What: Does your canna-business have an âEmployee Handbookâ ?
Where: Right Here
When: Wednesday April 10th at 11 AM PST
PAUL EDWARDS, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER
Paul Edwards is the CEO and co-founder of CEDR HR Solutions, a leading provider of on-demand HR support for healthcare practices of all sizes and specialties across the United States.
With over 25 years of experience as a manager and business owner, Paul is well-known throughout the healthcare community for his expertise when it comes to solving HR issues that impact owners and managers. He specializes in training owners and managers to successfully handle employee issues and safely navigate the complex and ever-changing employment law landscape through his companyâs customized employee handbooks and support center.
Paul is the author of HR Base Camp, a blog and podcast channel. He also regularly speaks at seminars, conferences and CE courses across the country.
Compliance: Itâs an HR Issue
An All-in-One HR Solution for the Cannabis Industry
Running a grow operation comes with a lot of moving parts. As a cultivator, you face a unique set of standards in addition to the typical state and federal employment laws. You need an experienced and specialized HR partner who understands the specific HR needs of your agriculture-based industry.
Imagine being able to focus on your business without worrying about your HR. CEDR works with you to stay legally compliant and to build a better workplace. We offer a total HR compliance solution, complete with a custom-crafted employee handbook that addresses the unique labor laws applicable to agricultural employees like yours. We offer personal one-on-one guidance to help you and your managers make better, more compliant decisions. And our software package makes HR more organized, so you can focus on growing your business.
Howdy, everyone, and thank you for being with us today for another edition of our GN AMA. Thanks to @hrpaul for being our expert host on the matters of handbooks and human resources. This is a topic fairly new to our forum, so letâs make it a great one!
Iâll fire this off by simply asking our @memberdirectory a question and please take the poll below and give us a little feedback on this:
Does your canna-business have an Employee Handbook?
Weâre in the licensing process. Intend top have a comprehensive handbook. Interested to hear recommendations on having one developed versus developing one ourselves.
We donât believe in buying cookie cutter products⌠We wrote putt own SOPs, our own application, business plan, and proposal to our city.
That said, weâre not HR pros so Iâd be curious to get suggestions or perhaps identify a good, customizable, state-specific template.
Itâs pretty simple. The rules and the laws that exist to protect your employees in a passive way. Your employees are always protected under the umbrella of those rules. But this is not always the case for employers. In most instances, unless the employer has properly communicated specific policies to employees, the employer loses all of the protections afforded to them as well. Going without one is not a great idea. Likewise, if yours is not great, it cna leave you out in the cold
Cannabiz is the most heavily regulated industry out there. I know everyone here can relate with the idea that if the law exists, you need to know about and comply with it.
Great question. First lets start with the common sources.
Self-made/borrowed
Downloaded
Attorney generated
Given to you as part of your payroll or some other service.
I can⌠The most common error is lack of understanding about wage and hour. In these cases the businesses have employees misclassified as independent contractors. Managers, growers, all workers who are doing the work of your business are employees. Not ICâs
Another one is not understanding the interactive process when it comes to work related complaints about things like harassment. We watched an Oregon dispensary implode over a simple harassment complaint. Lost 250k. They had a lawyer who did not understand that At Will employment is not a magic wand at first.
LandDragonIâm just going to be blunt.The expertise needed to custom craft an employee handbook, which protects you and is a great HR tool, includes skills that most entrepreneurs, owners, managers, and yes, even attorneysâŚ. Donât possess. Its not that managers donât know what they need when it comes to running the business. It is not that Lawyers canât get all the policies in your book absolutely correct. Its that a well-made book requires extensive knowledge about both your business and its operations and all those laws be brought together.
@ LandDragon IN our model we craft and customize it with you. Itâs a cool process which allows for a bunch of knowledge exchange. You get exactly what you need. No template.
How does you company manage to navigate the difficult legal structures of the cannabis laws in a given jurisdiction and synthesize it with the corporate practices of a company? The complexity of that sounds mind-boggling!
Iâd also like to differentiate between handbook and SOPâs.
They are Not the same although an employee manual/handbook may contain an SOP. For example, A Standard Operating Procedure may be included in a policy which requires the employee to report an injury, safety concern, harassment, a Hipaa breach, or perhaps theft or some other concern.
A set if SOPs tend to mirror how the business will operate. An employee handbook is based in policy and serves a different and very important purpose. Sopâs need to be changed often. As your business grows or changes, how you do things is going to change too. Employee handbooks have far less need for change so long as they have been properly created in the first place. Changes primarily occur when laws change or get added in your state or at the federal level. They can also change as you add more employees.
We have a ton of experience bringing all of those things together. When I created this company some 12 years ago I recognized that in order to effective at helping people through their HR issues, I would need to know the industry as well. We already know all of the laws in every state and city. We have our own database of the rules and regulations. But more importunately, when you see the set of job descriptions weâve put together for Cannabis you will see that weâve gone to great links to study and understand your industry. But there is moreâŚ
HR seems like an all-encompassing term that is used in a lot of scenarios, but workers often associate it with complaints and payrollâŚCan you give us a good working definition of âHuman Resourcesâ?
Your company, Cedr Solutions, has extensive experience in establishing company handbooks. How did you get into the human resources field and what made you want to venture into the cannabis industry?
Our model includes support. So what that means is for the last three eyars our Cannabis related busineses have been calling in on a regular basis for HR support, guidance and coaching. And guess what, you guys are not the same as other industries. There are some things that all employers share when it comes to HR but your industry (growers, extractors, dispensaries) all have unique Hr issues. We learn from those calls.
