G & G Law’s Employment Solutions

21st Century Answers to 21st Century Problems

Don’t let your new hire backfire.

A blue-green outline of a manila folder bearing a person's bust in silhouette, representing G & G Law's Employment Services.

A wide range of businesses have different employment law needs. You might be thinking about hiring your first employee, have an employee or a few employees that you’ve brought onto the team, or already have a bustling team of employees that you need to manage. Maybe instead of employees, you have independent contractors/1099s or are planning to bring some on board. Each of these steps has its own needs and considerations, and we can help.

Select your stage below to find out where to start.

Where are you in your employment journey?

I'm bringing on my first employee

Congratulations! Expanding your team is an exciting step. It can also bring up a lot of questions, like:

How do I do this?
Do I need any formal documentation?
What kind of employment policies do I need to have?
What laws do I need to be aware of? What don’t I know?
Should they be a 1099 (independent contractor) or W-2 (employee)? What is the difference?

It’s impossible to know everything at this stage, and the process will vary based on your business and the role the employee will take on. But to get you started, we have some information below for your next steps:

The Job Posting

When you create and put up your job posting, make sure to:

Include an “Equal Opportunity Employment” statement in your job posting
Allow for an opportunity for individuals with disabilities to ask for reasonable accommodations
Avoid asking questions about “taboo” topics – for example, in Illinois you cannot ask an applicant about their salary history
Avoid changing employment “at-will” so that you don’t accidentally create guarantees for employment that make it difficult to end the relationship later on if needed
Be careful when using testing – talk to an attorney before asking applicants to undergo a medical exam, lie detector test, physical fitness test, social media review, credit review, providing proof of a disability, or any assessment testing to make sure you comply with the legal restrictions for the above

Bringing on the Employee

When you are bringing on your first employee, you will need to:

Handle any company processes, like setting up email, sharing relevant information, ordering uniforms or other equipment, and so on
Complete necessary forms right away, like federal and state W-4 forms and the I-9, and get the employee set up with payroll (outsourced HR companies will often handle a lot of this)
Provide the employee with required information, such as safety policies and training, PTO/sick leave policies, HIPAA or other confidentiality policies, and so on
Provide the employee with any other policies or procedures you would like to have in place

A well-drafted Employment Agreement and Offer Letter can help with 3 and 4, as well as:

Ensuring at-will employment (if desired)
Preventing common undesired situations, such as having to pay out 2 weeks of vacation time if the employee quits after the first day.
Protecting confidential information
Making sure your policies comply with the law, like paid leave laws and unusual payment structures
Ensuring you can continue to use assets created by the employee, such as materials they put together and videos with their image, even after they leave.

This is not an exhaustive list, and customization is key because the processes, risks, and liabilities are different for each business. Our first step in every engagement is to send a questionnaire and/or set up a call to discuss your business with you and help us prioritize your biggest concerns or risks for your business. We then work with you to draft templates that you can reuse for future employees.

Employment Agreement and Offer Letter Templates: $3,250

1099s (Independent Contractors)

If you are considering bringing on your future worker as an independent contractor, or if you have an independent contractor already, we recommend that you check out our article describing the legal requirements for independent contractors and employees (here). We always recommend reviewing that distinction first, because it’s very difficult to classify a worker as an independent contractor, and there are penalties for misclassifying workers as independent contractors.

If you decide you would like to bring your new worker on as an independent contractor, we have some tips for you:

Think about the relationship as a relationship between a business (the independent contractor) and a client (you). This can help you think about what requirements and concerns you have and how to manage those, while also highlighting the level of freedom the contractor will have as their own business. If you are getting stuck here, that’s very common – there’s a lot to consider. We can help with this as part of step 2.
We strongly recommend a contract to lay out the relationship described above. Having a well-drafted agreement is essential to ensure you have a strong basis to prove you meet the required minimum thresholds in case you are audited by the IRS or another government agency. It can also address other important issues, such as:

Payment terms: This includes when the independent contractor gets paid, but also:
- Whether the contractor has to send an invoice first (and if so, what does it have to include?)
- What happens if the work doesn’t meet the requirements?
- When/how does the independent contractor get reimbursed for expenses?
Intellectual Property: At the end of the day, who owns what? This is especially important for consultants, computer programmers, and other contractors who might help you develop materials that you want to reuse or give to clients.
Confidentiality: Is there information you want to protect? The independent contractor does not have to keep anything confidential without a confidentiality agreement.
Provisions regarding the independence of the worker: Does the independent contractor need any specific insurance and/or worker’s compensation?
Termination: If the relationship does not work, how can you get out of it? What happens upon termination? What fee should be paid? Does the independent contractor still have any confidentiality obligations, or any other obligations?

The processes, risks, and liabilities are different for each business, so this list may not all be relevant to you and there may be other terms that are. We always start with a questionnaire and/or a call to discuss your business with you and help prioritize your biggest concerns or risks for your business to make sure those are addressed where possible.

Independent Contractor Agreement Template: $3,250

How can we help?

I have one or a few employees on the team

Some employment questions coming up? Maybe an employee recently mentioned a law that gives them some rights you weren’t aware of, you have to let go of your first employee, or you are just ready to get some more official documentation in place.

This is NOT the time to try to learn every employment law in existence. Employment law is a vast area with tons of different requirements that vary by industry. It’s an overwhelming sea with waves of new laws coming in every year, and even employers with their own in-house counsel have an almost impossible time knowing everything there is to know about employment law.

This IS usually a sign that it’s a good time to get some paperwork in place, so you have some guidelines to cover most of these situations and get an idea of when to bring in an attorney. The goal of getting this paperwork in place is to provide you with policies that comply with the law. This paperwork will usually take the form of an Employment Agreement and Offer Letter or an Employee Handbook.

Employment Agreement and Offer Letter

We typically recommend an Employment Agreement and Offer Letter if:

Your employee will have some unique scheduling or payment terms and you want to lay those out clearly and make sure they comply with the law, like setting their own schedule or getting paid per session or project instead of hourly;
The employee will be creating materials for your company and you need strong work-for-hire/intellectual property terms to make sure you fully own those materials;
The employee will be getting access to any information that you want to protect, so you can get a confidentiality agreement in place;
You are in a field that requires the employee to maintain a license and/or follow licensing rules, like HIPAA, so you can lay those requirements out in a contract;
The employee will be working directly with long-term clients and you want to consider a non-solicitation agreement or non-competition agreement; or
You want to lay out the terms of the employment generally for the employee in an offer letter.

A well-drafted Employment Agreement and Offer Letter can help:

Ensure at-will employment (if desired)
Prevent common undesired situations, such as having to pay out 2 weeks of vacation time if the employee quits after the first day
Protect confidential information
Make sure your policies comply with the law, like paid leave laws and unusual payment structures
Ensure you can continue to use assets created by the employee, such as materials they put together and videos with their image, after they leave

Employment Agreement and Offer Letter Templates: $3,250

Employee Handbook

We typically recommend an Employment Handbook if:

You start to get in multiple employees who will interact with each other, so you can set codes of conduct and provide legally required harassment prevention policies;
You have a lot of procedures you want to communicate to your employees, like time tracking, internet policies, dress code, etc. and you want to provide them and make sure they all comply with employment law;
You work in an industry with a lot of policies you need to give your employees, like anything involving food/beverages (for sanitation policies) or physical activity (for safety policies); or
You have a lot of employee turnover and want to have a comprehensive guide for employees to help with onboarding.

A well-drafted Employee Handbook can help:

Compile all of your employment procedures (codes of conduct, reimbursement policies, complaint procedures, etc.) in one easy-to-reference place for employees.
Make sure all of your employment procedures are legally compliant. Some employers unintentionally create policies that violate the law, like policies that deduct from employee paychecks.
Ensure that you can terminate employees when needed by clearly laying out the employment “at-will” status and not binding you to a strict step-by-step disciplinary procedure.
Provide any legally required policies to the employee, such as paid leave and employee safety.
Protect the business from liability. For example, if one employee (or even a client) harasses another employee, the business could be automatically liable unless they have an adequate harassment reporting policy in place.

Again, this is not an exhaustive list, and customization is key because the processes, risks, and liabilities are different for each business. Our first step in every engagement is to send a questionnaire and/or set up a call to discuss your business with you and help us prioritize your biggest concerns or risks for your business. Then we will work with you to put together these policies into an organized handbook that complies with the law and is tailored to your business.

Employee Handbook flat fee:

Employee Handbook Flat fee: $4,875 – $6,500

How can we help?

I have a bustling team of employees to manage

That’s awesome! You’ve built up a team. It’s a great time to get as much of a structure in place as possible, so you can focus less on managing the team and more on your business.

The goal here is to provide you with policies that comply with the law, and to get all of your policies in one place. This can give you a quick reference guide to help with situations that may arise, as well as an introduction to new employees to help with onboarding. This structure will often take the form of an Employment Agreement and Offer Letter and/or an Employee Handbook.

Employment Agreement and Offer Letter

We typically recommend an Employment Agreement and Offer Letter if:

Some employees have unique scheduling or payment terms and you want to lay those out clearly and make sure they comply with the law, like setting their own schedule or getting paid per session or project instead of hourly;
Any employees will be creating materials for your company and you need strong work-for-hire/intellectual property terms to make sure you fully own those materials;
Any employees will be getting access to any information that you want to protect, so you can get a confidentiality agreement in place;
You are in a field that requires any employees to maintain a license and/or follow licensing rules, like HIPAA, so you can lay those requirements out in a contract;
Any employees will be working directly with long-term clients and you want to consider a non-solicitation agreement or non-competition agreement; or
You want to lay out the various terms of employment generally for each employee in a formal offer letter.

A well-drafted Employment Agreement and Offer Letter can help:

Ensure at-will employment (if desired)
Prevent common undesired situations, such as having to pay out 2 weeks of vacation time if the employee quits after the first day
Protect confidential information
Make sure your policies comply with the law, like paid leave laws and unusual payment structures
Ensure you can continue to use assets created by the employee, such as materials they put together and videos with their image, after they leave

Employment Agreement and Offer Letter Templates: $3,250

Employee Handbook

We typically recommend an Employment Handbook if:

You have multiple employees who will interact with each other, so you can set codes of conduct and provide legally required harassment prevention policies;
You have a lot of procedures you want to communicate to your employees, like time tracking, internet policies, dress code, etc. and you want to provide them and make sure they all comply with employment law;
You work in an industry with a lot of policies you need to give your employees, like anything involving food/beverages (for sanitation policies) or physical activity (for safety policies); or
You have a lot of employee turnover and want to have a comprehensive guide for employees to help with onboarding.

A well-drafted Employee Handbook can help:

Compile all of your employment procedures (codes of conduct, reimbursement policies, complaint procedures, etc.) in one easy-to-reference place for employees.
Make sure all of your employment procedures are legally compliant. Some employers unintentionally create policies that violate the law, like policies that deduct from employee paychecks.
Ensure that you can terminate employees when needed by clearly laying out the employment “at-will” status and not binding you to a strict step-by-step disciplinary procedure.
Provide any legally required policies to the employee, such as paid leave and employee safety.
Protect the business from liability. For example, if one employee (or even a client) harasses another employee, the business could be automatically liable unless they have an adequate harassment reporting policy in place.

Employee Handbook flat fee:

Employee Handbook Flat fee: $4,875 – $6,500

How can we help?

I'm hiring or have hired 1099s (Independent Contractors)

If you decide you would like to bring your new worker on as an independent contractor, we have some tips for you:

Think about the relationship as a relationship between a business (the independent contractor) and a client (you). This can help you think about what requirements and concerns you have and how to manage those, while also highlighting the level of freedom the contractor will have as their own business. If you are getting stuck here, that’s very common – there’s a lot to consider. We can help with this as part of step 2.
We strongly recommend a contract to lay out the relationship described above. Having a well-drafted agreement is essential to ensure you have a strong basis to prove you meet the required minimum thresholds in case you are audited by the IRS or another government agencies. It can also address other important issues, such as:

Payment terms: This includes when the independent contractor gets paid, but also:
- Whether the contractor has to send an invoice first (and if so, what does it have to include?)
- What happens if the work doesn’t meet the requirements?
- When/how does the independent contractor get reimbursed for expenses?
Intellectual Property: At the end of the day, who owns what? This is especially important for consultants, computer programmers, and other contractors that might help you develop materials that you want to reuse or give to clients.
Confidentiality: Is there information you want to protect? The independent contractor does not have to keep anything confidential without a confidentiality agreement.
Provisions regarding the independence of the worker: Does the independent contractor need any specific insurance and/or worker’s compensation?
Termination: If the relationship does not work, how can you get out of it? What happens upon termination? What fee should be paid? Does the independent contractor still have any confidentiality obligations, or any other obligations?

Independent Contractor Agreement Template: $3,250

How can we help?

I need something else

If none of the above options feel quite right, feel free to reach out! We can offer services tailored to your needs. We have helped clients through a wide range of employment matters that come up, such as:

Tuition reimbursement agreements and other types of reimbursement documents for employees
Employee stock options and other incentives
Employee termination
Letters from the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES)
Changing workers from independent contractors to employees
Determining whether workers are considered “exempt” from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act