What you need to know about HR for your Small Business

The world of the business can be a confusing place. There’s a lot of different facets that you must consider such as finances, sales, marketing and, of course, the minefield that is HR.

Compared to other aspects of your business you’ll probably find HR to be one of the trickiest areas to get to grips with, as it’s based not just on best practice, but on legal requirements that you must abide by. This can make it a confusing place for most business owners, but it doesn’t have to be. There are a small number of basic elements that you need to focus on when it comes to running HR for a small business, and if you get these right, then you have a good basis for further development.

HR (Human Resources) is the department that’s responsible for the administrative functions of your business. HR teams oversee recruiting, interviewing, hiring new staff, looking after employee benefits, and they can also be involved with areas such as payroll and appraisals.

For a small business there are a few specific areas that are highly important that HR handles. These include:

1) Recruitment

2) Onboarding

3) Payroll

Having the right team in place to help grow you business is an essential part of the long term health of your organisation. With the right HR help you can ensure that you have a team of employees that have the right skillset to boost business performance. Your HR team can help with this by:

Once you’ve hired someone with the help of your HR team, you’ll need to make sure the basics of onboarding are covered as well. Luckily this is something that a HR can help with as well.

A full and thorough onboarding process can take up to 12 months, but it an essential part of your business process that encompasses areas such as:

● Issuing of formal contracts

Legally every employee is required to have written documentation that outlines the key terms of their employment such as pay and working hours. This is required to be in place within two months of the start date.

Contracts should also outline areas such as holiday allowance, pensions and other areas that have statutory minimums. As contracts are legally binding it’s essential that these are handled correctly, and an expert in HR may be needed to do so.

● Managing legally required admin and paperwork

Contracts aren’t the only form of paperwork needed when you’re bringing a new employee in. Other bits of paperwork are needed as well, and HR are primed to help handle this. This not only makes the onboarding experience smoother for the business and new employees, but it allows everyone to focus on their actual job rather than legal necessities that don’t impact directly on the new hires job performance.

Payroll is likely to be the biggest expenditure that your business has, which is why it’s essential that you’re able to get to grips with the process. For small business though this can be an incredibly tricky as they may not have a department to handle it for them. With a HR team or person though, you’ll have someone responsible for payroll who can manage the process for you, keeping your process up to date with laws, and ensuring that everyone is paid on time.