Today’s New York Times contains an excellent article on the increasing use of so-called “stay or pay” clauses in employment agreements. Once an employee signs a contract with a “stay or pay” clause, if that employee quits before X months/years (each contract is different), the employee will have to repay the employer for the costs… Read More
Posts Tagged With: New York Times
Are New Laws Banning Employers From Asking About Salary History Backfiring?
As I blogged about here and here, California and San Francisco recently enacted new laws prohibiting employers from asking applicants about their prior “salary history.” California currently joins Delaware and New York City as the only other jurisdictions that currently prohibit all employers from asking about salary history during the employment process. (Note: Several other… Read More
How to Hire the Right Person
Recently, Adam Bryant of the New York Times published an excellent article on hiring entitled, “The Hiring Manager’s Guide to Hiring the Right Person.” In speaking with over 500 corporate leaders for his “Corner Office” series, Mr. Bryant asked each of them, “How do you hire?” Those conversations are synthesized in this article, and the… Read More
401k Options for Small Businesses are Improving
Only 14% of employers with fewer than 100 employees offer a 401k plan. That’s because 401k plans generally are expensive and require considerable paperwork and other maintenance. That’s especially true for smaller 401k plans — because they hold fewer assets, they generate less trading fees and have less negotiating power, which results in higher set-up,… Read More
“Wage Theft” a Nationwide Problem?
“Wage theft” occurs when an employer confiscates an employee’s tips or otherwise fails to properly pay an employee. It has long been recognized as a problem in California. That’s why Governor Brown signed one of the nation’s first wage theft laws, AB 469, back in 2011. You can find my prior blog post about that… Read More
Banks Making More Small Business Loans
A recent New York Times article points to signs that the lending environment is improving for small business. According to Keri Gohman, an Executive Vice President and head of small business banking for Capital One who is quoted in the article, “It’s actually a really great time to access small business capital.” The article notes… Read More
Wall St. Invading the P2P Lending Space?
Peer-to-peer (“P2P”) lending started about a decade ago to allow individuals and other small investors to lend money to each other over the internet. By going P2P, banks were cut out of the process, resulting usually in lower interest rates and more funds available for the small businesses looking for cash. In return, individual investors… Read More
The Affordable Care Act — Good For Enterpreneurs?
In today’s New York Times, there was an interesting article entitled, “Affordable Care Act Could be Good for Entrepreneurship.” In the article, the author cited a new study from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Urban Institute, and Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute that showed how the Affordable Care Act is expected to produce a… Read More
One Entrepreneur’s Favorite Startup Tools
In today’s New York Times business section, there is an article that discusses “favorite startup tools” of entrepreneurs. It discusses tools that assist entrepreneurs with (1) testing an idea, (2) getting user feedback, (3) idea iteration, (4) email marketing, (5) analytics, (6) project management, and (7) stakeholder communication. Interestingly, many of the tools discussed are… Read More
Does Your Company Use Smart Hiring Strategies?
I am often retained to recruit executive and professional-level employees for companies. I use a specific process that goes way beyond asking standard questions like, “What did you like about your last job?” or “Why do you want to work here?” Those questions aren’t all that helpful in determining whether a candidate “fits” well into… Read More
