There are several important areas that the owner or manager of a contracting business must manage, and one for any such business that carries employees is the realm of a business leave policy. Both for sickness and vacation reasons, it’s important that your business has a leave policy laid out and that it’s robust.
At Contractor’s School, we’re happy to assist with numerous areas of contracting business needs, whether it’s starting a new business, managing a current one or assisting with a huge variety of contractor license needs. We help with areas like qualifier managing, business entity updates and much more – and are also happy to assist with expertise in a wide range of other areas. What are some basic considerations you should be making while crafting a leave policy for your contracting business?
Mandatory Vs. Reasonable Leave
First and foremost, you must consider the laws in your area with regard to leave requirements, which are usually set by the state. However, there could be particular parts of these requirements that are altered or added by your state, industry or other entities.
Generally speaking, these laws will require you to offer a minimum amount of mandatory leave days to be in compliance. However, many contracting business owners will offer their employees much more than this, in what’s known as reasonable leave – this term simply refers to a common-sense approach from business owners. As long as you’re within local laws, you can set up a variety of different systems: Some where employees request leave in advance, others where certain amounts of no-notice leave are allowed in case of emergency, and many hybrids that include elements of each.
Being Flexible – But Reasonable
It’s important to be flexible and considerate of employee needs, but also to do so without putting yourself in any bad position. While it’s vital to keep leave days open in case of sickness or emergency, it’s also important to set reasonable limits here so you don’t get taken advantage of.
Accrual and Tracking
One element that’s vital here is tracking the accrual of leave days. You can have the most optimal leave system in the world, but it won’t do much good if you do a bad job of tracking when leave days are used throughout the year. This area is also important in a legal sense, as tracking this involves a few compensation requirements you must comply with.
Legal Factors and Publishing Leave Policies
Finally, it’s important to have your leave policy published and available to all employees. For this, we strongly recommend utilizing a lawyer with experience in this area – they will confirm you are in compliance with all local and state guidelines, plus will make your language unambiguous and easy to understand.
For more on leave policies for any contracting business, or to learn about our contractor’s license checks, business assistance or other services, speak to the staff at Contractor’s School today.
