Small businesses rarely get sued over exotic legal theories. They get sued over the basics: a new hire who never got compliant paperwork, a salaried employee who was never actually exempt, and an interviewer who asked a question no one trained them not to ask. This bundle packages three tools that close those three gaps.
The first section is a phase-by-phase onboarding checklist that runs from pre-boarding through day 90, with named responsible parties and due dates. The second is a plain-language guide to FLSA minimum wage and overtime exemptions, including the duties tests. The third is an interview-question compliance framework that shows interviewers how to get job-related information without creating a discrimination claim.
Who should use this bundle
- Small business owners handling HR without a dedicated HR department
- Office managers who inherited onboarding, payroll classification, and hiring
- New HR coordinators who need a defensible baseline fast
- Texas employers preparing for their first compliance review
What it helps prevent
- New hires starting work before required documentation is complete
- Salaried employees misclassified as exempt without meeting the duties tests
- Interview questions that surface later in an EEOC charge
- Onboarding handled from memory, differently for every hire
- Overtime liability that accumulates silently for years
What’s inside
- 90-day onboarding framework — Phase 0 (manager prep) through day 90
- Task tables with responsible party and due date for every step
- FLSA exemption guide — salary basis, salary level, and duties tests
- Executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, and HCE exemptions
- Interview-question compliance framework with the job-relevance test
- Safe vs. unsafe question examples and the ’How, What, Can’ reframing model
Before you process payroll, terminate, classify, deduct, or respond to a claim, get the decision reviewed.
Faulkner HR Solutions helps Texas employers, nonprofits, municipalities, and growing businesses fix the people systems behind recurring workplace problems. If this resource raised a risk flag, do not guess your way through the next step.