When a slow economy and other external factors start disrupting a business’s cash flow and making it more difficult to get the help it needs, hiring new employees, even when a business needs them, is relegated to the end of the to do  list.  The cost of hiring new employees goes far beyond the salary the business can offer.  The cost of recruiting and training are the beginning costs of hiring a new employee. The incentives the business can provide to recruit top talent and to retain them are far more than the base salary the employee will get.  For more about this topic, follow the links below.

Why Saying ‘Thank You’ Is More Important Than Giving Employees a Raise

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You know the success of your business rests on the shoulders of your employees. That’s why you offer them a raise, put a ping-pong table in the staff room and provide other “cool” perks, like an office beer fridge and weekly yoga, right?

But a recent report by TINYpulse shows all those perks may be for naught if employees aren’t also receiving the occasional “thank you.”

The report (https://www.tinypulse.com/2014-employee-engagement-organizational-culture-report), which comprises data from more than 30,000 employees across more than 500 organizations, showed employees who received recognition were much more likely to rate their workplace as more fun. What’s perhaps most shocking is that 70 percent credited their peers for creating an engaging environment, as opposed to perks and amenities.

Small Business Dilemma: Paying For Health Care

Under the new health care law, sometimes called Obamacare, the “employer mandate” kicks in for businesses with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees (FTE). For purposes of the mandate, FTE includes full-time employees plus each 30 hour period worked by non-full-time workers.

With Obamacare, employers must provide health insurance to at least 95% of their full-time employees and dependents up to age 26. If employers who are required to provide health insurance and do not, they may be forced to pay a penalty of $2,000 per full-time employee, with an exclusion for the first 30 employees. Additional fees may also apply, depending on the circumstances.

The employer mandate does not apply to employers with fewer than 50 employees. According to the Treasury, approximately 96% of employers are small businesses with fewer than 50 FTE workers which means they are exempt from the employer responsibility provisions. This is good news for small businesses but that doesn’t make the health care question go away. The reality is that many small businesses still do provide health care for their employees, either out of a sense of responsibility or out of a desire to attract quality candidates (or both).

The Secret to Hiring the Best Employees at a Small Business

JOHN SULLIVAN: Smaller firms have one advantage over their larger rivals, and that’s the knowledgeable and personalized service provided by their passionate employees. In fact, employee friendliness, knowledge and empathy may be the primary reason why your customers return. Yes, employees are “the face of your business”; because they are often the only point of contact with your customers. Unfortunately, you won’t be able continually to provide that exceptional service or expand your business unless you can constantly recruit new team members that understand the needs of your customers. And the best way to ensure that is to actually recruit your existing best customers, who obviously already know about customer’s needs and they like your unique approach to business.

Data from the corporate world reveals that recruiting has the largest measurable impact on revenue of all human resources actions. In fact, formerly small firms like Uber and Google quickly became dominant firms by realizing that “hiring is the most important thing you do.” Fortunately there’s one recruiting area where small firms can easily “mirror” the approaches of powerhouse firms like Nike, Pier 1, Harley-Davidson, Microsoft and Wells Fargo. And that approach can be described as, “recruit your customers because they share your passion.”