All companies, and small businesses specifically, must support their employees to retain them and help their company grow. Small businesses attract and retain top talent by having an attractive company culture and best-in-class benefits. For many small businesses, however, that can be challenging.
Fulfills Legal and Financial Responsibility
Even if you have an HR team, they get pulled in many different directions. That places an additional strain on your smaller companies. But with the proper support, your small business can achieve its goals.
1. Smaller Companies Have Fewer Resources
Small business employees often wear multiple hats. Your workers may have duties outside their job description, something that's needed for your company to keep growing.
HR is no exception. Small business HR teams, if a company even has one, have few resources, leaving them with less efficient processes to handle their tasks. For example, without comprehensive HR technology, it makes it very difficult for a small business HR team to effectively manage personnel files, confidential employee information, and payroll records.
That also affects benefits. Because a small business won't have the ability to leverage costs, many cannot offer employee benefits. It's simply too expensive.
One of the best ways for a small business to overcome this challenge is to partner with a Professional Employer Organization (PEO). A PEO can help your small business grow quickly and sustainably.
2. Less Staff to Handle HR Tasks
In a small business, the owner will handle many, if not all, HR duties. When you're small, you rarely can increase your staff with employees who aren't generating revenue.
Unfortunately, while HR team members don't contribute directly to revenue, they contribute indirectly. They take the burden off your shoulders, and they help develop an attractive company culture that can help you hire top talent in your industry.
There are many nuances to HR-related work. From legal compliance to handling sensitive employee information, you need someone you can trust to handle these tasks accurately every time. Instead of hiring a full-time HR employee, you can partner with a PEO. It gives you cost savings and access to a team of experts instead of relying on just one HR employee.
3. Organizational Structures are Still Developing
Smaller companies take a long time to develop their internal structures. As teams and departments grow, policies, procedures, and structures fall into place. However, without an HR team to put these structures in writing, you may end up reinventing the wheel each time.
Without a company handbook, a time off policy, a performance management process, or any other policies and procedures written down, you could find yourself handling tasks and issues on a case-by-case basis. That creates a situation ripe for legal headaches.
When you prioritize your HR tasks, you button up your policies, ensuring fair enactment with every employee. You also ensure that you have a structured process to follow every time.
4. Recruitment and Onboarding are More Cumbersome
Recruiting and onboarding employees is not only time-consuming, but it also needs to be executed perfectly. The hiring and onboarding process is your company's first impression of a new employee. If it's chaotic and unorganized, the potential employee may look elsewhere, thinking that their daily work will be just as disorganized.
Recruiting quality workers and getting them to stick around requires a structured process. When HR creates this process for you, you can repeat it every single time, ensuring that every candidate gets the same experience and your small business sets a stellar first impression.
Because you may be handling recruitment and onboarding yourself, that means you don't have much time for employee training. Even if you have a small HR team or an HR department of one, they probably have little to no time for training, either. That can leave new employees in the dark about their role and unsure of what they should be doing.
With a PEO, they can help you develop a repeatable training program, in addition to developing a structured process for your recruiting and onboarding. Setting the tone of the first impression can make a difference in your company getting a competitive advantage.
Partner with a PEO for Future Success
A PEO can help offset the HR burden your small business faces. From payroll to benefits administration to legal compliance, you can rest assured that your company is in good hands.
You can also save a good amount of money over hiring another HR team member. Hiring new employees takes a great deal of time and money. You could spend tens of thousands of dollars just getting a new employee through their first 90 days.
However, when you partner with a PEO, you don't have to waste your already limited resources on recruiting and onboarding a new HR employee. Instead, you gain access to HR experts dedicated to helping your business succeed. They get to know you, your employees, and your business to help move you in the right direction, setting policies and procedures to keep your business and employees working effectively.
Partnering with PEO allows your staff to focus on building a great company culture. By shedding the complex and mundane HR responsibilities, they can work to give your employees the best experience possible, making it easier for your small business to attract and retain top talent.
