If you’re part of that 90 percent—or just plain wondering, “What the heck is GDPR?”—read on.

What is GDPR?

GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. It’s a new set of privacy laws in the European Union (EU) made to protect its citizens’ and residents’ data. The regulation vastly expands people’s rights over their personal information and how it’s used.

The deadline for businesses to make sure their data practices comply is May 25, 2018.

So why should you care about GDPR if your business isn’t in Europe? Because if you have European customers of any sort, your business needs to follow the laws.

The GDPR website states the laws “will also apply to organizations located outside of the EU if they offer goods or services to, or monitor the behavior of, EU data subjects.” In other words, any company that deals with “EU data subjects” has to abide by the new rules, regardless of where they are based. Those data subjects can include EU citizens and residents, but it could also could be interpreted to include non-residents visiting the EU.

To keep reading, click here: What Is GDPR? How the EU Law Will Affect US Small Businesses

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I get this type of email from readers all the time. In every case, it’s a small (and often family-owned) business and the owner has no clue that you can’t just “decide” to make someone salaried.

Being a first-time manager ain’t easy. There are tons of employment laws and it’s pretty hard to memorize them all. Plus, managing people is just plain hard. How are you supposed to balance your employees’ needs with what’s truly best for your business?

That’s why business owners tend to make a lot of rookie missteps. Luckily, here are five mistakes you can easily avoid.

To keep reading, click here: I See Way Too Many Business Owners Make These 5 Management Mistakes

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People don’t just casually overhear inappropriate conversations—they tend to chime in. An older study suggests that 80 percent of what we talk about is in fact, gossip.

But gossip isn’t all bad. Sure, the gossip definition we’re used to involves exposing people’s private lives without offering any real value. While that type of gossip will hurt your small business, there’s also a kind that actually has positive effects.

Here are a couple ways to stop the bad kind of gossip from making a mess at your office—while letting the good kind flow.

To keep reading, click here: 97% of People Say This Is the Most Toxic Team Behavior

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So how can you deal with this extreme labor shortage? Try widening your applicant pool—by considering candidates you previously would have rejected.

Now, hear us out. We know many of the common hiring “deal-breakers” were established for a reason, but times—and the economy—have changed.

How is the job market different now than it was 10 years ago? Let us count the ways:

• We recently recovered from the worst recession since the Great Depressionthat left 10 percent of Americans jobless.
• Rapid tech advancements have landed us smack in the middle of a whole new digital economy.
• Said new economy has created a hairy monster known as a skills gap that may leave a million tech positions unfilled by 2020.

We’re living in a new world, so it’s time to say goodbye to old expectations and start adapting to a new normal.

Here are four situations that traditionally landed candidates in the “no” pile—and the interview questions that will help you determine if they’re a fit.

To read the four things, click here: 4 ‘Deal-Breakers’ You Should Throw Out of Your Hiring Rubric

Share your “red flags” that aren’t real flags in the comments. Please?

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Because the law is so old, you would think most businesses would understand it inside and out. But even Walmart, one of the nation’s largest employers, is in the midst of a pregnancy discrimination suit.

The law, apparently, isn’t super easy for all businesses to follow.

Here are the most common mistakes small businesses make with pregnant employees—and how to steer clear of them.

To keep reading, click here: Your Employee Is Pregnant—Here Are 5 Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

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As an employer, you probably bend over backward to support your best employees. You want to work from home two days a week? Absolutely. You want to come in late on Tuesdays? No problem. A raise? Well… that one can be a little harder; you still have budgets. And what about growth and development?

If you work for a Fortune 100 company, there are plenty of growth opportunities for just about everyone. But, if you’re a small business with 25 employees and one office, you can’t offer all that extra stuff.

At some point, your star employee will want to experience new challenges and learn new things. And you might not be able to provide that, even if you wanted to.

This is precisely why you should encourage a good employee to quit. (Gasp.) Wait, what business owner would ever commit such a crazy act of self-sabotage?

You would. Here’s why.

To keep reading, click here: Why You Should Encourage a Good Employee to Quit

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If you work for the former, applications probably flood your website. Plus, you’ve got the budget to splurge on specialized headhunters to find the exact match for each role. If you work for the latter, candidates are probably scrambling to get in on the ground floor of something huge.

But for everyone else? Well, your budget isn’t endless. The reality is, you need the best employees and you don’t want to waste any money getting there. So we came up with five affordable ideas for small businesses looking to get the most out of their recruiting bucks.

to keep reading, click here: Where Should You Really Spend Your Recruiting Dollars? Here Are 5 Scrappy Ideas

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All is not lost. If you want to hire talented international candidates, you can sponsor them through something called an H-1B visa. Here’s a quick rundown of how it works and the top things to think about as you go through the process.

What’s an H-1B visa?

An H-1B visa is a non-immigrant work visa available to highly skilled employees. The “non-immigrant” part means that if the job ends, the person has to go home. Basically, their visa is tied directly to the job.

Generally, employees who qualify for an H1B visa:

• Hold a bachelor’s degree.
• Work in a “specialty occupation.”  Or in other words, the role has to be unique enough that it requires someone with specialized training.

To keep reading, click here: H-1B Visas: A Practical Guide for Startups and Small Business Owners

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When you have a small business, every task counts.

There are no jobs that can be cut, or teammates that can take extended vacations without being missed. Therefore, business owners tend to focus on the roles and tasks that bring in immediate money—sales, engineering, marketing—and tolerate the necessary administration side with an accountant or finance person. Because hey, money matters, right?

Then, the big human resources question looms. HR tasks don’t bring in sales and they don’t create new products, but every small business needs to handle the people side of things. And if you don’t have an HR person, how do you know which tasks to prioritize?

If you’re the one calling the HR shots, here are the functions that will give you the best return on your investment.

to keep reading, click here: These HR Duties Have the Biggest ROI for Small Business Owners

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And then, that new mom (or dad, but mostly mom) quits her job.

One year after giving birth, about a third of women haven’t returned to the workforce. This is not necessarily a bad thing, unless that person feels forced into stay-at-home motherhood. However, if someone wants to be working but leaves their job because of the increased responsibilities and stress—plus the high cost of daycare—well, that’s not a good thing.

So what can you do to make your business more attractive to new parents? Here are five ideas.

To keep reading, click here: Yes, You Can Stop New Parents from Quitting. Here’s How

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