As the owner of a small business, you know all too well what it’s like to juggle a wide variety of responsibilities and to wear a variety of hats. If your current overhead doesn’t allow much room to hire a human resources professional, you’ll need to take this important business responsibility into your own hands. While most want to move HR to the bottom of the list, taking care of your employees is a daily obligation.
Though you’re quite busy, taking the right approach to HR management will better your business in the long run. Happier employees and a compliant company are prized details for prospective job seekers.
Keep reading to learn 4 tips for successfully managing human resources in a small business.
1. Consider Outsourcing
Being in charge of HR, payroll, budgeting, marketing, and every job in between as a small business owner isn’t easy. In fact, taking on too much at once often leads to burnout and high levels of stress. If you simply don’t have the time, experience, or personnel needed to properly take charge of your company’s HR team, consider hiring a professional employer organization (PEO).
Hiring a PEO firm allows you to outsource a variety of business tasks, such as human resources, payroll, employee benefits, and even regulatory compliance. By offloading these tasks to experts, you can focus on the other areas of your business to ensure its success without overloading yourself. Since there are plenty of PEOs to choose from, you want to ensure you’re getting the best deal possible.
To find the best PEO firm for you, use sites like Digital Exits to compare PEOs in New York. This allows you to quickly and easily review available firms while learning high level details about each option so that you can narrow your options.
2. Document Everything
Recordkeeping isn’t the most exciting part of HR, but it’s a necessary evil. In fact, small business owners spend around 7-25% of their time handling employee paperwork. When it comes to keeping employee records, there’s a lot of vital paperwork that you’ll want to maintain.
Recordkeeping is much more than keeping employee names, addresses, and contact information. There’s a wide range of other documents that you’ll want to maintain including:
- Hiring documents
- Performance documents
- Separation records
- Time/attendance records
- Salary documentation
- W-4 and W-2 forms
- Payroll deduction
- Medical documents
The more employee records that you maintain, the easier it is to prove that your company is compliant with federal and state laws. You’ll also have the necessary documentation in the event of payroll issues or a case of disciplinary action.
3. Communicate Regularly
Communication is the foundation to any successful business. The more you communicate with your employees, partners, and advisors, the better. Without regular and effective communication, employees will feel as if they’re left in the dark. Important business changes and updates should be provided to employees on a routine basis.
Working on a new product? Considering a new partnership? Adding a new employee benefit? Be sure to announce it!
For successful HR, schedule regular company meetings to provide a forum for employees to receive company updates. These meetings are also a great chance for employees to provide feedback to better the company. It’s also important to promote an open door policy so that workers can freely and confidentially express their thoughts, feelings, and concerns.
4. Have a Smart Onboarding Process
The hiring and onboarding process doesn’t always go as planned. To avoid the potential pitfalls of hiring, don’t rely on resumes alone. Instead, have candidates fill out a job application. Resumes only tell you what candidates want you to know about them. With a job application you can gather the same information from all prospective employees. This protects you against claims of ad discrimination and also weeds out the less than ideal candidates.
Once you have selected and hired a candidate, it’s important to have an onboarding checklist. You want to make employees feel welcomed as early on in the process as possible. Be sure to keep new employees in the loop and ensure that current employees know that a new team member is joining the team.
To make onboarding beneficial for a new employee:
- Have their equipment and desk ready
- Assign them a mentor
- Touch base often
- Introduce them to the team
By placing a heavy focus on the onboarding process, you can impress employees from the get-go. Happy employees are more productive and are more likely to stick around for the long-haul, so get started off on the right foot!
Conclusion
As your business grows, you want to have a solid human resources program that is backed by policies and processes. An effective HR program allows your company to quickly solve problems, effectively communicate with employees, and to navigate your business in the right direction when it comes to happy employees.
