Organizations need Human Resources departments for a wide variety of reasons. If you are just in the new phases of opening your own business, you might think that HR departments are all about benefits administration and finding new employees. That is just the beginning, though, because a solid HR operation can make every part of an employee’s experience with your company smooth, removing logistical obstacles so that your operation remains efficient and profitable. Check out this list of reasons why any organization can benefit from a strong HR team.
Strategic Management Skills
HR departments understand the ways in which human capital impacts the outcomes for an organization. An HR department with leadership that has expertise in strategic management can contribute to your company’s decision-making in ways that can cause staffing assessments and projections to contribute to your bottom line.
Salaries and Wages
Compensation specialists devise compensation structures that are realistic for your organization’s industry and location. Through a series of salary and wage surveys, they work to create a salary structure that keeps your costs in line with what your competitors are spending, what you can afford, and your expectations for profitability.
Ensuring Compliance
There are times when provincial and federal laws seem designed to hinder small business more than help it, but a strong HR department ensures that your organization does not run afoul of those laws – which can lead to significantly more government interference. They take the paperwork off your plate and ensure that your employees are eligible to work in Canada, and that your policies follow laws when applicable for filling government contracts.
Staffing Processes
Hiring managers and HR professionals make a team when it comes to the best hiring choices, filling positions according to the unique needs of your organization. HR experts can help your managers, who may not understand standard hiring protocols in Canada, so that your company gets the best available candidates.
Recruiting and Onboarding Staff
When you have a solid HR department, you don’t have to review resumes or set up interviews – they do that for you. They also process new employees, so that all you have to do is prepare yourself for top-notch employees on their first day with your organization.
Minimizing Exposure to Liability
Few events are as crippling to a company as lawsuits for unfair employment practices. HR employee relations specialists identify and deal with workplace issues that could end up in court if no one pays attention to them. Anti-discrimination and harassment laws are real; the best HR specialists find ways to defuse situations before they end up in a newspaper or in front of a jury.
Training and Developing Employees
When it comes to orienting new employees into your company – building an essential first impression that plays a major role in reducing turnover when done correctly – effective HR training specialists deliver training in an engaging way, supporting the mission statement of the company and producing the next crop of future leaders.
Maintaining and Increasing Company Morale
Morale is key to keeping turnover low – and productivity high. HR employee relations specialists use employee opinion surveys, focus groups and other measures of employee input to keep an eye on job satisfaction and to suggest strategies for maintaining positive working relationships for the company.
Benefits Analysis
Employee attrition, turnover and replacement all cost the company money. This is how benefits specialists can make a difference by negotiating benefits packages for the company that can lead to savings to compensate for those other costs. Benefits specialists keep abreast of the most popular benefit package elements that will keep workers with the company longer.
Safety and Risk Management
Worker safety is a responsibility of every company, and risk management specialists are aware of the latest changes in provincial and federal laws in these areas. The best specialists work proactively to develop programs that reduce the incidence of injuries and fatalities in the workplace.
How can a third-party HR company benefit your organization? Depending on the size of your company, you may not have the funds to pay a full-time salary for one HR manager – let alone an entire department. There are companies that specialize in these services on a third-party basis, and the fact that they perform these functions for so many clients means that they have a smooth process in place to handle these functions for your company. With employer advice and consultants available around the clock, 365 days a year, you can focus on marketing and selling your business – growing your revenue.
Instead of going through distractions from growing your business, you can use a third-party HR company to deal with all of the important paperwork that keeps companies going. The best companies offer unlimited service and advice, around the clock. Using a third-party HR company allows you to do what you do best without worrying about just about all of the basic day-to-day operations of your company.