Employees VS. contractors? Stephen Kane, small business attorney, breaks it down.

handlr

05/02/2017
| 4:30 PM
| Uncategorized

We’re ready to publish another edition of Handling Business, where each week we bring you expert advice from business owners and industry experts. We ask about their story, drive, techniques, and tips that you can bring into your daily operations.

The big issue we’ve currently been going over is employees vs. contractors. Outsourcing is a thing many businesses do such as hiring a managed it service provider in Lincoln or an accounting firm in Dallas to handle those areas for you. Usually, when we think of contractors we think of someone brought in occasionally to deal with one project or another.

Recently though companies have been expanding what a contractor is. For example, Uber claims people who drive for them are contractors, and therefore are not subject to the same regulations employees have. Even though many work as frequently as an employee, if not more. While this has been very beneficial for Uber’s operations and accountability, there are indications that there may be legal challenges to this viewpoint in the future.

Using PEO Companies California, or similar contractual companies depending on where your business is situated, could offer your business better Professional Employer Organizations, or PEOs. This external opportunity could help alleviate some of the HR burdens on your internal resources, meaning you can focus on growing your business.

But not everyone wants to be a contractor. There are perks like level funded health plans that are affordable and beneficial to both the workers and the business but are often only applicable to employees. Contractual workers would not share the same benefits and could possibly make legal challenges based on it. So as you can see, it’s a pretty heated topic, and not just limited to business practicalities.

This week we sit down with Stephen Kane, a small business and startup attorney, fellow at the Stanford CodeX Center for Legal Informatics and founder/ CEO of ArbiClaims, an online dispute resolution platform. His extensive resume also includes former time at O’Melveny & Myers and Lex Machina, a litigation analytics platform that sold to Lexis Nexis. Stephen continues his work as founder and Board member of GRID110, a 501c3 working partnership with the LA Mayor’s office to build up the startup community in downtown LA.

He goes over various perks small businesses can offer their employees that are usually seen as too expensive for businesses of this size to justify, including a good HR department to provide more efficient training and employee development, which could lead to improved employee satisfaction.

Stephen calms our fears and explains why small business legal issues with contractors and employees aren’t so scary after all. He details the key steps to protect your small business today, as well as the various stages of your business that will need specific legal action. In the case of direct counsel, however, it is advisable to consult law firms in Denver Colorado, or other similar firms near you, with immediate effect.

This must-listen episode will outline the most commonly overlooked steps to legal security and will give you the tools to walk away confident in your small business.