Do You Need An HR In Small Business?

While you cannot run a big business without HR, you definitely can run a small business without HR. But what does a small business mean? You can have a small business online where the only employee is you, but it’s still a small business if you have 50 employees in the EU and 250 employees in the US. Therefore, when you have a more significant small business in terms of the number of employees, HR will be your best friend if you seek success.

HR is responsible for many crucial aspects of the business because it handles everything regarding your employees – from recruiting and payroll to training and a safe environment.

When you have up to 10 employees, you’ll be most probably able to manage all the tasks above, but if you have a growing small business, starting with one great HR manager will do wonders for your business. Not to mention how much time you will gain to focus better on the future of your company. 

With no further ado, let’s dive into the subject and see for real what HR will mean to your small business, and then you will be free to decide for your own if you need HR or not.

Recruitment and Hiring

Most small business owners usually don’t consider the recruitment and hiring process such important or thought to give, because nowadays it seems very easy to find employees. 

While it is indeed quite a natural process, finding skilled, loyal, and hardworking employees, it isn’t. Some possible might lie in their CV and even at the interview, and if you’re not specifically good at people, you might get into a lot of trouble with a bad employee. 

An HR manager knows where to find great employees and how to spot the bad ones. It’s his job to be good at this kind of thing.

Perfect Environment

The environment is an essential aspect for both your employees and your customers if it’s a shared space. The environment must meet some legal criteria regarding health and safety.

While these criteria are pretty basic, there’s an essential one regarding the environment atmosphere. Your employees must feel good at their workplace so they won’t desire to find another workplace.  

As well, if HR can create a fantastic atmosphere, more and more qualified people will desire to work for you, and the word will spread faster between customers too. There’s so much a great HR manager can do for your business.

Effective Communication

Communication is the key to every good relationship, especially in the business world. For your business to work, your employees must communicate effectively at all times, regardless of their differences. 

This task is as well as the responsibility of the HR manager. He must ensure that the employees can communicate in the most efficient, clear, easy, and quick way possible. As well, a crucial part of communication is listening. 

Listening to your employees’ needs and suggestions are crucial for your business’ success. They are doing the work every day, and they know everything that can be adjusted to make their job more effective, and most of the time, it can be cost-effective too. 

If you have an HR manager, he will be the one who will listen compassionately with your employees, and they will make sure to pass you the main ideas, but also the ideas’ importance. 

Compliance

While this might go hand in hand with the documentation duty of the HR manager, the compliance is dealing with the legal part. There are specific laws regarding discrimination, wage, and hours of work, for immigration, benefits, safety, and so on. 

The HR manager will ensure that your business has every act the law requires and, most important, that neither your business nor your employees are breaking it. That’s a lot to take care of just thinking about it and as a business owner you must 

Documentation

When I said that HR takes care of everything regarding your employees, this involves documentation too. And when it comes to your employees, there’s a lot of paperwork, and one must be very attentive and organized to make sure that everything is on point.

The HR manager will ensure that all your employees have the papers to prove that they’re eligible to work, their medical file, and all their data amongst their CV, reviews, training verification, and all the papers required to work for you.

Besides the standard paperwork, there’s also the employee handbook, which is very important to make sure everyone knows what’s expected from them and what to do in every possible case scenario. 

In the handbook, you can also provide all the information your employees need to know regarding their payroll and possibilities to get a raise or promotion, schedule, sick-time, vacation, code of conduct, safety policies, discipline policy, and so on.

Payroll and Benefits

 HR also covers the salary and benefits of the employees, which is a more complicated task than it seems. Of course, some services can help you with that, but for a small business, an HR manager can handle all the tax and extra hours calculations. 

As well, the benefits are also significant for the employees. Some benefits are required by the law and others that the company may or may not offer. The law requires benefits such as social security, compensation, medical leave, COBRA insurance.

As a company, you can offer health insurance, dental insurance, paid holidays and time off, employee discounts, and so on. But the more benefits an employee has, the more interest he will have to keep the job and be thankful for it.

Development

A business, regardless if it is big or small, it must be growth-oriented. After all, a small business shouldn’t stay small. But, it is hard to focus on developing your business when there are so many things to deal with.

An HR manager will make sure to provide training for the employees so both the company and the employees will evolve. The HR manager has to think about great ideas to improve the environment for the employees. As well, there are always things to develop around the business – communication, collaboration, organization, discipline, a healthier environment.

Conclusion

Regardless of the nature of your small business, one thing is for sure – you want to make it as successful as it can be. But to reach success and to stay there, you must ensure the best for your small business. 

You need someone who knows who to recruit the best employees and to make sure they get the best environment and salary possible, as well as the best training in exchange for their hard work. 

Small businesses often feel like a family as everyone knows everyone and everything. An HR manager knows exactly how to take advantage of this aspect. Also, HR takes care of the paperwork and everything regarding your employees.

Skilled, loyal, and happy employees are the recipe for your success because they will care for your customers, and they will be willing to do everything to help you achieve your goals. If you care and invest in your employees, which means investing in HR, you are actually in your business’s success.