Running the Business · Part 6
Template: the hiring checklist (AB 5-safe), from the decision to the first day
One page from "we need another person" to the end of the first day, with the decision that AB 5 forces at the top: employee, or licensed subcontractor under a written subcontract that meets every Labor Code 2781 condition. The employee path lists what must exist before the first day and what happens on it, in order, with the section behind each line. Fill it in for every hire and keep it in the personnel file.
What the full lesson covers
- Decide first: a person doing plumbing work without their own license is an employee; a licensed contractor under a written 2781-compliant subcontract is a subcontractor. Nothing else exists.
- Before the first day: workers' compensation bound, the EDD account, the payroll method, the IIPP and heat plan ready to train, the day-one packet printed.
- On the first day: I-9, W-4 and DE 4, the 2810.5 notice, sick leave and pamphlets, the IIPP and heat training signed, the new hire report scheduled within 20 days.
- Interviewing: no salary-history questions; no criminal-history inquiry before a conditional offer where the law applies; the driving record pulled with consent for anyone who will drive.
- The checklist goes in the personnel file with the signed documents; it is the answer to "what did you give the employee at hire."
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More lessons in Growing the Business
- 1Hiring under AB 5: the ABC test, why a 1099 helper is a lawsuit unless they hold their own license, and the construction subcontract exemption
- 2Employees: wage and hour, overtime, meal and rest periods, final-pay rules, and the workers' compensation class code
- 3Apprentices and the Division of Apprenticeship Standards: how a small shop trains its next plumber lawfully
- 4Adding classifications: when to add the B, the C-20, or a second specialty, and how the exam waiver works
- 5Systems: field-service software, the price book, and dispatch. What to buy, when, and what it must produce
- 6KPIs: average ticket, close rate, gross margin, and the three numbers that predict failure
- 7Supply-house credit at scale, the fleet, and inventory: the second truck's paperwork and the parts on it
- 8Becoming an RMO for someone else's company: the liability you are taking on, and the only version that is lawful
- 9Selling or stepping back: what a plumbing business is worth, what a buyer is actually buying, and what the license will and will not let you transfer
- 10Template: the hiring checklist (AB 5-safe), from the decision to the first dayYou are here
- 11Template: the new-hire packet index
- 12Template: the monthly KPI sheet