One of the more frustrating challenges facing a manger is the employee who just can’t seem to make it in to work, with unpredictable absences and/or regular tardiness. At best, this behavior causes disruption of the workplace while coworkers figure out how to compensate for the missing person; at worst, … Read More
Brand new nonprofits can face challenges avoided by established organizations. One of the strangest occurs when one person has founded the nonprofit to address a problem about which they feel passionately, especially when they are more concerned about solving the problem immediately than about building a team to solve it. … Read More
Once a business has more than 5 employees, or sometimes even before that, an employee manual becomes a good idea. It is tempting to ignore it as simply more paperwork or a restraint on management flexibility, but your employee manual provides a good way to communicate company rules to employees … Read More
As Abercrombie and Fitch is discovering, there are perils associated with making assumptions about a candidate’s religion, just as there are with assumptions about their physical capabilities. “Can you do this job?” applies to religion as well as disabilities. According to Quartz, In some ways, it seems that where Abercrombie … Read More
Good governance is usually used in conversations about nonprofits and government entities, but many of its characteristics apply to good management as well. Good governance is competent management of an organization’s resources and affairs, in a manner that recognizes the needs of all stakeholders. Mores specifically, good governance is: law-abiding … Read More
One of the primary responsibilities of a nonprofit board is to hire and supervise the executive director (if there is one), including setting appropriate compensation every year. Setting compensation is important for two reasons, one legal and one equitable. Legally, the IRS doesn’t like to see executive directors being paid … Read More
Montana has long had a work injury rate 40% higher than the national average, resulting in high levels of injuries and expensive Worker’s Compensation rates. The federal OSHA program is geared toward national issues, which don’t always address Montana’s safety problems. In an effort to improve Montana’s safety rates, the … Read More
One thing board members, especially of nonprofits with 1-3 employees, often have trouble wrapping their minds around is the idea that they are an employer. That seems too much like being a business, not a nonprofit. But the organization is an employer with the same responsibilities as any for-profit employer, … Read More
The internet has been a real boon to organizations, both businesses and nonprofits, that need a little help getting started with documents. There are all kinds of templates and samples out there, generally free for the borrowing. Just remember that you often get what you pay for and choose your … Read More
The policies every employee manual starts with are the legal ones like EEOC and harassment, and the ones about when and how people get paid. These are relatively easy because they are hard and fast, making them easy to write. What often gets missed are the policies covering corporate culture that … Read More