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How small businesses can avoid big HR errors?

 

Human Resources is a critical part of any business today, and when you happen to be a small business, this is even more so. The smallest mistakes can have a huge impact on the overall business and can impact your profits too. HR errors can demotivate your team, create miscommunications and differences and even cause unnecessary politics within an organisation. So here are some hr tips for small business owners to ensure that such errors don’t happen.

 

Good talent found? Don’t delay hiring them

One of the most important hr tips for small business owners is that they should not delay hiring good talent. They often interview in the wrong way. For example they may interview one candidate on Tuesday, the next on Wednesday and then on Friday. Then the business usually waits till the next week to review the resumes and come to a final decision. As a small business you need to be faster, so that the bigger companies don’t take away the talent from you sooner. Because of high demand, the job market is recovering and there are plenty of opportunities everywhere. Your best candidates are therefore, sure to be considering other job offers as well. You should ideally interview all the candidates for one position on the same day, ask them the same list of questions and compare and evaluate them as soon as possible, making sure that your hr team can get back to the candidates the very next day.

 

Don’t let gut feelings guide you. Evaluate your employees

Many small businesses hire and fire their talent based on gut feelings. Then, they almost always regret the decision that was made. If you fire your employees on a whim, they can actually sue the company and cause law suites which you really want to avoid to begin with. These can be costly, and you should not be pouring your money into something that could have been easily avoided. You should definitely hire a specialist to handle such hiring and firing of talent and you should stay on top of the rules and regulations of hr as well.

 

Are you an HR pro? If not, don’t handle HR

Many small business owners believe that they can handle the hr department of their business too and that right now, they need not invest in the salaries of hr professionals. But nothing could have been further away from the truth. Not having an hr team is a sure fire way to lose your talent, fast. Always hire the right hr team first, so that they can guide you on recruiting the remaining talent and also handle all of the policies. Remember that human resources is a massive amount of work as well.

Get an employee handbook

Studies show that a rather large amount of employers do not have an employee handbook. A lack of a written policy and an employee handbook can be costly. It could mean that you are liable for things that are actually not part of the company policy, because you have no way to prove this. Having a written document signed and understood by an employee can give you peace of mind.

 

Onboard your employees immediately

Small businesses waste time and lose business opportunities by not prepping employees before the first day of work. Get new employees their business cards, a telephone line, and benefits forms before their first day of work so they can hit the ground running. It is also suggested that smaller companies automate collecting paperwork to ensure that new hires complete and hand in all needed documents, especially employees who work remotely. It is also important to let new employees know what tasks they need to complete before their first day.

 

Provide feedback and rewards

Another great hr tip for small business owners is that they should not get so worried about bringing in money and paying the bills that they neglect to give on-the-spot feedback to workers, which could motivate the employees and help the business grow.  The best type of feedback, is feedback on what they are currently doing. It is fine, if that is verbal; it does not have to be a big, complicated process. You should also set performance goals and reward the employees who meet these goals.

 

Why so much paper?

Many small companies put all their trust in homegrown, paper-based systems, in order to track time and attendance, manage schedules, and process key HR-related functions like hiring and onboarding. Small companies should consider using technology-based solutions for these tasks so they can focus on growing their core business and reduce the amount of time that they use up in manually recoding and doing everything. It will be a small cost but you will also equally, be able to save up more.

 

Not investing in continued improvement

Don’t let your hr people stagnate. Give them the right education and training so that they can work better. Training and development should be an ongoing process in any business and with all the new updates in human resources, it is essential that you team knows what they are doing, is relevant. Our HR and payroll management programmes are accredited and are ideal for you or for your human resource team. Give them the best chance to perform as well as they can for your business. For more information contact us on [email protected]

 

 

 

 

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