HR 101: Brightmine Resources for HR Departments of One or Small Businesses

As an HR solo practitioner or manager with HR responsibilities, you are often pulled in many directions and need to prioritize what's most important. Let Brightmine lighten your burden. Fulfill all of your roles (compliance, recruiting, communications, employee relations, training and development, to name a very few) by reviewing and customizing our various resources.

Man browsing the internet

Acquire, Engage and Retain Employees

Extend a Job Offer Checklist

Talent Acquisition

Ease your talent acquisition efforts by accessing model policies and checklists, including:

During the acquisition process, it's important to engage in compliant practices when interviewing and hiring candidates.

Looking for state-specific letters and templates? Due to popular customer demand, we've started to ramp up our state-specific resources. These resources are fully customizable and come equipped with further tips and warnings to ensure compliance with more particular state requirements. The table below lists examples of the templates, forms and letters available on Brightmine. However, be sure to follow our Coming Soon page to keep an eye on future additions.

Job Application Forms Employment Offer Letters
California California
Florida Florida
Illinois Illinois
New York New York
Texas Texas

Another important part of the recruiting and hiring process is emphasizing immigration compliance - any missteps could result in sanctions ranging from civil to criminal, in addition to less-than-complimentary media coverage.

Retain Employees

Retaining top performers promotes meeting business goals; improves production continuity; increases institutional memory; reduces undesirable turnover; and limits recruitment, onboarding and training costs.

Improve Employee Engagement Checklist

Consider these key points to help you boost employee retention:

Check out these Tasks (HR Toolkits) for a roundup of our top resources for improving employee engagement:

Emphasize Leadership

Best Practice trending module

Move from a compliance-centered stance into a strategic frame of mind by understanding the business. While this can be difficult as day-to-day responsibilities demand your attention as a solo HR practitioner, keeping a strategic focus will push your organization's goals forward.

Engage in HR Transformation to meet business goals with greater ease, such as improving capacity to recruit and retain the right people and align HR more closely with business strategy.

Deliver effective Leadership Development. Building a suitable pool of competent, knowledgeable and skilled senior personnel who are able to act consistently and demonstrate behaviors that mirror the organizational values is a core element for business growth and commercial success.

Advise on succession planning. Succession planning is the process through which an employer first identifies then develops internal staff with the potential to fill key leadership and other critical roles should they become open in the future. Review HR & Compliance Center's resources, including:

Leverage Communications

It's important that you convey needed information to employees in a timely fashion. Leverage your communications to inform, engage and learn from employees.

Use a variety of methods when communicating with employees.

Employ employee engagement surveys to identify where to take action to improve engagement and improve morale.

Wondering which notice-postings are required or recommended? Review our poster charts in the Quick Reference resource:

Federal Workplace Labor and Employment Law Posters

Conduct effective exit interviews - gather useful information from separating employees while protecting business assets - by using the following resources:

Train Supervisors to Minimize Risks

It's good practice to invest in supervisor training to ensure legal compliance and minimize liability risks. Give supervisors and managers the resources needed to succeed.

Training a new supervisor? Consider customizing the following resources:

Several states have added or strengthened EEO training requirements including sexual harassment prevention, discrimination, and more. Consult one of our various EEO training resources.

Need to discipline an employee? Learn how to discipline an employee in a compliant way that minimizes liability risks. It's also important to ensure that all termination decisions are made in a compliant manner. Review our discipline and terminations Tasks (HR Toolkits):

Tasks screenshot

And don't forget about workplace safety. Address safety concerns by accessing the following Tasks (HR Toolkits):

Process Payroll

Even if outsourcing payroll tasks to a vendor, an employer continues to be liable for any irregularities. Ensure that you're compliant with applicable payroll requirements.

Check Payment of Wages resources for local wage theft and tax laws.

File the required forms and comply with applicable reporting requirements.

Worried if a particular compliance risk applies to your organization? Having a difficult time keeping track of minimum wage and paid sick and safe leave requirements?

Consult our Labor and Employment Law Overviews, and our Does This Law Apply to my Organization? Quick Reference charts for state requirements, and our Municipal Preemption Laws by State for a sense check on which compliance requirements affect your workplace.

Labor and Employment Law Overview screenshot

These resources are also great for staying on top of ever-changing compliance trends and developments: