Archive for the Human Resources Category
Do the subcontractors you hire provide a certificate of insurance proving they carry their own workers compensation coverage? If you are not requesting a certificate for every subcontractor you are putting your company at substantial risk. Many insurance companies and states require a company to include subcontractors under their workers compensation policy if the subcontractor can’t prove they maintain their own coverage.
Depending on the length of the project its a good idea to check during the project period that the coverage is still in force. While the original certificate may indicate a term of coverage that exceeds the project period, lack of payment or some other factor may cause the policy to be cancelled.
Failure to pay attention to maintaining certificates can result in substantial, unplanned for premium increases. In the event of injury, the subcontractor may not be covered and your company may be sued to cover medical costs. Both possibilities are something to be avoided.
Entrepreneur magazine in the April issue ran a short piece on parents returning to the workforce after taking time out to raise their children. Previously seen as the quickest way to derail your career, it’s now viewed as not career damaging. This is a great resource for the small business owner needing qualified staff that wants flexibility.
The article goes on to state that “according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 70 percent and 93 percent of the United States’ 2.3 million stay-at-home moms age 25 to 54 with kids under 18 and a bachelor’s degree or higher want to reenter the work force.” For more information the article suggests Back on the Career Track: A Guide for Stay-at-home Moms Who Want to Return to Work by Carol Fishman Cohen who also co-founded iRelaunch.com. I strongly urge you to check out the iRelaunch.com site as it is chockful of information.
In times of economic turmoil the incidence of fraud and embezzlement increases. You can protect yourself by implementing and enforcing a few simple procedures. These procedures are ones all business should follow regularly but may have been lax in enforcing. Now is the time to tighten up the ship.
- Manually sign all checks. Do not use a signature stamp.
- Only sign a check if it is supported by an invoice, a purchase order or check request explaining the purpose of the disbursement.
- Rotate who opens the bank statement each month and make sure the person who prepares the checks or prepares the billing is not involved. Open the statement as soon as it arrives and look for any odd or suspicious. Call the bank if you are even mildly concerned.
- Have someone not involved with paying vendors or collecting from clients prepare the monthly bank reconciliation. Someone from senior management, if there isn’t a CFO, needs to review the monthly bank reconciliation.
- Review the list of invoices prepared each month to identify any customers you do not recognize. If anything looks odd, call the customer and verify the order.
- Manually approve all electronic transactions. A form similar to a check request can be developed to support the individual transactions.
- Verify all unused checks are accounted for. This is done by periodically flipping through the unissued checks to make sure there is no break in the numeric sequence.
- Keep checks locked-up with as few people as possible having a key or knowing where the key is kept.
- If you experience an unusual and unexplained cash shortage bring in a consultant to investigate.
- If you do find evidence of fraud or embezzlement make sure you prosecute the individual so they don’t become a repeat offender.
A former client suspected one of its senior people was ripping them off by charging things to the corporate credit card. Things that could possibly pertain to the project the person was working on. It went on for years and no one investigated. When they finally acted they determined they were out in excess of the $250,000 they were able to recover.
