Many small businesses struggle with HR. That is I suppose because they don’t have the budget to hire an HR person. Many business owners also have the mistaken idea that if they have less than 50 employees the labor laws don’t apply to them. It turns out that 90% of the California labor laws apply to businesses with any number of employees.
Where I see small employers making the most mistakes is not taking care of the paperwork. I mean the forms that the government requires, e.g. I-9, Employee Wage Notice, Sexual Harassment Pamphlet, etc. Yes, to keep track of all of this can be tedious. Yes it does take time to understand what needs to be done and how it needs to be done. But once you have your head around the details, it’s usually simple to document and implement.
Another area I see that is problematic, is insufficient supervisory training. Supervisors are considered agents of the company and can get your business in all manner of trouble with all types of government agencies and leave you liable for criminal and civil penalties. For example there are legal protections for employees to prevent bullying, discrimination, harassment and be in a non-hostile work environment where are they are safe. In addition, there is a need to document discipline and proper ways to conduct discipline.
Do your supervisors know all about these requirements? If not, to help keep them and you out of trouble, they should have adequate training in the company’s policies on these topics and know where the boundaries of the law are.