Most small businesses have fewer than 5 employees. So what does a small business owner do when your small company with relatively few employees has a key employee who wants to take vacation? You cannot deny their vacation or they may not be around for much longer! But when your top performers are out for a week or longer, how do you keep things running smoothly? Or, even worse (in the business person’s mind), what do you do when a key employee wants to take maternity or family leave?

Yes, as a small-business owner you can still maintain a well-functioning business when employees go on a two-week vacation or take a multi-week maternity leave. (By the way, the laws around family leave apply to businesses with more than 50 employees. So it is not mandatory if you have fewer employees to provide those full benefits. However, providing a portion of such benefits by incorporating some of the options below will help you retain excellent employees and build loyalty.) Below are some  tips and explanations on how to keep your business running smoothly when certain employees go on leave or vacation. These tips follow:

Vacation

1.      Have the employee who will be on vacation write a list of items that need to be taken care of while he or she is gone and briefly explain how to take care of those items. For example, a top salesperson needs to make a number of calls, is expecting a number of return calls or anticipates a couple of requests for a meeting. Have the salesperson write up separate short scripts for outgoing and incoming calls and face-to-face sales meeting and provide his tracking mechanism – i.e., Excel spreadsheet, notebook, or something similar.

 

2.      Have the employee create a mini process manual in advance. That way another employee can cover the basics of the job while the primary person is out of the office.

 

3.      Identify a temp who has significant experience in your business - a retiree, someone seeking extra work – through customers or association membership. Construction is a notoriously up and down business so, at any given time, there are generally a small number of qualified individuals familiar with a trade who can step in temporarily to assist. In the current climate, the same applies to banking, consulting, and a number of other industries.

 

Maternity or Family Leave (or Similar)

 

4.      If you have key employees taking maternity or family leave and you are concerned that the employee will be completely unavailable for 6-9 weeks (or whatever your policy allots), offer to extend the leave time by 50-100% if they agree to be available 10-20 hours per week to work remotely during the entire time. (The time spent in the hospital is exempted of course!) This provides continuity of work and projects and access by those who may be filling in.

 

5.      If you have a few employees who take many sick days to care for ill children or who use family leave to care for ailing adult family members, it may be cheaper to contract with a home health care agency to have health care workers provide occasional service than it is to lose the employees’ productivity. These agencies provide nurses or other care staff for services ranging from short check-up visits to day-long attendants. You can contract to utilize up to a specified number of hours or days per month.

 

6.      To increase the likelihood that someone will return immediately after maternity leave or family leave, or not take it in the first place (especially family leave), offer flexible work options. Telecommute several days per week, job share, video conference instead of travel, onsite or nearsite child care are a few examples. If you have employees with ailing adult members, seek out adult day cares and negotiate reduced or subsidized rates for your employees.

 

Remember, there are always solutions to a “problem”. Being creative, focusing on the work that needs to get done, and clearly defining job scope and expectations can go a long way towards helping you build a strong business with happy, well-rested employees. Empathizing with employees and attempting to look at their issues from their perspective, then from the business perspective can result in creative solutions that cost little yet promote morale and loyalty – both key to a healthy business.



By: Tiffany C. Wright

About the Author:

Having a baby is one of the biggest events in two parents lives. Pregnancy, childbirth and the ensuing days of caring for a baby can be very challenging. However, we live in a society that appreciates the importance of that time period and how involved parents need to be during the early years. This has resulted in very flexible maternity benefits and parental leave options and benefits.

When I became pregnant for the first time, I was very sick and did not deal well with pregnancy. I was working in a mailroom at the time and this required that I be on my feet for as long as eight hours a day. I lasted a little over three months and then found that I just had to get off my feet. I ended up taking a job in a call centre where I could sit for most of my shift which were usually limited to four hours rather than eight.

By around the five month mark, I found that I was merely dragging myself from my bed to work and back again. The company I was working for decided to lay many of us off, so I ended up taking my maternity leave early, after which point I had decided to become a stay-at-home parent. Unfortunately, I never received any maternity benefits until three months after my son’s birth. This was due to a mistake on my Record of Employment stating that I had quit, rather than been laid off.

By the time I had tracked down my previous employer and obtained the corrected documentation, filled out the appropriate forms and allowed time for them to be processed my son was three month’s old and we were in dire financial straits.

Finally, my maternity benefits kicked in and I received my long overdue payments much to our relief. I finished up my one year of maternity benefits entitlement and continued on as a stay-at-home parent until my son was two.

Five years later I was pregnant again, however this time, I stuck it out and worked right up until my due date. That way I would have a full year of maternity leave after the new baby was born. This time I was smart and had filed all the paperwork as soon as possible. I had no difficulty being approved for maternity benefits and I received all payments promptly.

As it turned out, my husband opted to take a portion of the maternity leave quota as parental leave. I had again decided to be a stay-at-home parent during the early years of our daughter’s life, so a portion of the time was spent with both parents at home. I was eligible for special training for mothers wishing to start their own business and so I was able to attend school during this time, while my husband took over the stay-at-home parent role, on a part-time basis.

We both are thankful to be able to be the parents our baby needs during their early years. All too often it is a daycare that does this for us. The maternity benefits we have has played a crucial part in making this happen.



By: Alien

About the Author:

Your health and ability to work may be your most important asset. Most people buy their house and their car using financing: mortgages and/or car loans and leases. They plan to pay for these necessities over time – from future income. Many mothers find that their income will drop significantly even though they are eligable for benefits such as maternity pay. Therfore in order to stretch their budget, mothers look for savings using discount codes and printable baby coupons or baby food coupons. You insure your house, your life, and your car, wouldn’t it make sense to insure the asset that makes it all happen – your paycheck?

Short-term disability provides important income protection should you have an accident, or develop an illness and were unable to work.  Statistics show that you are much more likely to be injured in an accident than to die from one.  Advances in medicine are allowing us to live longer.  However, recovery from a serious illness often requires time away from work.  Short-term disability can replace up to 70% of your income should you become disabled.  Benefits can begin as quickly as within seven days for an illness, and with no waiting period for an accident.  Benefits can last as long as two years.

Create Maternity Leave Pay

Workingwomen who are planning a pregnancy have an extra incentive to buy this valuable coverage: they are planning to use the benefit, and will likely generate maternity leave income that far surpasses the premium cost. Short-term disability pays a six-week benefit for a vaginal delivery, and an eight-week benefit for a c-section delivery, less the elimination period. Benefits may be extended if delivery complications require an extended time away from work.

Apply preconception to lock in your short-term disability benefit for maternity leave, with at least a  three-month buffer in case of premature birth.  Most short-term disability policies contain an exclusion for normal delivery within the first nine months of the policy effective date.  By applying several months before conception, your delivery will likely fall outside the exclusion period, even if your pregnancy does not go full term.

Coverage for High Risk Pregnancies

Each year almost 25% of expectant mothers will have one or more complications of pregnancy. Many women will need to leave work weeks or months in advance of their due date. Others may miss work when they suffer a miscarriage. Short-term disability plans provide income protection for these circumstances, which becomes especially important for high-risk pregnancies.

Ask your Employer

Short-term disability with pregnancy and maternity leave benefits are only available through your employer. Your opportunity for a positive return on your maternity leave income is a loss for the insurance carrier. Insurers are willing to absorb losses on pregnancy and maternity leave policies, provided they have the opportunity to market other policies to your co-workers.

It’s easy to get your employer on board, even if they don’t offer such a program now.  There is no direct cost to your employer, as you pay the premium. Your employer simply needs to deduct the premium from your paycheck, and forward the money to the insurance carrier once a month. The policies are portable. If you separate from your employer, you can keep the policy at the same rate. You own the policy.

Contact a local agent specializing in voluntary employee benefit programs.  The agent can speak to your employer, and provide you the opportunity to pay for this coverage through payroll deduction.

By: Kevin Haney

About the Author: