As your business grows and you need to take on employees to handle the workload, there will come a moment where you realise you need help, the right HR support, when it comes to being an employer of people.
You are amazing at the thing you do, whether it’s designing a great website, baking fantastic cakes or delivering parcels to customers to name a few, but when it comes to knowing employment law and how to get things right for your people it can feel a bit like dark magic.
It can be daunting when you start to consider how to get yourself the kind of support that is right for your business and your budget so this blog explores the four ways you can achieve exactly that.
Train a team member to look after HR
For smaller businesses, training an existing employee to take on some HR duties alongside their normal role might seem like the obvious choice. The appeal of this may be not needing to hire someone new or have any outsourcing costs to pay. This can certainly work but if you’re thinking about taking this route, you need to be sure the person you chose is properly trained to support with the aspects of HR you need.
The training of this team member will of course have its own costs attached and it may take some time before the person is at the level required to look after HR. Typically, the biggest risk to this option is that the person you chose doesn’t have the level of knowledge and experience in many areas of HR and employment law which could cause problems down the line if you find yourself with a situation of ‘HR gone bad’.
Hire an internal HR Manager
The biggest advantage to this option is that your business has a dedicated person to look after your HR, either on a part-time or full-time basis. If this feels like this is the best route to take for your business, you’ll need to consider hiring costs, continued training costs to ensure this person is fully up-to date with the latest employment laws and developments, and the cost of their salary. Typically, most smaller companies don’t need a dedicated in-house resource like this as the workload wouldn’t be enough to warrant it on an ongoing basis and the cost of hiring someone with this skillset too high.
Outsource to a large HR company
There are lots of big HR companies out there who provide affordable HR packages. They keep costs low by having a call centre style approach to providing HR advice when you need it. For some business this functional approach is a good fit but for those who want a more personal service it isn’t so much. Businesses who work with large HR companies can feel a lack of the personal touch and much more like a number than a valued client but it does give access to someone to speak to when needed.
Outsource to an independent HR consultancy
If your business wants the benefits you would see from a dedicated in-house HR Manager, but without the associated costs to take on an employee, outsourcing to an independent HR consultancy could be a great option.
An independent HR consultant can play a valuable part of your extended team, taking the time to get to know you, your business and importantly how you like to work. They are experts in HR and bring up to date skills, knowledge and experience in employment law and best practice. Working in this way with an independent HR consultant represents great value for money because it allows you to access high levels of knowledge AND at a much lower cost than taking on an employee.
I hope you’ve found this blog useful and it’s covered many of the questions you’ve had about the different ways you could access HR support which fits perfectly for your business.
If the idea of working with an independent HR consultant like me is something you would like to explore further to see if we would be a good fit to work together, book a 20 minute, no obligation video call with me HERE
