4th November 2019
For small businesses, building an HR department can be a complicated and stressful task. Human Resources personnel may not have been top on your list of priorities at the outset of your company’s life, but with expansion often comes a need for HR experts. Instead of being intimidated by the prospect of developing a HR team, and improving HR processes, consider employing these 6 ways to make HR easier.
1) Create a clear, shared area containing HR information for your employees
One common complaint among HR teams is that they spend so much of their time on the phone or replying to emails sent by staff. More often than not, the queries relate to information that could quite easily be made accessible to them. Consider setting up a shared folder containing not only company policies, but also things like team rotas, holiday planning, scheduled paydays, and a ‘cheat sheet’ detailing relevant government policies.
2) Conduct a staff survey about job satisfaction
In 2018, the SHRM/Globoforce survey revealed that 47% of HR personnel believed that staff retention/turnover was their biggest challenge. This illustrates the significance of keeping your employees happy at work. One of the most effective ways to determine how happy your employees are, is to give them the opportunity to speak up, such as with a job satisfaction survey. With this you can identify problem areas, and then set about how to solve them. Happy staff = a happy HR department!
3) Consider outsourcing payroll
When they first start out, many businesses opt to process payroll in-house, manually. This can take up to a matter of days, which can therefore turn into a considerable strain on your resources. If payroll is currently carried out by your HR team, a simple solution is to outsource it to a reliable provider. Our team here at IRIS FMP are adept at running payroll in a safe and secure manner, which is compliant with legislation. Compatible with PAYE, our systems are tested and recognised by HMRC.
4) Communicate regularly with your staff
Another problem for HR departments can be the fraught relationships between their personnel and the wider staff. Employees in all sectors can have preconceptions about HR teams, often to do with the idea that the HR team are secretive or deceptive. A way to remedy this is to encourage communication. Consider scheduling in regular staff meetings, or sending out newsletters to keep all of your employees informed about things going on in the company – including mention of HR aspects.
5) Make the most of social media
A significant proportion of HR time can get taken up in matters concerning the recruitment process. Whether it’s placing adverts or filtering through applicants’ CVs, getting a handle on this area of a company can be somewhat daunting. In these modern times, however, use the tools that are at your fingertips: social media. It takes minutes to set up an account on a social media platform, if you don’t already have one, and this channel has proved to be hugely successful for talent acquisition. In 2017, 59% of candidates said they researched companies on social media.
6) Start using quality HR software
Outdated HR software can leave you with more problems than solutions. Whether this is through system glitches, disorganisation, or slowness, such software is the last thing needed in what can already be a somewhat stressful area of business. The best new software is cloud-based, with self-service functionality for staff for things like holiday approval and sickness, removing some of the HR burden. If your software is holding up your HR, get in touch with our experts to discuss what we offer. Our Amity HR software offers a full-service online solution to your HR needs and our lighter, Amity Essentials HR software is free to businesses with fewer than 10 employees.
By implementing a few of these ideas – or indeed all of them if you feel it’s necessary – you will vastly improve both the workload and the tone of your HR team. This means you can free up the time of those conducting this work, which can then be used for other matters pertaining to the day to day running of your business.
A Guide to Payroll Outsourcing
This guide aims to show you how payroll outsourcing works and key things you need to consider. This will give you a better idea of what to expect from the service and how it can benefit your business. At IRIS FMP we work with organisations from all sectors to ensure their payroll is processed accurately and on time. We know all there is to know about payroll outsourcing and how to make it work for you.
