A short YouTube advisory by Donna Genie (uploaded Jan 11, 2024) for small business owners about taking staff to conventions. Covers employer decisions on paying attendance, travel and hotel, and legal payroll obligations—especially paying employees for time spent traveling/attending when it falls during normal work hours. Emphasizes business benefits (ideas, connections) and practical compliance concerns.
Taking your staff members to a convention is a pretty big thought process and a big expenditure for most small business owners. So let's talk about how you have to make sure that you're complying with all the rules if this is something you decide to offer. Many times it's worthwhile to take your employees to these because they come up with a lot of great new ideas, ready and energized to help you grow your business when they get back, typically. And they've probably made some good connections to help be able to further your business and learn new things from other businesses just like yours. So how do you care for that? Are you responsible to pay for the expenses? What happens to their pay? Can. Let's dive in a little bit. You are responsible most likely to pay for their convention attendance and maybe any hotel or travel. You don't have to, but most studio owners do want to do that particular situation where you'd like to ask an employee to attend. Now, if an employee wants to attend on their own dime, obviously you don't have any problems with that. But then the big question comes about, what about payroll? How is that handle? What are you legally required to do traveling time? If your staff is traveling during the time when they would normally be working, you're required to pay them their hourly pay.
