Where should small businesses get started when building their HR program?
These 5 tips are a great place to start a Human Resource Management program that utilizes HR best practices.
1. Create an Employee Handbook
Your company’s employee handbook outlines your key policies, procedures, operating norms, value, mission, and culture. It also sets out expectations for both the employer and the employees, formalizes company policies to prevent misunderstandings, and ensures that workers are treated equally. The policies in an employee handbook can include working hours and location, employee development, health and safety policies, legal and compliance policies, and equal opportunity commitments. Employee handbooks are a great way of providing all of this information in one accessible place.
2. Build a Talent Acquisition Strategy
HR departments don’t just recruit – they’re also responsible for creating an integrated recruitment strategy. A recruitment strategy centres hiring plans around long-term strategic goals. With a well-defined recruitment strategy, businesses can proactively fulfill business needs by creating pools of talented candidates for the future and aligning workforce and staffing plans with business objectives and growth strategies.
3. Measure HR Effectiveness
You likely already know what HR functions you have been responsible for, but do you know how well they’re performing? All businesses should be measuring a few HR metrics and KPIs in addition to other business metrics. Two areas that you may want to focus on are: employee turnover and employee satisfaction.
4. Build Solid Compensation Plans
Building competitive compensation plans helps businesses attract and retain top talent. However, candidates and employees want more than just a competitive salary, so employers must put together a well-rounded benefits and compensation plan and SELL IT. Workers are also looking for adequate time off, perks and flexible work arrangements.
5. Learn how to Communicate with Employees
Effective workplace communication is essential to maintain trust and build loyalty and rapport. Unfortunately, very few companies make it a priority. It may be impeded by inefficient organizational structures, but communication is fundamental to a business’s success. Communication should be a two-way street, and it’s your job to ensure that you enact the right strategies to make it happen. This can include anything from regularly scheduled performance feedback meetings to notifying employees of significant changes.
Boom People Solutions provides Human Resource consulting and our services are tailored to the needs of each client’s workforce. With 15+ years of HR experience in natural resources, construction and union employment, we are proud to provide an immeasurable amount of knowledge and expertise to any small business we have the pleasure of working with.