The Employment Relationship

Every employment relationship is different, but they will often involve dealing with the following issues at some point during the relationship:

The probationary period. The idea behind a probationary period is to provide some time to actually test the employee-employer relationship. Make sure you are familiar with the rules in your state, regarding how long an employee may be classified as probationary, and what protections that classification affords you.
Employee performance. When an employee does not perform the way you had hoped or expected you need to decide whether the situation requires support in the form of coaching and instruction, or discipline to correct inappropriate conduct. One way to reduce the stress of discussing performance with employees is to schedule a periodic performance review.
Dealing with poor performance. If you have an employee who is falling a bit short, you may want to try to do some coaching and provide constructive feedback.
Handling employee complaints. You may want to have some general guidelines so that employees know what to do if they have a complaint. Your informal complaint procedure can be an informal, open door policy, or a more formal process involving periodic employee meetings.
Loyalty, morale, and motivation. We offer suggestions to help you to create and maintain loyalty, morale, and motivation between you and your employees.
Rules of conduct. Even if your relationship with your employees is informal, you may want to create a handout describing the basic ground rules, or in the alternative, orally communicate your expectations regarding employee conduct.