The Role of Human Resources
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However, even if you have only one employee, you will need to understand 'what is human resources' and how to manage human resources in your business.
HR is actually very important in small businesses because of the significant impact one or a few employees can have on the business.
And if you have more than five employees, you will need to develop a fairly comprehensive human resources program; using HR strategic planning techniques and building those techniques and strategies into your overall business operations.
What is Human Resources? A Definition of Human Resources
All businesses require resources to execute their business operations plan (related to equipment, software, people, products or services). Human resources is the specific resources category of people who help you operate and run your business.
Your Small Business Human Resources Issues
Focus your efforts on issues that can have the most positive (or negative impact):
workforce planning through your HR strategic planning
recruiting employees (from developing hiring questions to interviewing) and selecting the best people for the job;
once you've got the best people, you focus on employee retention;
track and manage human resources trends;
coaching and counseling;
firing employees or laying off staff during tough times or a business re-sizing;
defining orientation as a priority as you bring on new staff and developing a new employee orientation process;
building employee training development, and linking that training with performance goals through the employee development plan;
train staff on how to do an effective performance evaluation and build a performance review program for your employees, and even yourself (use sample performance evaluations to help write the appraisals);
posting internal and external available jobs;
developing an employee compensation and benefits structure specific to your business needs;
ensuring that your benefits program meets the legal requirements in your area and is competitive enough to attract (and keep) potential employees;
promoting from within when possible;
developing and communicating employee and business policies, in other words an employee handbook; (for example, a sample employee handbook will include a conflict of interest policy, overtime policy, safety commitment, and more);
ensuring that your human resources practices follow legal requirements in your area;
developing job descriptions and operating and/or job standards;
developing conflict management strategies and conflict resolution methods specifically for your business: and coaching people on how to use those strategies and methods ... and more.
The Role of Human Resources
In all businesses, people are your most important resource and the most challenging to manage because you typically require people to help you managing and operating your business and because people are not machines and they do not respond or react in a predictable or consistent manner.
The role of human resources in small business is to focus on the people who are your human resources: you will need to learn how to hire, train, coach and mentor, and develop them to be significant contributors to your business.
For the success of your business and its future growth, you need to include HR strategic planning in your overall business plan as people are your most important resource. Remember also that your employees often have direct or indirect contact with your customers (you want to have capable, customer service focused, and happy employees in contact with your customers), suppliers and other stakeholders.
In a small business, with one or more employees, you may wish to consider the advantages of outsourcing your HR needs. Human resources outsourcing is quite common and there are many talented HR firms, practitioners and specialists who can provide you with the necessary support in key areas.
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