Practical guides for modern hiring
Honest writing on AI in HR, structured interviews, compliance, retention, and the messy realities of building a hiring process that actually works.
Employee Benefits for Small Employers: Health Insurance, HRAs, and the Stack That Keeps People
You are probably not legally required to offer health insurance — but the moment you want to hire and keep good people, benefits stop being optional. Here is the small-employer benefits stack in plain English: group plans, QSEHRA and ICHRA reimbursement accounts, retirement, and the pre-tax mechanics that make it affordable.
Geographic Pay for Remote Roles: Setting Location-Based Compensation
Once you hire remotely, "what does this job pay?" gets a location attached. Whether and how to adjust pay by where someone lives is one of the trickiest calls in modern compensation — here is how to reason about it.
Exit Interviews That Actually Produce Insight (Not Just Closure)
Most exit interviews collect polite non-answers and change nothing. The format, the timing, and the one structural fix — separating the conversation from the offboarding paperwork — that turn a departure into data you can act on.
Running Performance Reviews That People Don't Dread
Most performance reviews are a once-a-year ritual that nobody trusts: surprise feedback, recency bias, ratings nobody can explain. How to run a review cycle that actually changes behavior — cadence, criteria, calibration, and the documentation that protects you.
Succession Planning for Small Companies (Before Someone Quits)
Succession planning isn't just for the C-suite or big corporations — for a small team, one unplanned departure in a key seat can stall the whole company. A lightweight way to map critical roles, spot key-person risk, and build benches before you need them.
Stay Interviews: Catching Retention Risk Before People Quit
An exit interview tells you why someone already left — too late to act. A stay interview asks people who are still here what would make them stay, while you can still do something about it. How to run one that gets honest answers.