The Nowsta Blog

Hourly employees are often the face of your business. Baristas, servers, and other folks in customer-facing roles have to connect with people and exude your company values, so it’s imperative you find the right people for the job -- and since turnover is high for these positions, you need to be able to do it consistently.

In October 2018, job openings in the US reached over 7 million — outnumbering job seekers by nearly a million. Candidates have more power than ever when choosing which employers they’re going to work for. That’s one reason why more companies have started to treat recruits like customers, optimizing the application experience for candidates and making efforts to promote their company as an attractive place to work.

Job ads are the backbone of any such recruitment marketing strategy. They’re your opportunity to make a strong first impression on potential employees, set the tone for the interview process, and ultimately get more applicants through the door. With that in mind, here are our three tips for writing more effective job ads.

Long-awaited updates to federal overtime laws are finally here. On March 7, the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed new changes to the overtime threshold exemptions under the Federal Labor Standards Act. This proposal — which is now taking public comment — calls for a higher overtime exemption threshold than exists now, but a lower one than the DOL called for under the Obama Administration.

If you run a business or manage a significant number of staff, you know that your attention is being pulled in a million directions at once. Did we underschedule today? Should we be hiring more? Are we going over budget? There’s always something new to deal with.

But with so many problems to solve every day to keep the business running smoothly, it’s easy to forget about the frontline employees who make it all possible. If they’re not consistently learning, growing, and getting better at their jobs, then it’s nearly impossible for the customer experience to improve over time. Even worse, if your staff are disengaged and turning over at a high rate, you’re almost certain to provide a worse experience over time, since you constantly have new people starting from scratch with no understanding of what makes your business successful.

That’s the problem servant leadership looks to solve. Servant leadership is a management philosophy that reimagines the role of the boss as one who serves their team rather than leads them. Proponents argue that by focusing more on what they can do to make their team successful rather than vice versa, leaders can build a more cohesive, autonomous, motivated workforce, which will ultimately get better outcomes for the business.

Running a small business is no easy endeavor — especially during tax season. In addition to dealing with complicated forms and financial calculations, many small businesses end up paying too much in taxes because they take all of the deductions available to them.

We want to help you keep your tax bill as low as possible in 2019. Below, we’re going to give you the rundown on 25 of the most common small business tax deductions you could be eligible for as a sole proprietor, LLC, or partnership business. Please note that this post is for educational purposes. You should speak to a professional tax advisor to confirm which deductions you’re eligible to claim and learn how.  

Building a work schedule for your team requires a full understanding of your state’s labor laws, which aren’t always intuitive. New York’s Spread of Hours law is a prime example. While most labor laws focus only on the hours an employee is clocked in for, the Spread of Hours law takes the whole day into account. The law applies only to businesses in the service industry, and says that if the beginning and end of an employee’s workday are more than ten hours apart — including breaks or off-duty hours — you’re required to pay that employee one extra hour’s worth of pay at minimum wage, on top of their total wages for the day.

There’s lots of data to keep track of for all your employees. But virtually none is more important than up-to-date payroll information.

You track this information for each member of your team in an employee earnings record. This article will explain to you what an employee earnings record is, what information it needs to contain, and how you’ll use it.

Employee retention is one of the most important measures of success for any business owner or manager, but also one of the most difficult to achieve. Why is it such a big deal? Research shows that it costs nearly 20% of an hourly employee’s total yearly salary to replace them when they leave, which works out to roughly $4,000 for someone making $10 an hour. Those costs can add up quickly, and get even higher in a tight labor market.

When you’re running your own company, a workable business model, great product, and strong vision are all key to success. But you won’t be able to get off the ground without business funding. The fact is, every small business needs access to money before it can get off the ground: Starting up is expensive, and operating costs can require you to invest a significant amount of money before your company can even open up shop.

Every employee needs something a little different to do their best work. That was our thesis when we broke part-time employees down into five categories and provided management tips for each, based on Federal Reserve survey data on why people say they work part-time as opposed to full-time. Over a series of posts, we’re going to take a deeper dive into each category and explore how managers can better manage, motivate, and accommodate each type of part-time employee.

In this post, we’re going to cover staff who work part-time due to medical issues.

Every employee needs something a little different to do their best work. That was our thesis when we broke part-time employees down into five categories and provided management tips for each, based on Federal Reserve survey data on why people say they work part-time as opposed to full-time. Over a series of posts, we’re going to take a deeper dive into each category and explore how managers can better manage, motivate, and accommodate each type of part-time employee.

In this post, we’re going to cover staff who continue to work part-time in retirement.