4 Human Resources Tips for Your Small Business

If you own a small business, you may think that having an HR team is a waste of time and money. “I can handle hiring and firing employees myself,” you tell yourself. That is, until you realize that human resources is more than just hiring ad firing employees. Human resources consists of handling all employee matters, managing payroll, and so much more.

Yeah, it’s not so easy after all.

While a small business may not have the resources for an entirely separate HR department, that doesn’t mean that HR tasks should be neglected. You should spend just as much time and effort on HR as you do the myriad of other responsibilities you have as a small business owner. Making mistakes with how you handle HR can end up costing you a lot of money in the long run. Spending time and effort on establishing HR in the beginning of you small business will benefit you more than you realize.

Follow these 4 human resources tips for your small business:

1.) Prioritize Hiring Right

Hiring the right employees is imperative for all businesses, but especially a small business. You don’t want to go through the experience of thinking you found the right fit for a job, realizing they don’t work, and then having to let them go just a couple months later. That is going to cost you a lot of money. Instead, prioritize hiring right the first time around. Be thorough with your job postings and with interviewing candidates. You want to be absolutely positive someone is the right fit before handing them the job offer.

2.) Use HR Tools

If you don’t have a separate HR department, it is especially important to use the proper HR tools. There are services that offer HR solutions to a myriad of problems, from recruiting to managing payroll. We live in  digital world, use it to your advantage. HR tech tools will help you with time-consuming tasks and improve the efficiency of your office. Managing HR is difficult, get support when you need it.

3.) Give Feedback

Part of HR is evaluating employee, so make sure you incorporate that into your work. Evaluating employees and giving feedback is beneficial for both the boss and employee. Feedback is crucial to understand how your employees are preforming, but also to help motivate them and encourage productivity. Remember to be honest with your employees about their performance reports and reward when hard work is done.

4.) Keep up with Laws and Regulations

The last thing you want to happen is to run into trouble because you didn’t follow certain laws of HR. Since you probably don’t have a separate HR department, it’s crucial to keep up with ongoing laws and regulations. You should be familiar with the different HR laws to keep your business and employees protected. The most important laws to understand are the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act, but these laws are constantly changing and differ for each state, so make sure you stay on top of it at all times.

Running your own small business in undeniably stressful. You have a multitude of responsibilities to manage, but make sure not to neglect HR. HR is a lot more than just “hiring and firing employees.” It’s overseeing an employee’s lifecycle in a company and managing the backbone of the business. It’s just as important to your business as any of your other tasks, so don’t brush it off. Follow these tips and soon enough you’ll be able to manage your HR with your eyes closed. 

“To win the marketplace, you must first win the workplace.” – Doug Conant

By Ankit Kumar 

Photos by Christina Wocintechchat and Cytonn Photography