The Top 4 HR Priorities for Small Businesses
Running a startup or small business can feel like a juggling act. With tight budgets and the constant need to boost revenue, it’s easy to think HR can take a backseat. But trust me, investing a bit of time and money in getting your HR basics right can save you from big headaches down the road, including legal issues, unhappy employees, and chaos in operations.
Why Bother with HR for Small Businesses?
No matter your company’s size, its really important you get some basic HR processes set up early on. Here’s why:
Staying Legally Compliant: This is really the most basic area of HR you should be thinking about.
Supporting Growth: If you want to make sure you have the right people, in the right place at the right time - you need to put some thought into how you’re going to manage those processes.
Aligning Behaviours and Values: Having clarity around some core people processes will help with this alignment and make it easier to embed your culture.
Achieving Business Goals: Your HR practices will reinforce your goals and help your team work towards delivering them.
The Top 4 HR Priorities for all Small Businesses
Basic Documents: Contracts and Handbooks
Contracts and handbooks might seem boring, but they’re absolutely essential. Having formal contracts and policies saves you time on daily HR issues and ensures you’re ticking all the legal boxes. Think of these documents as the bedrock of your HR practices.
Retention Tools
Keeping your top talent happy is key. Tools like employee share schemes and bonuses can make all the difference. Don’t wait until your best people start looking elsewhere—invest in keeping them established from the get-go.
Solid Recruitment Processes
Your first hires set the stage for your company’s future. Make sure you’ve got a solid process for finding people who not only have the skills you need but also fit your company culture from day one.
Basic HR Systems
Centralizing records and policies with tools like BreatheHR can make your life so much easier. Still managing leave on spreadsheets? There’s a way better solution out there!
The Risks of Ignoring HR Basics
Employment laws are constantly changing, and without proper HR processes, small businesses risk non-compliance, leading to hefty penalties, lawsuits, and damaged reputations. As businesses grow, managing recruitment, conflict resolution, and legal responsibilities becomes increasingly challenging without clear HR documentation and processes. Failing to provide essential documents, like employment contracts, and other breaches of legislation can result in significant compensation claims.
Beyond legal risks, neglecting HR basics can cause operational issues such as confusion over roles, poor decision-making, decreased productivity, and high turnover. Clear HR processes ensure everyone understands their responsibilities, fostering a positive workplace culture and enabling better strategic decisions. Investing in robust HR foundations helps small businesses mitigate both legal and operational risks, ensuring smooth and efficient operations.
Accessing HR Support, Without an Ongoing Commitment
We revamped our Pay As You Go (PAYG) HR Service after noticing that many clients, despite initially setting up their basic documents, weren’t keeping them updated with legal changes. This can lead to serious risks and unexpected costs.
We firmly believe that having the basics in place is essential for any business. To make it easy and affordable for even the smallest businesses to set up and maintain their documents, we introduced a Self Service HR Hub as part of our PAYG HR Service.
This hub provides access to the latest Employment Contract and Staff Handbook templates and access to fixed-fee projects for priority areas. We will keep our PAYG clients up to date with upcoming legal changes, and share instructions on how to apply them, while still offering access to top up with PAYG support hours when needed.
You can still rely on us for comprehensive support through our other HR services, but we’ve ensured that everyone has the tools to stay compliant with minimal hassle. Budget should no longer be a barrier to establishing a solid HR foundation for your business. You can find out more about all of our services here.