In the old days, the human resources department was referred to simply as “Personnel.” Personnel handled all aspects of employee management — from hiring, to firing, to payroll. Eventually, companies started branching out and creating true human resources departments.
In contrast to Personnel, HR focuses on management, recruitment, retention and conflict resolution, while payroll now handles the aspects of payments and insurance.
Unfortunately, in too many small businesses, the human resources department fails to deliver on these focuses. This happens for a range of reasons, including:
- HR manager has been given human resources duties, but he or she has insufficient training;
- Not having documented policies and procedures in place, which includes developing a handbook;
- Handling situations inconsistently, which only confuses employees and causes them to lose faith in management; and
- Interference by owners or senior management into human resource responsibilities can derail the efforts of HR.
If you are struggling with these or additional challenges, your small business will likely benefit from bringing in an HR consultant that can provide strategic support, perform a compliance audit, and generally be available for HR questions and emergencies as they arise.
If you feel like your HR department is not efficient, it could be failing your company. Here are five obstacles that may be impeding your HR department from living up to its goals:
1. You Don’t Offer Competitive Compensation: You need to attract top talent, but you also need to retain that top talent to remain competitive. While HR does not create and distribute paychecks, it does set the compensation for jobs offered by your small business. If HR does not do its research to identify the competitive compensation rates, especially for the position and requirements, you may not be able to attract the talent your small business needs to succeed.
2. HR is Making Job Applications Too Complicated: How complicated is the application process? Is it haphazardly put together and more of an afterthought? Most small businesses do not realize how the application process can hurt their recruitment efforts. For example, if a candidate has to write a mock report or other writing assignment, he or she may skip your application and move on to a competitor. Your application process needs to be well-defined while also being as simple as possible to complete during this first phase.
3. Performance Reviews Are Non-Existent: While your HR team may be busy, it should never be too busy to lead the performance review process by setting up meetings between employees and their managers. Reviews communicate how well employees are performing, areas in which they need to improve and a plan for making those improvements. When employees feel as though their work does not matter, they do not put much effort into their own productivity and performance.
4. Not Hiring Skilled HR Professionals: Even if it consists of just one person, your HR department needs a skilled HR representative to lead it. If the person has no human resources training or education, he or she is not going to be able to achieve your HR goals. It is imperative to hire professionals with HR experience or, if you do not have the resources to hire someone full-time, consider outsourcing your HR department or some of its responsibilities to a human resources expert.
5. HR is More of a Part-Time Role: Is your HR representative also responsible for tasks in other departments? Human resources should never be a part-time endeavor — you need a dedicated professional to handle your human resources. When you have an employee who only works part of the time in HR, he or she is not going to put as much focus into the department’s strategic goals and direction, employee recruitment, employee retention and other key HR responsibilities — especially if that person has another role they are expected to succeed in as well. Ultimately, your HR department determines how successful your small business will be at lowering employee turnover rates. Hiring a qualified individual to solely head up your in-house HR activities — or engaging a human resources consultant to help you with that — should be your first step.
Special Offer to SD&I Readers: If you would like to find out how HR Solutions can support your business, please call for a no-cost 30-minute consultation at 480-924-6101 or email [email protected].
Margaret Jacoby, SPHR, is President & Principal Consultant of MJ Management Solutions Inc., a strategic partner of HRGroup (www.hrgrouponline.com), a provider of Human Resource support services, including hiring practices, compensation programs, talent development and more. MJ Management Solutions offers a book, “Practical Tools to Manage Costly Employee Turnover” and a “Tips and Tools” newsletter. Learn more at www.mjms.net.
