When it comes to success, small businesses face more than their fair share of challenges. They often lack the infrastructure and manpower to deal with those nagging human resource problems that bigger companies can easily handle. Instead of a dedicated staff, managers, owners, and CEOs are left to tackle not only their own job duties, but those sudden issues that arise stemming from HR issues. If your small business is struggling with appropriately dealing with HR challenges, use these tips to come out on top.
Keeping Up with Compliance
There are two factors in compliance that small businesses struggle with: employee compliance and employer compliance. Employee compliance includes ensuring that employees properly clock in and out, understand company policy and conform to that policy. Employer compliance requires that employers follow federal laws to ensure employee safety.
One way small businesses can help themselves and their employees comply with policy without adding another employee is with a workforce management system. A workforce management system can track employee payroll, provide employees with instant access to company policies, and ensure that managers are following federal laws. Since workforce management systems are simple to maintain and easy to employ, they are the perfect way to keep compliant in today's changing business landscape.
Providing Adequate Benefits
With the adoption of the Affordable Care Act and constantly changing benefits, small businesses often grapple with providing employees with comprehensive coverage while offsetting healthcare and retirement costs. Reaching that balance requires not only research but a lot of time, which is scarce in small business.
To save time, small businesses can go one of two routes. They can outsource the research or commit the time to doing the research themselves. Often, outsourcing will save money and time by trusting a professional to do the research and come back with a plan that fits both employee and employer needs, but with a chunk of time allocated annually for research, small businesses may be able to save costs themselves.
Recruiting and Hiring Qualified Employees
Hiring is a huge issue in the world of small business. The right hire can increase production, morale, and job satisfaction. The wrong hire can cost your business money and your employees’ time. Small business owners often find themselves in an unhealthy cycle of hiring and losing employees by not standardizing their hiring process.
The best way for small businesses to offset the cost and time associated with bad hires is to develop a strong job description and use recruiting software to standardize the hiring procedure. A strong job description can make it easier to sift through the dozens or hundreds of applicants to find the best match for the job. Recruiting software makes it easy for managers, directors, and owners to review candidates and leave notes during the hiring process.
Documenting Employee Issues
Particularly in small businesses, documentation can be an issue. When employees work closely together, a paper trail of complaints or issues may seem unnecessary or harsh when in actuality, it is vital to problem-solving and identifying failures in the process. In the end, the lack of documentation leads to later breakdowns in process or keeping an unsatisfactory employee because the employer is unable to prove just cause for termination.
Small businesses can avoid expensive mistakes by employing a clear policy on documentation and templates for managers. This simple but effective step takes responsibility out of the hands of the manager who may have a personal relationship with their employee and places it with the employer.
