How to Protect Your Business…From Your Employees

In the last article we talked about non solicit agreements and whether they were effective or worth it. The conclusion was that that are but they shouldn’t be used in isolation. What else can and should you do to protect your business from employees turned bad.

I know some of you might be saying but why, my employees are wonderful! They would never do anything to hurt me or my business. I’m going to wager that those of you thinking that haven’t had employees for very long. I also know that some of you might be remembering a bad experience you had with an employee and that you wish you would have taken steps to protect your business from that person. I’ll also wager that there are more people in the second group than the first. Most employers have had a less than ideal experience with an employee and have had to deal with damage done by that employee or ex employee. No one like to think badly of others. We love our businesses and we assume that our employees love them as well. Sometimes this is the case, other times not so much. I’m going to talk today about some things that you can do before you hire your next employee, when you bring them on board and during the life of their employment with you.

Let’s start with the period before you hire. You’ve advertised for a position with your company. You had several good applicants. You’ve done at least one interview with them and possibly more. You’re now ready to move forward with the one or two choices. What is your next step?

If you’re not checking references, you should be. There’s several opinions out there about the value of checking candidate’s references. Some people believe it’s a waste of time since candidate’s would never give you a reference that would say negative things about them. I’m on the side of checking references. There are two types of references, personal and professional.

A personal reference is one that comes from a friend or long time acquaintance. This should be someone who is not related to the candidate and that has known them for at least 1 year.  Personal references will rarely tell you anything negative about a candidate but they are great sources for giving you additional insight into the personality and motivations of the candidate.

Professional or employment references are previous or current employers. In my experience the idea that references will always say nice things about the candidate is simply not true. You simply need to know what type of questions to ask to elicit more honest answers. For example in addition to asking what strengths the candidate has, ask what opportunities for improvement the candidate has. Or you can ask the employer something like, if you were going to change one thing about candidate x, what would that be. And very importantly ask past employers if the person would be eligible for rehire. Some employers will be tight lipped about revealing anything about ex employees, especially large companies, but some are more than willing to provide information. As long as you are friendly, professional and open, they will respond with helpful information.

Okay so now you’ve checked references, both personal and professional and you’re ready to make an offer to the ideal candidate. Stop! Have you done a background check? If not, why not? It’s not expensive. You can do a background check on someone for as little at $30. It’s not hard. There are dozens of online companies that make running a background check as easy as clicking a few buttons. You have almost nothing to lose and everything to gain. Just be careful, you can’t legally not hire someone due to a criminal background but if it does come back with issues you can take steps to address them. A good practice when you get to this point in your recruiting process is to simply ask the candidate if they are okay with you running a background check. That way, if they aren’t, you can end the process there with no further time or money wasted.

So you’ve done your due diligence with reference checks, background checks and solid employment agreements. You’ve brough the employee and training them. Everything is going well and you’re well on your way to having a great relationship with your sparkly new employee. Then it happens, something goes wrong. The employee makes a mistake. That’s okay, everyone does. It’s your job as a people manager to work through these issues and develop your people. I may be a minor mistake or a bigger one. You think it through and figure out how you want to handle it with the employee. What’s the most important thing to do in this situation? The most critical thing you should do is document the incident.

I spent 30 years in regulated industries where the motto was, if it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen. What does that mean exactly? It means writing things down. Not just writing things down but recording them in a thorough way. If you had an issue with an employee, you should write a brief summary of the issue, what you did to resolve it, any responses or comments from you or the employee and the date of the issue. I once had to fire an employee who had had several issues ranging from refusing to follow company policies to picking fights with clients. Sometimes you have to let someone go for benign reasons. This was not the case with this employee. He clearly needed to be terminated. Some time after I terminated him however, he decided to claim unemployment. There are a lot of very deserving folks out there on unemployment but there are also a lot of people who take advantage of the system. If you’ve never been through this process as an employer it’s somewhat complex. The state asks you as the ex employer to provide any information that has bearing on the unemployment claim. Luckily, because I document everything, I was able to provide a clear picture that this person had been fired for cause and not simply laid off. This person’s unemployment claim was ultimately denied.  

Documenting things does not mean that you don’t trust your employees. In fact you can share what you’ve documented with the employee if you’d like. It’s simply a written record of events that we can refer to later when everyone’s memory of what actually happened is a bit fuzzy or biased. Documentation provides the data you need to make the tough decisions when it comes to keeping or releasing employees. It also helps you give clear feedback to and set clear expectations with you employees which can minimize any further issues.

So there you have it. Do these 4 things to protect your business when it comes to employees.

• Check employment and personal references before your hire
• Run a background check before you hire
• Have the new hire sign a non solicitation or non compete agreement
• Document, document, document

So these things and you’ve greatly reduce or eliminate issues down the line.

Another article you might like;

Non Solicit Agreements – Are they worth it?

https://www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog/non-solicit-agreement/ 

About Eliza

Eliza is the owner of two successful pet related businesses; Preferred Pet Partners, a pet sitting and dog walking company, and The Pet Business Coach, offering coaching and resources to aspiring or current pet related business entrepreneurs. She maintains two awesome blogs. One for pet parents https://preferredpetpartners.com/blog/ and one for pet business owners https://thepetbusinesscoach.dog/blog-page/.  Eliza also supports various animal rescue and shelter organizations. Eliza and her husband have a growing pet family. Visit her websites: www.preferredpetpartners.com or www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog.