The majority of SMME business leaders find HR a time liability and categorise it as a pure cost centre. These companies often consider their HR solutions as inappropriate and a ‘little risky’. However, something that is never quantified is the cost of risk nor the profitability of good HR. On the flip side to being risky some see them as constraining their business and they should be able to do what they want when they want.
This guide to HR solutions touches on employee retention, company benefits, improved employee engagement, strengthening company culture and more profit increasing tools. It also brings in the all important legislation with the employment relationship.
What Is HR Management?
The three main legal-related responsibilities of this function are hiring + dismissals, employee compensation + benefits, and job definitions. The business responsibility of HR is to leverage business productivity by achieving the best employee effectiveness.
Why Is HR Necessary?
Without employee performance, engagement and retention, your business will struggle to achieve its objectives. Companies with a good HR reputation attract quality resources. Employees will put up with a lot more, if they feel actively listened to and are directly contributing to solutions. Very few employees quit a company because of the money. 63.3% of companies in new research say retaining employee is actually harder than hiring them.
Mistakes To Avoid
Every SMME owner or leader has similar questions needing to be answered. Here are a few mistakes to avoid:
1) Hiring Mistake
SMMEs are mostly under pressure and hiring is very time-hungry but hiring someone who clashes with a company culture drops everyone’s productivity and engagement.
Thorough background checks should never be avoided. What if a back ground had stop you from being the subject to upward bullying and an application to stop bullying at the Fair Work Commission – it does happen.
Get advice on what behavioural questions best gauge candidates.
2) Job Descriptions
‘Jack-Of-All-Trades’ and ‘general admin’ doesn’t clearly show the role the person will be doing. How do you hire against that description? How do you retrench or dismiss against those descriptions?
3) Organisational Socialisation
Time spent on organisational socialisation (onboarding) sets the base from which your new employee will take their first steps to success, AND it will set their engagement levels. Research has shown
- 30% of job seekers have left a job within 90 days of starting
- 43% of surveyed employees claim corporate culture was the main reason for their search for a new job.
4) Documenting
All performance reviews (Performance Improvement Plans), meetings and challenges must be documented from the first observation. Dismissal without full documentation leads to legal action.
Positive records motivate staff to aim for raises and promotions.
5) Employee Handbook
An employee handbook reflects legislatively-aligned company policies and procedures including leave day requests, the drug and alcohol policy, background checks, discrimination and harassment policies.
The handbook is signed by every employee and must be easily accessible.
Contact us today for a free employee handbook template
6) Classification
Employees must know their correct classification, i.e. casual, perm part-time, perm full-time, temporary or contract worker. The bookkeeper needs this information documented as well as they need to have the correct classification on the payroll and this is particularly important when using payroll systems that align with award provisions.
The information outlined above is only a guide – we recommend you use an HR specialist to review your HR solutions to ensure you are compliant. Contact our helpful professionals for assistance. We can work side-by-side or remotely, with you, within your budget parameters.