printing business that takes orders over the Internet, prints on modern machinery and ships finished work through UPS within three hours.
The company has no more than 10 employees, and is run by a kindhearted and socially responsible owner who wants to extend every small business benefit she can think of, to her employees - generous periods of time off for pregnancy-related situations, included.
The proprieter wishes this, because she is a mother herself.
But then, an employee, just a few months after reporting for duty, asks for a full three months off for maternity purposes with benefits and some pay (with help from the company's disability policy).
Then about a week after she shows up for work at the end of it all, she quits for good with no consideration for all who worked hard to cover her shift.
How far should a small business go in extending benefits, and how does a business protect itself? As a small business benefit to extend, maternity leave can be particularly difficult.
The Family and Maternity Leave Act of 1993 requires that any small business that has 50 employees needs to offer three months of unpaid leave (not to mention job protection) and benefits not just after the birth of a child, but also after the adoption of one.
Many small businesses, in an attempt to be compassionate, offer these benefits even when the law clearly doesn't apply to them.
Here's how you can protect your business just as well as to protect the interests of your employees, as a small businessman.
The best rule here would be to talk about it openly, so that there is transparency.
Employers need to accept that certain life changes involving accidents, elderly care or childbirth really will need some downtime for an employee.
They just have to plan around these.
Open discussion here is key.
When it's all out in the open, everyone can discuss how to pick up the responsibilities of person who'll be away.
Of especial importance to the open consultations will be including the employee who plans to be off work for some time.
Make sure that no one assigns blame for the extra responsibility they will have to bear; make sure you have the person who is leaving, train everyone else who will be picking up the slack.
If you want to be fair to your employees, but you just cannot afford to pay them when they are off on maternity leave, consider offering them disability insurance that pays than half of what they would have made, working.
You can also let them use their vacation or sick leave in place of maternity leave.
You need to be consistent in how you extend benefits to your employees of course, but sometimes, inconsistencies may be a good idea too, if you make sure that you explain to everyone what your reasons are.
It isn't the law that every small business benefit be equally granted.
A great employee really does deserve special treatment that a mediocre employee does not deserve.
You could hire a lawyer to help you think things through sometimes if things get too complicated.
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