When you “hire” your family to work for you.

Startup business new employees

It so exciting when you have enough money to start hiring outside help and if you are lucky to have a family member old enough to hire, that’s usually the first person you would want to hire. But how do you hire a family member and still keep the peace? It would help if you got organized and set ground rules for what happens at work.

Here are ten best practices we have gathered from success family own businesses.

Set clear written ground rules. This is the beginning of your employee handbook in a sense.
Maintain regular hours. Make sure everyone knows the schedule, and you stick to it. Please don’t abuse the fact this is your child (for example) and expect them to work at 10 pm at night. (unless that’s the shift they agreed too)
Dress code. Even if the office is in your home, you should get up and get dressed before work starts so that it feels like a work environment and everyone can respect the fact they are at work. (Dress code means no Pajamas at work.)
Don’t reprimand your son or daughter in front of clients or other staff. During working hours, they are not your son or daughter; they are another employee. Treat them as such.
Don’t discuss family matters during work hours unless you are taking a break or on lunch.
If you allow telecommuting, make sure your family member understands they are at work during those hours they are at their own home and they need to set up a home office and rules for their family about working from home.
Make sure you have written expectations for everyone that works for you; not just a job description, but what you as their employer expect from them.
During non-working hours don’t discuss business have some real family time.
Make sure you have the compensation you are giving to your family member in writing with the dollar values. For example, if you are paying medical and dental benefits as well as other expenses that an employer usually doesn’t pay you need to have that written with the value, so they can see what they are working for.
Have fun! Remember why you are building the business. FOR YOUR FAMILY!