Leads & Introductions
Members introduced themselves, announced leads,

Member Reports
Don Ellis joined us today and looking great! 

Joe Hesch has a new marketing program in place.  Many of you may have received his E-newsletter.

Bio Photos
Several members have not had their pictures taken.  Herb Stokes will be setting up at MABE on Friday February 12th.  Please make sure to be here if you need to be photographed.  

Member Spotlight
This week's spotlight is Roman Okonowski.  Please keep this member top of mind this week for referrals.

Next Week's Meeting
February 12 - Roman Okonowski (02/05 Topic Follow-up)

Featured Program - Retaining Employees
Maria Utagawa, Achieve HR - "Human resource consulting that makes business sense."

Members announced how long they have been in business and how many employees they have.

They work primarily with small business owners, helping them bring in employees to their business and then managing them.  They help through entire employee life cycle.

EEOC claims are rising.  There are a lot of disgruntled employees taking action against their employers.  Don't assume if you have less than 15 employees that the rules don't apply to you.  The definition of an employee can be broad to include temporary employees, etc.  It is recommended that you talk to your property & casualty insurer about coverage.  Train your supervisors that manage employees.  They need to be able to recognize potential issues.

The Employee Life Cycle -

Recruiting, Interviewing, Hiring
The most important time could be the pre-hire.  Hire "who", not "what".  Consider culture fit.  Avoid desperation hiring.  Hiring the wrong person is actually worse than hiring nobody.  Do they fit the job description?  Take time to determine who you need.  They need to mold into the position, not the other way around.  Also consider bottom-up hiring. 

When interviewing you only want to ask things that are job related.  Stay away from small talk (ie., strange last name).  If you look for information on a potential employee on, for example, social networking sites you need to consider "what are you going to do with that information?".  How you handle it could be interpreted as being unfairly used in the job hiring process.  Background and reference checks are encouraged, just not necessarily on Facebook.

Having a structured interview process is the way to go.  Behavioral interviewing was discussed.   Focus on asking questions on how they would handle certain job-related issues.  Candidates can always make things up.  You may ask previous employers about how specific situations were handled.  Ask the same question in a different way to see if you get the same example.  S*T*A*R - Situation, Task, Action, Results.

If you have supervisors that are interviewing make sure they know the proper process to follow.

Arizona is an at will employee state.  Both sides can terminate the relationship as long as the reason is not discriminatory.  If you have a 90-day trial period, you may be required to give them that 90-days.  You can use trial periods but it is not recommended.  You may want to consider progress discipline but don't limit yourself by having the steps laid out in an employee handbook.

The cost of a bad hire can be several times the salary.  It is very, very expensive.  Take all the time you need.  Take the necessary background checks.  People tend to go back 7-10 years.  Be careful doing a credit check unless the job is financial-related. 

You should definitely have employee files in a locked place with limited access.  That is just good business practice.

Protect your intellectual property if you use independent contractors.

Motivating and Retaining Employees
Almost 60% of employed people are planning to look for other work when the economy improves.   You need to understand what motivates each of your employees and try to provide an environment that promotes that.

Your employees are not your friends.  You always want to have that separation.  It is not easy to fire a friend.

What affects retention?  The job market.  Compensation.  Work load.  Work-life balance.  Upward mobility.   It depends on the person.  The biggest factor to consider is their relationship with their direct supervisor.  If you have top talent in your company that you want to retain make sure to keep them motivated.

The job description sets the base for monitoring performance.  It helps set clear expectations.  Feedback is important, every time the opportunity arises.  This is better than a simple annual review.  It is a two-way communication process.  Employees want feedback - good and bad. 

If an employee comes to you with a complaint, pay attention.  Particularly if it involves harassment or other items that open you up to liability issues.  Don't ignore it.  Investigate.  Any decision you make after the complaint is open to interpretation.

Once you get to the point where you have to terminate an employee...document, document, document.  Include why you made the decision and the steps you took.  Be aware of the employees state-of-mind.