Free advice is worth what you pay for it. But in some cases,
it's worth far less than that. Here's some of the worst
advice two entrepreneurs ever received:
Jim Pyle, 45,
co-founder of business consulting firm Your Corner Office LLC in
Houston, is quite happy with his 80 employees. In a past
entrepreneurial venture, however, he wasn't so lucky. Six
months after hiring a peer's suggestion for a sales manager,
Pyle found out his new employee had a drug problem. Lesson: Be more
thorough in searches and hire a recruiter.
Stacey Pecor, 36,
founder of New York City clothes retailer Olive & Bette's
Co., operates four stores, each with less than 600 square feet, so
inventory control is critical. Her parents-both entrepreneurs-told
her to handle everything herself. Thanks, Mom and Dad, but since
hiring an inventory control consultant, Pecor has gained 5 points
on her margins. Lesson: "Where you can afford to hire
expertise is where your money is best spent," she says.
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Who's Harassing
Whom?
You can breathe easier about potential sexual harassment
lawsuits. In April, the Supreme Court's Clark County School
District v. Breeden decision reaffirmed that an isolated sexual
comment does not create a threatening work environment.
The court further stated that employees have no right to
compensation just because their jobs expose them to sexually
explicit material. In this case, an employee reviewing job
applications was offended when a fellow reviewer read aloud an
applicant's crass remark.
Claims of your retaliating against employees who file sexual
harassment lawsuits will also face greater scrutiny. You won't
be penalized for reassigning an employee who claims harassment
unless the job change occurs soon after the complaint, and if you
had planned to reassign the employee anyway, you can safely
proceed.
End on a High Note
This year's corporate layoffs have displayed a couple of
noteworthy trends. Companies like Amazon.com and Inside.com are
forcing departing employees to sign nondisparagement clauses to
prevent ill will from appearing in the press.
Jim Morris, principal with the Portland, Oregon, human resources
consulting firm MBL Group LLC, says the practice has grown in many
industries over the past decade. While these clauses neutralize
laid-off workers, beware that they also tend to alienate your
remaining employees. "When you create a climate of fear, the
retention challenges are enormous," notes Morris.
The desire to create a feel-good atmosphere may be why companies
such as Cisco and Intel are sweetening the pot in pre-emptive
layoffs. When these firms rescind job offers, they give their
would-be employees, particularly recent college grads,
"apology bonuses"-cash for not getting the positions
promised.
"It's a way of saying 'We feel badly about this,
too. We'd like to have a good relationship with you in the
future, as an employee or as a customer,'" says Judy Weil,
executive director for the Northeast Human Resources Association in
Wellesley, Massachusetts.
As your company grows, you may want to familiarize yourself with
the little-noticed 1988 Worker Adjustment and Retraining
Notification (WARN) Act. WARN forces companies with more than 100
employees to give 60 days' notice of a layoff affecting more
than one-third (or 50, whichever is less) of its employees.
Morris says many smaller companies ignore WARN-often out of
ignorance. "Most of the last 10 years have been growth
years," he says. "We're obviously dusting [the law]
off again."
Chris
Sandlund writes about business from Cold Spring, New
York.
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