HR is probably the most underrated profession in the workplace, especially among young companies. Giving HR bare-minimum focus will slow your growth, cost you money, and multiply your frustrations in the long run.
Here are some HR best practices to focus on early in 2020 so you get started on the right foot.
Scalability:
Practically every business out there wants to grow. It’s that vision of exponential growth that keeps small companies at the grind. Planning on and preparing for that growth early will ease the growing pains of adolescent companies.
HR is definitely not immune to those growing pains and may even shoulder the brunt of them. Workforce growth usually accompanies company growth, and HR pros need to be prepared for that.
A key to managing increased HR needs is having scalable processes. Spreadsheets don’t do the trick.
Managing hiring, onboarding, people management, benefits, and PTO with spreadsheets does not scale well. You’ll end up with too many spreadsheets. It’ll be confusing to keep track of them, keep them accurate, and keep up with changes.
A good HR software grows with you by being flexible, well-organized, and easy to use. This way, despite the bigger workforce, you’ll still have time for non-administrative HR work and to help the people at your company thrive.
Culture & Values
Culture has become a big business buzzword, and there’s a reason for that. The need to micromanage is fading out of the workplace just as quickly as the focus on culture grows.
That’s because if an employee’s personal values align with company values, then micromanagement is unnecessary.
In the words of Frances Frei and Anne Morriss in their contribution to the Harvard Business Review, “Culture guides discretionary behavior, and it picks up where the employee handbook leaves off… Culture tells us what to do when the CEO isn’t in the room.”
As a young company, you should decide early who you want to be. If you have a clear set of values that actually guides decision making, you’ll hire people that can just be set loose on an outcome rather than forced to complete a task.
Remember that company values are only wall art if you don’t hire people who will actually live them.
Strategy
Hiring without strategy is like shopping without a list. You’ll end up with what you don’t need and without what you do.
Know what marketing channels you want to tap into before you hire any specialists. Confirm your sales strategy before you set up your team. Understand the demands of a job before you hire someone to fill them.
You’ll avoid a lot of hiring mistakes by having a clear growth strategy and knowing what it requires. Letting a great employee go because you mistook where you were headed as a company is one of the worst feelings as an employer.
Not only can these mistakes take a toll on office morale, but they are expensive in time and money.
Conclusion
HR is a critical business function even, if not especially, in the early days of a company. Make your HR efforts scalable, culture-focused, and strategic in 2020. By doing this, small-business HR pros can greatly impact the long-term growth and success of your business.