Once your business gets to the point where it needs employees to function correctly, you know you are doing well. In order to remain competitive and continue to prosper, you will need to look at hiring the right people for your business. Unfortunately, hiring people, even if you have some close friends or family in mind, isn’t an easy process. The extra manpower will come with a whole list of liabilities, legal obligations, paperwork, and expenses. You will also need to consider the amount of time it takes for recruitment and hiring as well as training your new employees. You need to make sure you are in a position to deal with all of this before you carry out this process. Doing your research to ensure you have everything in place for your new employees and that you can offer them benefits and a suitable work environment is essential before you begin the recruitment process.
Carry Out Background Checks
In many cases, someone’s resume will exaggerate their skills, education, and work history, and they may not include certain things that you need to know. Make sure the people you hire are safe and stable because if they harm another member of staff or a customer, it is possible for you to be held accountable and even sued. Fortunately, most of the information you check will be on file, which means you can find out if your employee is hiding anything through a background check.
With the right website, such as Public Record Reviews, a background check can be made a lot easier. You can use this site to check public arrest records, education history, bankruptcy records, address history, birth records, plus more. It is highly advisable that you do so to protect yourself, your business and other people in the workplace. However, as per FCRA guidelines you need to make sure you inform the potential employee that you will be doing so and ask for their content.
Test for Illegal Substances
Society is constantly battling against substance abuse and it is a battle that is far from being over. Whether they are using cocaine or taking sleeping pills, drug addicts can drain the balance sheet and productivity of an organization. They can be a liability, unpredictable, and are more likely to cause an accident in the workplace. To avoid hiring substance abusers, you should carry out a drug test pre-employment. You can continue to carry out random drug tests once they have been hired. Before you carry out a drug test, you need to understand that pre-employment, it is illegal to ask about a candidate’s current use of prescription medications. If a candidate does refuse a drug test, then you have the right to deny or retract an employment offer. If you do receive a positive result, you should be sensitive and understanding towards this person because they may need help.
Use Unwanted Behavior Screening
Supplementary screening options can be made available depending on the role you want to fill. Examples of these screening options include handwriting analysis, psychological testing, skill, and aptitude tests, and you can even get lie detector tests. These will act as additional assessment tools to help you select the ideal candidate for your business. This profiling will allow you to choose the people who have the temperament and skills you need to ensure your business succeeds. You need to make sure you are prepared to demonstrate non-discrimination, statistical validity and job-relatedness before administering these tests, in order to avoid any kind of legal problems.
Ask the Right Questions
You need to make sure you plan out the interview well beforehand. There will be a certain standard that you will need your employees to meet, so you need to make sure the questions you ask cover everything you need to know, however, you need to understand that there are some questions that you should not and cannot ask. For example, it is unlawful to ask about the applicant’s sexual orientation, age, marital status, race or religious affiliation. You should also refrain from asking questions about the applicant’s emotional, mental or physical handicap. The only thing you should ask regarding their handicap is whether they will need to be accommodated to perform specific jobs. You need to make sure you are familiar with and understand the federal laws surrounding employment.
Check the Candidate’s References
Before you make a formal job offer, you need to make sure your candidate has given you a minimum of three references that you can speak to. At least two of these references need to be professional. The other one can be a personal reference. These help you understand and become more familiar with the applicant’s character. All you need to do to check your candidate’s references is pick up the phone. You should not neglect or forget about this step. When you speak to the reference, make sure you make your queries clear and objective and you relate each question to the duties and performance of the job you have on offer. You can also use references to confirm the information the applicant provided on their resume. Just like hiring and interviewing, there are forms of discrimination that you need to stick to when speaking to references.
Get Things in Order
Once you have selected your new recruits, you need to make sure you set a salary and choose the classification of your employee. There are federal laws that provide clear guidelines when it comes to doing so. You need to make sure you stick to the minimum hourly wage and confirm whether your employee will be full or part-time. Different states will have different benefits on offer to their employees, so you should make sure you check your local department of labor for any corresponding regulations. You must classify your employees correctly for tax reasons. If you hold the right to control your recruit’s activities, then they will be classed as a common-law employee. If your recruit is allowed to report your business expenses and income, then they will be a statutory employee. A statutory non-employee must be treated as self-employed. Then there are independent contractors who will work for themselves. Finally, you should find and purchase the right insurance coverage for your business and employees.
Set Your Records Straight
There are many things you will have to get in order before your newest member of the team starts. There will be a file of records you will need to finish and process. There are twelve records that an employer will need to maintain throughout the recruit’s employment. These include:
• The full name and social security number of an employee.
• Their ZIP code and mailing address.
• The employee’s date of birth (if they are under 19).
• Their occupation and sex.
• The hours worked every day and week, plus the start and finish time of the employee’s shift and workweek.
• Their regular hourly pay rate.
• The basis on which the recruit’s wages will be paid (monthly, weekly, etc.).
• Their total weekly or daily earnings for each workweek (‘straight time’).
• The total earnings through overtime for every workweek.
• All of the wage deductions and additions.
• The total wages that are paid during each pay period.
• Dates of payment and the pay periods that will be covered by that payment.
You will need this paperwork for filing taxes, so make sure you keep it safe and organized. There will also be a list of taxes that you have to pay. Keep hold of the related documents and keep them on file.
Safely Handle Immigration Issues
In America, there are millions of undocumented immigrants who call America their home. This part of the population has become a huge factor when it comes to our workforce. If you sponsor or petition for a foreign national to work in your workplace, then you must send and verify a range of documents that states and proves their eligibility to do so. This is essential to avoid any criminal or civil audits and penalties to the company’s payroll. You will need to file an I-140 form, known as an Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker, on their behalf. This will must be sent to the USCIS (the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service). A 1-9 check should be sent together with such credentials. There are many additional classification forms, which will be specialized depending on the role of the foreign national. Speak to the USCIS to make sure you fill out the correct classification forms.
Hiring employees isn’t an easy process and once they have been hired, there will constantly be obstacles that you will face and have to deal with in the appropriate manner. However, the whole reason you need employees in the first place is to better your business and finding the right employees will ensure this. You just need to make sure you are thorough when it comes to selecting the right applicants. Even though you have a business to run, people have to work, so you should always be sensitive and understanding to candidates who may have had a rough time. If they aren’t right for your business, then tell them why to help them improve.
