CONTENTS

Preface ix

1 Employee Selection: How Do I Find, Attract, and Select the Best? 1

2 HR Policies: Why Do We Need Them and What Should They Look Like? 35

3 Performance Management: How Do I Evaluate Performance and Conduct Meaningful Performance Reviews? 49

4 Employee Relations and Retention: How Do I Keep Good Employees and Maintain Working Relationships at All Levels? 71

5 Compensation: How Should Employees Be Paid? 97

6 Benefits: What Makes a Benefits Package Competitive? 121

7 Regulatory Issues: What Are the Major Employment Laws and How Do I Comply with Them? 153

8 When Bad Things Happen to Good Employers: How Do I Handle Volatile Workplace Issues? 185

9 Termination and Discharge: How Do I Fire an Employee Legally and Humanely? 213

10 Workforce Reorganizations: How Do I Manage Workforce Size in a Changing Business Climate? 231

Tools and Templates 249

Index 269

You have an important project that if completed successfully (and on time!) will generate profit for your business and keep your company running smoothly. What you need are the benefits that come with proper project management methods to ensure that things get done efficiently and on schedule. But unlike a larger corporation, you don’t have the resources, the people, or the time it takes to learn and institute a complex project management program.

Skipping the complicated theory and going straight to the heart of what it really takes to make a project a success, Project Management for Small Business gives you straightforward, repeatable practices for planning, executing, and controlling projects in smaller environments. Whether you’re a manager, business owner, or just someone faced with completing a project, this easy-to-understand guide provides you with the simple project management techniques you need to:

Define the scope of your project and its requirements

Create a project schedule based on the availability of resources

Estimate, budget, and control costs

Identify and minimize risks associated with your project

Manage the workflow

Communicate effectively with others

Control project change

And more

Do you want to know five immediate ways to improve your projects? Are you curious what the six hidden costs are associated with most projects? What actions should you always take when closing out a project to ensure—beyond a doubt—that it’s brought successfully to completion? This easy-to-understand book, grounded in real-world experience and simplifying the proven thinking behind project management philosophy, gives you bulleted lists, quickly instituted techniques, and down-to-earth systems you can use no matter what industry you’re in or how many different hats you’re wearing.

Smaller businesses need the core principles and powerful strategies of project management just as much as big companies. This book delivers all the streamlined, simple guidance you need to achieve project management success with flying colors.

JOSEPH PHILLIPS, PMP, Project+, is a project management consultant, instructor, and owner of Project Seminars, Inc. and Instructing.com. He is the author of several project management books, including PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide and IT Project Management: On Track from Start to Finish.