Does your small business need an HR Department?
The human resources department is an important part of any company, but sometimes it’s easy to forget that small business owners need a great HR department just as much as their large counterparts do.
Fortunately for them, it isn’t necessary to hire an entire team of specialists in order to get the benefits which come from having someone who is dedicated solely to your employees.
Here are some reasons why it’s so important for small business owners to focus on their human resources:
Small businesses have to keep up with changing regulations
As a small business owner, you need to stay up-to-date with all of the legal requirements.
You can’t just run your business as you feel—there are rules and regulations that must be followed.
For example, when it comes to payroll taxes and tax forms, you may need help from an expert who knows what’s required by law.
The same goes for other areas of HR management: knowing which laws apply in your industry is critical so that your company doesn’t get into hot water with regulators or end up facing significant fines because it made an error in judgment.
Small businesses don’t have the resources to train employees
A lot of small businesses don’t have the resources to invest in employee training.
It’s an expensive, time-consuming process that requires close attention to detail and can be a waste of time if you’re not careful.
According to a study by Gartner, only 10 percent of employees actually learn what they need from their formal training programs.
That means 90 percent of your trainees aren’t acquiring the skills needed for their jobs—and those are just for basic positions!
If you’ve ever had an employee walk out on you shortly after being hired because he didn’t feel like he was getting any traction on learning how to do his job, you know this isn’t just theory; it happens every day in small businesses around the world.
Hiring mistakes are costly
By now, it’s clear that finding the right employees is important for your business.
But even if you hire the best candidate for a job, if they aren’t a good fit for your company culture or processes—or if you simply didn’t take enough time to make sure they were right for the role—then their performance will suffer.
And that could end up costing you more in terms of time and money than not hiring at all!
The cost of turnover can be significant. According to Glassdoor, employee turnover costs employers between 30% and 50% of an employee’s annual salary; one study found that when a new employee leaves an organization within three years, it costs around 80,000 in recruitment fees alone (not including training or other expenses).
Let’s say your new Sales Manager has just quit because he or she wasn’t happy with management practices or hours worked; even though he or she was only on the payroll for six months before leaving, you’ll still have spent thousands trying to find his replacement!
Overworking employees leads to high turnover and low productivity.
- Stress and mistakes: When employees are overworked, they’re likely to make more mistakes. This can cause both quality control issues for your business as well as legal trouble if there’s a breach of confidentiality or copyright infringement.
- Employee retention: Overworked employees are also more likely to leave the company—either through resignation or termination—which means that you will have an increased cost of replacing them. If this process takes time, it could slow down your business operations considerably while hiring someone new.
- Reduced engagement: It’s well-known that engaged workers do better work than disengaged ones; however, studies have shown that when people feel overworked at their jobs they tend not only to be less productive but also less engaged in what they’re doing overall.”
Keeping a great employee requires understanding what motivates them
To understand what motivates an employee, you need to know the individual goals they have set for themselves.
An employee’s main goal may be to achieve a certain position in a company or make enough money to purchase a house. To help your employees reach their goals, keep track of the following:
- Recognize their talents and abilities. It would help if you recognized your employees’ talents and abilities by providing them with opportunities for growth. Give them chances to improve on their current skills so that they can develop new ones as well. Doing this will show employees that you value their professional development, which will encourage them to grow further and become more valuable employees for your company.
- Provide opportunities for advancement within the company hierarchy (e.g., by moving up from junior roles). If an employee has shown great potential during his or her time working with you, let him or her know about it! This will boost his or her self-confidence when it comes to working and can also motivate him/her so much more because he/she knows that hard work will pay off sooner rather than later (and who doesn’t want things like promotions?).
A great HR resource will help you be a better business owner, motivate your workforce and keep your business running smoothly
A great HR resource is a small business owner’s best friend. HR helps you hire the right people, manage your workforce, keep them and make sure they are happy in their roles.
It helps run your business smoothly and keeps everything on track.
The easiest way for a small business owner to understand this is through the relationship between employees and managers.
Managers are responsible for hiring new employees, training existing staff and ensuring that everyone completes their work properly.
When an employee has a problem with another member of staff or a manager isn’t performing well as a leader then it’s down to the management team to step in before things get out of hand!
Conclusion
It’s easy to see why small businesses need a great HR resource. A good HR department will help you be a better business owner, motivate your workforce and keep your business running smoothly.
You can either hire a great HR Manager or partner with companies who can provide you with these services and help your business to succeed.