FastUpFront Small Business Blog

As our economy sputters along, the issue of health care has become a real headache. With the cost of health insurance on the rise amid a general push towards bootstrapping and business restructuring, businesses big and small are struggling to provide a decent plan for their employees, and those who have recently lost their jobs [...]

It is common among small businesses that employees learn to become expert jugglers who must successfully manage numerous, often unrelated positions and responsibilities. And as the current economic downturn continues to hinder sales and cut into profit margins, this trend is only getting stronger. While combining positions may be a necessary step towards conserving capital and riding [...]

The topic of workplace bullying has been grabbing the spotlight in recent years. Far from those playground days when the class bully would wait to pounce on his victims as they made their way to and from school, in the work environment, physical threats are replaced by emotional and psychological harassment that can at times [...]

Here is how to effectively avoid “hiring” issues: 1) Keep a record of your interview notes – don’t write anything that may be considered discriminatory. Keep a record of the job description and requirements which you provided to the employee originally. 2) Don’t exaggerate or understate your expectations of the employee, the success of the [...]

Everyone knows that discrimination is illegal, but do you know the breadth of questions which are considered discriminatory in employment law? Small businesses often have a harder time in this area, because there is not always a HR (human resources) specialist on staff. Many traditional employment applications that you might be using have questions which [...]