Most small businesses do not have the luxury of having a dedicated HR department. The HR responsibilities are usually handled by the owner or the employees who may or may not be trained or equipped with required HR skills.
When the HR functions are managed without the help of HR experts or HR consulting firms, there are bound to be HR challenges related to performance management, hiring, employee training, benefits, etc. It is essential that you identify these HR challenges and find solutions to overcome them. In this article, we’ll focus on some most common HR issues small businesses face and how to avoid them.
Unstructured Hiring Process
If the hiring process is not well-structured, mistakes can happen that have an adverse effect on your business’ growth and performance. Studies have revealed that companies have to pay a heavy price for a single bad hire.
Most common issues that lead to bad hire are:
- Poorly written job descriptions that attract random applicants
- A hasty interview process that results in the hiring of misfits
Possible Solution: Write detailed and concise job descriptions and have a consistent interview process that attracts quality talent.
Inadequate Employee Training
Once the employee’s onboarding process is done, it is the responsibility of the HR to oversee and coordinate with the operations to ensure a smooth transition and proper training. In a small organization, spending time training a new hire may seem time-consuming, but it is absolutely necessary to improve morale and reduce turnover.
Possible Solution: If you are unable to spend time training new employees, assign a mentor for the first few weeks to do the job.
Improper Employee Monitoring
Depending on the location of your business, there may be a few rules and laws concerning paid leave, work hours, compensation, etc., that governing it. If you do not have a proper employee monitoring system, you may find it difficult to pay your employees adequately for the time they work. So, you need to have an adequate monitoring system to ensure that you compensate your employees adequately and be in compliance with the laws.
Possible Solution: Create and implement a system that documents all breaks and overtime accurately.
Ineffective Incentive Structures
While most employees may agree to disagree, rewards and incentives are great motivators and morale boosters. Employees who feel undervalued are likely to work the bare minimum.
Possible Solution: Roll out a reward or incentive program which motivates the employee to achieve a specific goal.
HR Consulting for Your Small Business
As a business owner, it’s important to recognize and address problems in the workplace so that you can prevent them in the future. While you may not have the budget to employ an in-house HR team, you can definitely consider HR outsourcing.
Final Thoughts
Hiring an HR consultant lets you delegate all HR-related tasks, which may include recruiting, payroll, training, benefits administration, etc. HR consulting takes over all HR-related tasks, leaving you more time to concentrate on the more important aspects of business where your involvement is absolutely essential.
Featured image credit: Unsplash.com
Kelly Barcelos is a progressive digital marketing manager for Jobsoid – Applicant Tracking System. She is responsible for leading the content and social media teams at work. Her expertise and experience in the field of HR enables her to create value-driven content for her readers – both on Jobsoid’s blog and other guest blogs where she publishes content regularly.
