What I ask an urban employer first, and what I ask a suburban employer first

When a new employer sits down with me, I do not open with the Labor Code. I open with a handful of plain questions, and the questions change with the kind of business in front of me. This post is the list, in my own words, so you can ask yourself the same things. This is part 2 of the Urban and Suburban Employer Series, which starts with part 1 and continues with part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6 and part 7.

Why do my first questions change with the setting?

They change because the law is the same and the operating conditions are not. California statutes apply on a busy urban corridor and in a quiet office park alike, so asking “are you following the law?” gets a hopeful yes in both. Asking about the conditions gets the truth, and the truth tells me which policies matter first.

I grew up in Oakland and I live in the community I work in, and I have worked with employers in urban corridors and in suburban settings. That is where these lists come from. They are my opinion and my method, not a rule. I do not think one setting is easier or harder. They are different, and each deserves questions built for it. The questions below are examples. Adapt them to your business.

What do I ask an urban employer first?

I ask five things, and each one opens a different policy.

• What time do you close, and who is on shift? This opens scheduling, break coverage and safety planning. A late close with one or two people on shift needs a different plan than a day-only operation.
• What is in the building overnight? Cash, equipment, stock and keys change what a safety plan has to cover and who is trusted with what.
• How do your people get to work? Bus and train riders face delays no one controls, so this question opens attendance, call-in and pay rules for shifts that start late or get cut short.
• What languages does your team use? This opens which notices, training and policies need to be in which languages, and whether anyone has checked the translations.
• Who is the nearest help, and how long does it take to arrive? This opens emergency procedures, first aid and what an employee should do in the first minutes of a problem.

Each answer leads to a document I then ask to see. If the closing answer is “two people until 11,” I want the schedule, the break log and the safety plan. If the commute answer is “most take transit,” I want the attendance policy. I explain that policy in my guide to attendance and scheduling for transit riders.

What do I ask a suburban employer first?

I ask a different five, because the pressure points sit in different places.

• In which cities do your employees live and work? This opens local minimum wage and local ordinance questions, because rules can follow the work location rather than the home address.
• Who works remotely or hybrid? This opens expense reimbursement, timekeeping and the handbook sections written for an office everyone attends.
• How far do people commute? Long drives affect lateness rules, schedule flexibility and retention, and they show up in how managers treat the same lateness differently.
• How many managers sit between the owner and the staff? More layers mean more people applying policies, so this opens manager training and consistency.
• How do you hire when few candidates live nearby? A thin labor pool opens recruiting, pay range and turnover planning, and it raises the cost of every avoidable resignation.

The follow-up document requests change too. For the first question I want a list of employee work addresses. For the second I want the remote work policy and the reimbursement practice. My post on work-from-home expense reimbursement explains the rule behind that last one, and part 6 of this series covers what suburban employers need from HR in more detail.

What do both kinds of employer get asked?

Both get the same few questions, because the basics do not move with the map. I ask how time is recorded, how employees are paid and what the pay stub shows. I ask when the handbook was last updated and whether employees have signed it. I ask who handles a complaint, and what happens in the first 24 hours after one arrives. I ask when each employee last received training that California requires.

• How is time recorded, and who reviews it each pay period?
• When was your handbook last updated, and does each employee have a signed copy?
• Who receives a complaint, and what happens next?
• Which required trainings has each person completed, and when?
• What changed in the business in the last year, such as new hires, new sites, new services or new pay practices?

That last question matters most to me. Policies are written for the business as it was. Most gaps I find open when the business changes and the paperwork does not. A new location, a new shift, a new language group on the team or a first remote hire each creates a gap on its own.

One more habit before you try them. Ask the questions of the people who work the shifts, not only of the person who wrote the handbook. A manager and a new hire will often give you two different answers to “who is on shift at close?”, and the gap between those answers is the finding. I treat a mismatch between what the owner believes and what the staff describe as the first thing to fix.

Can you use these questions on your own business?

Yes, and I hope you do. They are free and public on purpose. Pick the list that fits your business, or both if you run an urban shop and a suburban office. Write the answers down, then look for the policy each answer touches and ask whether it matches what really happens.

Be honest with yourself on the first pass. The point is not a perfect score. It is finding the one or two places where the handbook says one thing and the business does another, because those are the gaps that turn into claims. This week, answer five questions from the list that fits you and write down which document each answer touches. If you want a second set of eyes on the result, my California HR audit starts exactly here, and the handbook gap checker is free if you want to try it first. Part 7 turns these questions into a ten-point self-audit you can run in an afternoon.

I started this series because the same statutes land very differently on East 14th Street and in an office park, and the people who run both deserve guidance that sees the difference. The questions are where that begins.

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.