Small business owners often lack the interest or skill set to manage their most valuable asset – human resources. Let’s face it, managing people is typically not why an entrepreneur goes into business.
Human Resource Management is a science of its own that entire degrees and certifications are made of. There are many aspects of human resource management and whether an organization is large or small, some things just need to be tended to.
Following are some of the areas of human resource management that need to be considered.
1. Compensation and Benefits
Successful organizations understand the importance of providing competitive compensation and benefits to its employees. Staying current on salary trends is critical in attracting and keeping top employees. In today’s job market, good employees are not shy about looking for a position down the street if they think they will be better compensated. A total compensation package should include base pay and any other benefits offered – health, life, dental, disability insurance, paid vacation and sick time to name a few.
2. Recruitment and Staffing
Knowing where to find the right employees for your organization is critical. Recruiting and screening applications can be a tiring chore but with electronic screening programs, it can be more doable than in the past. There are many software programs and websites that can help with this. Often the fees for these services are very affordable.
3. Training and Development
Training of employees is key to maintaining high levels of standardized quality performance. Personal development is also considered an important benefit to employees. There are three new employee training needs.
1. Organizational Orientation
New employee orientation helps the employee get acclimated to the new work environment, ie: keys to building, access codes, review of employee manual, how to operate the phone system, computer system, copy machine, fax machine, standard procedures for requesting time off, who to call when sick, how to confront and address internal issues.
2. Department Orientation
This is getting acclimated to the specific department an employee is working in. Getting to know co-workers, the culture of the department and basically “how things are done around here”….
3. Job Training
Whether an employee is learning how to answer the telephone for their department or how to operate a piece of machinery, it is critical to have a documented, very descriptive job description outlining:
a. who the employee reports to
b. work hours
c. specific job tasks and responsibilities
d. individual SMART Goals with due date
A well thought out and accurate job description can help minimize confusion and help to create a productive work environment.
4. Employee Relations
Having a good employee relations plan is an important aspect of the HR management function. Ensuring there is a system in place to deal with issues that may arise with employees is very important. Having a process in place to help employees deal with personal issues helps to ease the burden and stress personal problems bring to the workplace. Regulatory compliance is also part of this area.
5. Employee Satisfaction
Tracking and analyzing employee satisfaction as a formality is typically done on larger organizations but an employer can learn a lot from employees by just asking the question “how are we doing managing the operation?” Employees are the front line doers of the work and have a unique perspective of not only how things are done but also how the customer views the organization. By asking the question, whether formally or informally, managers can learn a lot and if what is learned is put into an improvement plan with SMART goals, an organization can make great strides in improving how they operate.
Healthy and successful organizations are made of employees who are told what is expected of them, are given the tools to perform the job and get rewarded for doing a good job.
