HR Tips for a Small Business

The most important asset a small business has are its employees. That’s focusing your efforts on HR means exploring and improving on this asset and it’s never a waste of money and time to do so. Small companies often don’t know how to handle HR issues and they leave this to professionals.

There are small tips that any small business could take advantage and that will end up improving your business and help you use the most of the human capital that you have at your disposal.

Know the law

One of the first things you should do in order to use the most of your labor potential is to know what you’re allowed to do. A big part of working with employees will be meeting your obligations towards them and following the rules and regulations when it comes to their salaries and taxes.

Many companies decide to outsource the HR work precisely to avoid dealing with the legalities of it, but there’s also another long term way to go. That means learning about it yourself and setting up your own in house HR team.

Always look for talent

The biggest part of the job will probably be to look for the new talent and that can help you improve and expand on your business. That’s what most people imagine HR to be and it is an important but not the only feature of the department.  The key to doing it, is to do it constantly.

That doesn’t mean you’ll be able to or that you’ll need to hire new employees at all times. However, you’ll need to keep your eyes opened and to be look out for new employees and ways to make your team better.

Create an employee handbook

An employee handbook is a document that communicates the mission and the goals of your business to the employees and to the general public and that’s mostly used to help the employees transition to your business with ease and comfort.  It should also focus on the way the company sees and treats its employees.

This is a task that many companies wrongly see as a formality and neglect to do and it’s a mistake to treat it that way. Instead, you should put an effort into producing this document and thus create the infrastructure needed to expand the business in the future.

Managing performance

Managing performance of your employees will be an ongoing task. The key is to do it in an organized way. That will allow you to have a better image of how your employees are doing and to act accordingly when needed on a case to case basis.

It’s also a way to set up a fair and comprehensive system for promoting the best employees based on their performance. It will also help with mitigating office conflict since promotions and office politics will be based on data and research.

Work with others

There’s a competition between small businesses regardless of the industry you’re working in. However, that sort of competition shouldn’t stop you from sharing resources. For a business, employees and knowledge of their work is a resource and one that you can use for many years. Creating a network of small businesses that share this information and that share the best practices amongst each other is thus a long term goal.

This is a sensitive matter and it’s important to establish collaborative practices while keeping the interest and needs of your business and the front of your mind. The balance between the two is key.

Helping employees learn

The employees usually feel that a particular business is just a one stop on their career journey and they want to use the job to expand and grow as professionals. Many businesses hesitate to help them do that because they feel that the employee will outgrow the business.

A good HR team should try to do whatever they can in order make sure that the employees are learning and expanding their set of skills on the job. That’s the best way to have a satisfied employee and therefore a happy and productive one.

Conclusion

HR is one of the most important department of your business since the employees are its most important feature. It’s essential that an HR team works with other businesses to exchange data on this resource. An HR should also set up a process for reviewing the work of the employees and use it to improve on their performance.

HR should also help employees grow and learn on the job. This helps them grow and remain loyal to the business even when they get the opportunities and skills to find a better position somewhere else.