The Small Employer HR Field Guide: The Book for California Owners Who Do Not Have an HR Department

The Small Employer HR Field Guide is a book of 13 principles, real scenarios and simple steps for California owners, business managers and HR leads who run teams of 1 to about 150 people and do not have an HR department. Each chapter teaches one idea and ends with a template, a recap and three steps you can finish this week. It is available on Amazon as a Kindle book and as a paperback.

The problem this solves: You are running a business, a late final paycheck or a missed break can cost money even with two employees, and you get HR help only after something has already gone wrong.

How UHR solves it: The Small Employer HR Field Guide on Kindle and the paperback give you the habits, forms and scripts to stay ahead of the problems. For a full set of written policies, the California employee handbook template ($149) is the next step.

Why did I write this book?

I wrote it because most small employers get HR help only after something goes wrong. A former employee sends a demand letter. A state agency sends a notice. A manager says the wrong thing in a hallway and the owner finds out a month later. At that point, every option is expensive. The rules do not wait for a company to grow. In California the list starts at one employee, and it stacks up as you hire. A company with four people and a company with six live under different laws. If you do not know your headcount rules, you are guessing, and small mistakes get big when they repeat. One missed meal break is a small problem. The same missed break, for every employee, on every shift, for a year, is a large one. The book is built to help you fix the system once instead of fixing the same problem again and again.

Who is this book for?

It is for the owner of a restaurant, a clinic, a construction firm, a nonprofit or a studio who became an employer because the work grew. It is for the office manager who was handed payroll and hiring. It is for the operations lead at a company of 30 who has never had an HR title and keeps getting HR questions. It is written for California employers with teams of roughly 1 to 150 people, because that is the group I work with most in Oakland and across the Bay Area. If you have a lawyer, the book helps you ask better questions. If you do not, it helps you avoid the common mistakes and tells you when it is time to call someone.

What is a principle, and why 13?

A principle is one idea that you can apply to a dozen situations. I would rather give you 13 ideas you can reuse than 300 rules you will forget. Each chapter is built around one of them, and together they follow the life of an employee from the day you decide to hire until the day the person leaves. The chapters move through how to sort your people correctly, how to pay them correctly, how to hire fairly, how to onboard, how to write down your rules, how to make managers your retention plan, how to review performance in a way that holds up, how to handle complaints calmly, how to end employment properly, how to look at pay equity before a claim does, how to handle safety and leave, and how to use AI without handing over your judgment. I list the territory so you can see whether your problem is covered. I do not list the answers. Those are what the pages are for.

How is each chapter built?

Every chapter follows the same shape, so you can find what you need quickly when a problem is sitting on your desk.

• A short summary, one paragraph, that you can read standing up.
• The principle and the reason it matters, including what ignoring it tends to cost.
• Steps in plain order, so you know what to do first.
• A check of California and federal rules, confirmed against official sources.
• Illustrative scenarios, made-up stories that show the idea at work without describing any real person or business.
• A checklist and a template you can copy into your own documents.
• A recap and three steps for this week, each with a time and a finish line.

The three steps matter most. Each one starts with a verb, says how long it takes and tells you when you are done. If you do nothing else, doing those steps will move you forward.

What does the book not do?

It does not give legal advice, and it says so on the first page. It does not promise a result, protection from a claim or a clean audit. It does not replace a licensed attorney when your situation is serious, and it tells you the kinds of situations where you should not wait. The legal points in the book were checked on November 1, 2026 against official sources named at the back, and anything I could not confirm was left out. Laws change, so I also tell you how to confirm the current rule before you act on something important.

Why does a book beat a stack of free articles?

Articles answer one question. A book answers the next question, then the one after that. When you read about the California ABC test for contractors or final paycheck waiting-time penalties, you learn a lot about one rule. What most owners lack is the order of operations: what to put in place first, what can wait and who owns each job. The headcount article shows you how rules stack as you grow. The book turns that kind of knowledge into a sequence you can follow in an afternoon and then keep on your shelf. It also gives you a single tone and a single vocabulary. The words in chapter 3 are the words in chapter 9. When you hand a page to a manager, they get the same logic you got, and the two of you stop talking past each other.

Which edition should you choose?

Pick the format that fits how you work. The Kindle edition is quick to buy and easy to carry on any device. The paperback is better when you want to write in the margin, tab a chapter and keep it where managers can borrow it. The content is the same.

• The Small Employer HR Field Guide, Kindle edition
• The Small Employer HR Field Guide, paperback

A PDF edition is also available in the UHR store, listed below this article.

What will you be able to do after one afternoon with it?

You will be able to count your people honestly, find your headcount band and see which rules apply to you now and which start at your next threshold. You will be able to list the basics every employer owes from the first hire, mark each as done, partly done or not started, and pick three gaps to close this month. You will be able to put a name next to each HR job, including your own, which tells you when it is time to get help. That is not a promise of a result. It is a description of the work the first chapter asks you to do, and it takes one afternoon.

What should you do this week?

1. Write down the exact number of people on your payroll today, part time and full time.
2. List the three HR problems that worry you most and note the date each was last checked.
3. Choose Kindle or paperback and read the chapter that matches your biggest worry first.
4. Book a baseline review if you want a second set of eyes on your answers.

If you want an outside view of where you stand, the HR compliance check-up reviews your basics against California rules, and fractional HR support can take the recurring work off your desk while you build your system.

Sources

• The Small Employer HR Field Guide, Kindle edition, Amazon listing
• The Small Employer HR Field Guide, paperback, Amazon listing
• California Civil Rights Department

McKinley holds a J.D. but is not a licensed attorney. Articles here are general information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, talk with an employment attorney.

Data current as of November 2026. Sources are linked where each figure appears.