Edwardsville (KSDK) - Guns at work. It will be the new reality for some Illinois businesses, as owners adapt to the new concealed carry law. But not every workplace is allowing guns. The new law allows companies to ban firearms on their property. And since the first concealed carry licenses are set to go out in a few months, many business owners are still deciding whether to allow enact a ban.

Kandi Mensing owns an HR consulting business called Elite HR Team. She's still deciding whether to allow people to carry guns on her property._

"You have to be able to trust their judgment, and how they're going to utilize that weapon," said Mensing.

But she says there is also risk in banning firearms.

"You have to consider whether your employees' safety is at risk then because you didn't allow them to carry a gun if they wanted to," said Mensing.

So she's attending a seminar to learn more about the law. She'll also use the information to advise her clients.

"Whether you are for it or against it, you still have to have a written policy," said Todd Sivia, whose law firm, Sivia Business and Legal Services, is helping host the seminar.

Sivia says if the policy's not clear, it could create problems for the establishment, and its patrons.. Whether that's a store, church, or restaurant.

"The waitress sees a gun on the person you don't want them to run around saying 'I see a gun, I see a gun.' That's going to create a panic," said Sivia.

So businesses who ban firearms will have to post a sign at the front of their building to alert people before they walk in the door. And it's especially important for Illinois businesses to be clear about their policies, because having a gun where you're not supposed to is a misdemeanor in the state. That's one reason firearm safety trainer Allen Keilman is attending the seminar.

"I want to make sure I'm giving the right message to our clients," said Keilman. "They're good people. They want to do things the right way."

The seminar will be Thursday, January 16th, from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. It's being held at the SIUE Morris University Center in the Hickory/Hackberry Room. The event is free and open to the public.


Source: KSDK News

Many small businesses have under 40 employees and do not employ a person dedicated to the human resources aspect of the business. The owner wears many hats in the company, usually spread between all departments; sales, accounting, customer service, human resources (HR), technical support, and even janitorial! We work with many small business owners who have lost their passion because they have become owned by their business rather than them owning their business. They try to hand off duties to various staff, and we typically see the HR responsibilities given to an office manager, but because the business owner knows they’re no HR expert, the owner keeps close involvement in the HR function, which is a daunting task when you’re wearing so many hats.

 Small businesses outsource HR in many ways and for many reasons, usually varying based on the industry, and the company’s size and needs. Simply stated, there are two ways to outsource HR; outsource it to a third party completely, or hire an HR consultant to train your office manager (or yourself) on maintaining a legally compliant, efficient, and excellent HR function. By outsourcing their HR function, a small business can ensure they are compliant with the law and run their business with peace of mind. Keeping up with the ever-changing requirements is a full-time job in itself, especially at the rate the government changes things (we know)! Many business owners can't tell you what acronyms like ADA, FMLA, EEO, and others mean, let alone how they affect their business. Outsourcing HR allows the business owner to regain their passion, and reconnect to their purpose by focusing on the parts of the business they love; the reason they got into business in the first place!

 The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) conducted a survey of hundreds of companies and found that 26% of them outsource to save money. But while outsourcing can affect your bottom line positively, it also affects the culture of your business. 23% of businesses outsource to focus on strategy -- handing off the nuts and bolts work to the people who are best at it. Additionally, 22% of companies said they outsource to improve compliance -- because a smart business owner knows the things he or she doesn't know can hurt them!

The top 10 outsourced HR tasks are:

1. Recruiting Assistance  
2. Background Checks
3. Workplace Policy Handbooks
4. HR Procedure Implementation
5. Staff Training & Development  
6. Management Training & Development
7. Employee Terminations
8. Personnel File Audits
9. Workplace/Employee Surveys
10. HR Compliance Audits & Training

To determine if HR outsourcing will work for you and what firm will work best for you, you need to first figure out what your needs are. Where are your frustrations when it comes to the employment cycle? What tasks would you love to hand off? Then determine their areas of expertise. Can they help you with your needs? Not all HR consultants may have the skill set you seek and need. Next, you need to compare the price of hiring an HR consultant to the return on investment (ROI). Many times, we help businesses become more efficient and create a more accountable workforce which reduces employee issues and typically lowers the amount of overtime needed, i.e. HUGE savings. Not to mention, that businesses are at risk for large fines and lawsuits if they leave themselves exposed. Many times, we see the investment pay off the first week we work with a client by uncovering and correcting unnecessary risk!

The question becomes, Why aren't you outsourcing your HR function?

We invite you to check out our 12-month outsourcing packages here, but we also have an "al a carte" option as well. As always you can email us with questions at [email protected].  

A Personal Note from Kandi Mensing

Kandi here. I just returned from spending 7 days in New York City. What an amazing week! If you’re anything like me, you sometimes need a break from business and reality. Since I was spending 3 days in Stamford, CT (just an hour outside of NYC), for business, I decided to extend my stay and take some time for me, to reenergize myself, reconnect to my purpose, and I did just that. Rather than staying in a hotel, I chose to sublet a Manhattan apartment and so I got to experience the city as a real New Yorker! What a fast-paced city, but I was surprised by how friendly and helpful New Yorkers are. The movies make them out to be stiff and rude, and my experience was nothing like that.

I spent 3 days with the most incredible entrepreneurs from around the world. We have created strong friendships in the last year of working together, but our time together last week provided me with some lessons, I’d like to share with you. I hope they serve you in some way.

Too often, we entrepreneurs run ourselves ragged in our businesses. We are pulled constantly from one thing to the next. We need to actively find focus. It’s important to find focus by delegating to your team, creating well-trained staff, respecting your time, schedule, and calendar, and outsourcing the activities that are a drain on your business (accounting, cleaning, billing, website work, marketing, public relations, and human resources just to name a few). Your time is your responsibility, and it’s your duty to ensure that you are not overwhelmed so that you can "show up" in a big way for your business.

We entrepreneurs are also very hard on ourselves. We often don’t take the time to celebrate our small or large successes. Instead, we move on to the next goal, the next project. We set strict, sometimes unrealistic goals and deadlines and when we are unsuccessful at meeting them, it takes a hit on our confidence, which prevents us from moving forward the next time, or causes frustration. Take time every day to celebrate your accomplishments for that day. Implement a system to track goals you set (no matter how small) and whether you met them. I constantly amaze myself at what I accomplish every quarter because I establish goals, and track them. It creates confidence, which I believe breeds success.

Make time for the things that matter most. Work smarter, not harder. We sometimes equate being busy with being successful and that is so far from the truth! It’s not about doing everything right, it’s about doing the right things. Be strategic and focused rather than busy. There’s no point working on things that don’t give you results. Your business needs you to be focused and energized, and if you’re stressed and overwhelmed, you will not show up for your business and your business will suffer as a result. Work more strategically. Work less hours by ensuring your time is respected, uninterrupted, and work on the strategic, most important things in your business.

I could go on all day but I wanted to share with you the lessons that spoke to me the most, the issues that I find are a common denominator in the businesses of our clients. Entrepreneurship is a full contact sport, but we are the coaches building the teams, training the teams, leading the teams, and creating the legacy. When we have strategies, and we show up energized in our business, there’s only one option: WINNING!

by: Dan Cozzi

Quality: Providing only excellent products and services delivered by a phenomenal team.

What is quality? What is Excellence? Both of these questions seek answers relative to the eye of the beholder. The American Society for Quality even holds that quality is defined from many different perspectives, but in the end quality is what the customer thinks of a product or service before buying it, upon receiving it, and after using it. An excellence mindset steers towards quality.

We are often asked, “What is excellence?” Our initial answer is always, “You know it when you experience it.” If you are unsatisfied with this answer, then let’s turn the question around, “What is excellence to you and are you committed to achieving it?” When poised with the challenge of thinking about whether or not you are striving to be excellent, you're probably realizing that you already have a feeling for what excellence is.

For us at Elite HR Team, excellence is defining our best version and committing to achieving it by planning and taking the necessary actions to ensure we accomplish our mission to protect and support small businesses. Leaders committed to excellence plan how to obtain quality through excellence. This is crucial to maximizing company and organizational performance.

The best version must include the customer's needs and/or experience, and that is the tricky part. Balancing financial factors against the ideal customer experience is difficult indeed. That is why we include our phenomenal team as we think about quality. We recommend that any business do the same, and in fact, collaboration is a critical part of your strategic planning process.

If you feel as though you’re not on a journey towards excellence or that quality is one of your values, but you have yet to find it, then we have concrete ways to help you get there. The first step is Strategic Thinking and you can learn more about it by downloading our most recent white paper on the topic.

If you feel as though you have failed to implement quality systems, then our Elite HR Business School is for you. It offers many concrete tools and methods that support and create a culture of excellence for your business.

Start your journey to Quality and Excellence through SCI-Ence and Elite HR Business School. Share your approach to quality in the comments below.

By: Dan Cozzi

Veracity is one of our core values at Elite HR Team. We define Veracity as, "extending permission to embrace unique qualities and serve genuinely."

Passion means to have a strong, almost uncontrollable emotion about something.  Where do such emotions come from?  They aren't logical, but they are tied to something deep within us; extremely personal.  One of the great philosophers in western history, Thomas Aquinas, held that temperance binds our passions.  In the realm of morality and justice temperance protects society, but the absence of it can turn an individual into a sociopath.  However, when related to the health of your workforce, encouraging certain passions is a goal of the highest order.  Passionate people greatly engage in the things they are passionate about, and here is where veracity is important. 

Companies that don't embrace veracity find it difficult to promote passionate workforces. Without it managers, executives and company leaders risk tempering their worker's passion for their work. Think about it, how passionate can someone be where her/his unique qualities are suppressed in an effort to force compliance to tasks and exercises which are counter to their strengths or individuality. 

At Elite HR team, we embrace veracity as one of our values to avoid tempering our team members’ passion for their work.  In whatever we are working on, for our clients or for our business goals, we give ourselves and our partners permission to embrace their unique qualities and strengths and live them in their work. These unique qualities determine our strengths which we welcome and encourage to strengthen our team and yours.

We've shared why we feel veracity is key to our vision for our future, please share how or if veracity plays a role in your company, team, or work group.  We look forward to learning from you! Comment below or join the conversation on our Facebook page.

You can also watch our video about Veracity where Dan interviews Kandi on Elite HR Team's core Value Veracity here: 

When life is dragging you backwards, remember you are getting ready to be launched into something great, like an arrow. Keep focus and aim.

Kandi discusses. 

Our marketing firm, Design 5, out of Lebanon, IL is amazing! We highly recommend them. We met at a networking event and began working together immediately. It all started with the need for them to design an open house invitation for an upcoming MCS event. They did such a good job that we also asked for them to work on the MCS brand. We were in desperate need of a consistent brand, creativity, and color. Design 5 learned about our operations and worked hard to create a brand that was appropriate. Our brand is now distinct, consistent, and absolutely beautiful thanks to Design 5.
Click the picture to go to their website.