We are happy to announce the reopening of our office hours program at 20Fathoms, offering free consultations with startup and small business experts for our members and the broader business community.
First up: HR/employment matters for business owners.
Meet Our First Industry Expert: Laurie Lapp
Laurie is a human resources executive and small business owner. She offers a unique, results-oriented, and practical perspective to help small to mid-sized business owners offload time-consuming back-office HR processes and focus on their true priorities. Laurie is the Director of Business Development at AXIOS HR. In her spare time, Laurie enjoys sailing and fencing – in fact, she is the Board President at the Traverse City Fencing Club.
Who Should Schedule a Meeting?
Business owners and aspiring business owners seeking honest and solution-agnostic insights on employment matters.
“HR employment matters aren’t as complicated or overwhelming as you might think, but it’s also not as simple as just paying everyone as an independent contractor. This truly is an area where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
– Laurie Lapp
Areas of Specialty
- Compensation including what to include in an offer letter and ideas for structuring pay. In addition, Laurie can provide compensation reports with reliable data for any job in the country which provides hiring teams with valuable insights on what the market is paying for a particular skillset.
- Payroll management recommendations to help set up a system that is not overly expensive or time consuming. Laurie can help evaluate the options including a simple technology system, outsourcing, or a full professional employment organization type of arrangement.
- Compliance including employment policy basics, workers’ compensation insurance, unemployment accounts, payroll taxes, and how these policies may vary between employees and independent contractors.
- Employee relations including performance feedback and what to do if a person isn’t doing what you want them to, is ill and unable to work for an extended period of time, claims mistreatment, or any other of a myriad of “what ifs” that managers face.
“The ‘what ifs’ are endless where people are concerned and it’s always good to be able to confidentially talk it through with a trusted individual.”
– Laurie Lapp
How to Get Started?
Office hours are one-on-one consultations for 20Fathoms members, small business owners, and the startup community. These sessions are free and intended to provide advice and coaching from business industry experts.