Beside the lucky few business owners, most have experienced some sort of disgruntled employee. Every day there are employees taking advantage of the workers compensation system and filing fraudulent claims that cause hours upon hours of headaches for employers. Even when employees become ex-employees there is plenty of room for them to come after your business. In the most litigated state in the country people are constantly filing suits against employers for reasons such as: wrongful termination, hostile work environment, ADA violations... the list could go on forever.
So how do you stop people from having such a sue happy attitude? Well, the short of it is that you cannot change the percentage of the population that is going to look for any reason to try to get into to your pockets.
So what I am saying is that there's no solution to this costly problem? Absolutely not, there is a solution that every business owner can use... stop the problem before it ever starts. To be clearer and stop using vague phrases, do your research on the people you are interviewing. Thinking back to the many interviews you have done over the years, certainly there is a time that you could have pressed a little harder on a sequence of questions to get to the answer that could of saved you lots of $$$
Here is a list of suggestions that you can use that will help reduce those headaches you don't have time for:
• Reference checks with former employers and personal references
• Drug tests
• Employment applications
• Interview question's that put them in situations they will encounter in the everyday workplace
• Evaluation of their length with former employers and reason for ending relationship
• Most importantly: not hiring who will work for the least amount. Everyone has heard the phrase "you get what you pay for" well this could not be more accurate with employees. The additional amount you pay for an employee could save you in the long run with all the potential legal action/ fraudulent claims that can happen with a cut-rate employee.
To you, your business is like a child, something you have worked extremely hard to develop and that you care about the success of greatly. To a great employee that you screened properly they will respect this notion. To an employee that was hired because they were willing to take two dollars less an hour, chances are they could care less.
