Hiring

With a little luck, hiring more people will be one of your challenges. It's important to follow some guidelines to make sure you do this correctly and legally.  You should get some professional advice from an HR professional to make sure you cover all the bases (see the Service Provider page.)  Also, check out the video on hiring on the OTBC website.

Interviewing

Check out the HR Guidelines we have in our Sample Documents. Those were provided by HRAnswers and they included pointers on interviewing.  This is important.  There are questions you can not ask -- questions that can get you into legal trouble.

Offer Letter

Check with an HR professional to make sure your offer letter says the right things. (There is a sample letter in the HR Guidelines -- see our Sample Documents) An offer letter should include:

• The job title, start date, and compensation
• A requirement that the employee sign a non-disclosure, invention-assignment, and non-compete agreement before starting work.
• It should have the appropriate wording about employment being "at will" and their employment can be terminated at any time for any reason or for no reason
• If the offer includes stock options, remember to say "I will recommend to the Board of Directors that you be granted xxxx options". The Board has to approve options, unless they've delegated that to you