Business owners have faced innumerable challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them: how to handle employees. Millions of people have been laid off or furloughed. Some companies have used PPP loans to continue paying employees even if revenue has lagged. Meanwhile, a countless number of employees have filed for unemployment benefits which, combined with stimulus payments, have kept them afloat.
That’s all starting to change.
As communities across the country slowly reopen and owners work to revive their businesses, employers need to bring back the people they let go a few months ago or recruit new ones. Either option presents a serious risk.
- What if there is a second wave of COVID-19 and I have to lay-off again?
- Will my trusted team members prefer to stay at home, where they potentially can earn as much or more than I can pay them?
- Can I keep my employees safe at my place of business?
- What’s my liability if employees come back to work and get sick?
- How will I find new employees? What will it take and how long will it take to train them?
- Will employees stay for a short time to maximize their unemployment benefits and then leave?
- If I reopen, will my customers and clients come back?
These are real concerns.
There are several no-risk employment tactics to mitigate these concerns.
Overcoming Employment Risk
Employment risk may feel high right now, but work needs to get done. Here are three no-risk tactics to help you reduce exposure, reopen with the people you need, stay flexible, and bring your business back to life.
- Temporary Staffing. Many companies are bringing people back using a temporary staffing model. Staffing companies are set up to recruit, screen and place qualified people for short or long-term assignments, even temp-to-perm arrangements. The benefit to you is that the staffing company is the employer: they carry the employment risk, including workers’ comp and unemployment insurance. They can fill the gap and allow you to stay flexible in these uncertain times.
- Payrolling. What if you could bring back all or a portion of your key employees, allowing you to keep your company culture in-tact and eliminate the need for retraining…. without the risk? That’s the key benefit of payrolling. In this model, business owners shift their payroll to a staffing partner who takes on the financial and administrative burdens of paying each employee, managing taxes and benefit deductions, and reporting. You can be assured that your people will be paid reliably and compliantly. When you are ready to take back the payroll function, it’s an effortless transition from the staffing partner’s payroll system to yours. Payrolling is especially helpful for companies that are uncertain about their revenue stream.
- Compliance Management. Compliance with federal, state, and local employment laws is always an important matter for employers. The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t the time to relax your compliance practices. Whether you adopt a temp staffing or payroll model, your staffing partner has compliance covered. They can eVerify every employee and ensure that requirements like mandatory sick time are met. They can comply with your COVID-19 health and safety programs, from temperature checks to PPE. And, if someone does become ill, your staffing partner is ready to back-fill that position from their bench of employees, so your operation is always fully staffed and ready to go.
Back to Business, Safely
The health and safety of your employees, customers, and those they love is a top concern for all business owners.
The health and safety of your operation as a whole can be assured with the addition of temporary staffing, payrolling and compliance management.
Lower your business risk and bring your business back to life, safely.
To learn more about adding these tactics to your post-COVID-19 business plan, talk to Active Staffing Services.