Whether entrepreneurs believe it or not, HR is an important ingredient to success.
To grow and build your business, you need staff. When managing a team, it’s more than just providing inductions, carrying out a formal annual review, disciplining those who commit misconduct and organising a work Christmas party to engage your staff.
In fact, if you get HR and Employment Law wrong you could end up harming your business. Not complying with the law can mean you lose great team members, face reputational damage and find yourselves inside an Employment Tribunal.
So here are five key things all entrepreneurs should give serious thought to:
Recruitment is a challenge
Often business owners fail to appreciate just how important the recruitment process is.
It can take considerable time, effort and resource to find the right people for your all-important job vacancies. If you rush through the process or make the wrong choice, not only is it likely that you have to go through the whole recruitment process again to find another applicant and spend more money on recruitment fees, it can also have wider ramifications for the rest of your team. In particular, it can overburden those who are temporarily covering those roles, affecting their morale and productivity.
Discrimination
Plus if you discriminate against job applicants, you may also have to defend claims. This is definitely not a position you want your business to be in.
This is why you should make sure you have an effective recruitment strategy. You need to draft clear non-discriminatory job adverts; get multiple people involved in the selection process; ask applicants the same questions in interviews; apply a fair scoring criteria and ensure everyone is adequately trained to make the recruitment process fair and consistent.
Call our Employment Law Helpline for advice and support.
Retaining staff isn’t easy either
Even once you have recruited great staff to drive forward your business, you need to make sure they stay and are not tempted by a better offer elsewhere. To ensure a low employee turnover, it is important to:
- Give regular feedback on their performance;
- Think about career progression opportunities;
- Review your pay and benefits regularly to make sure you are matching your competition;
- Explore flexible working arrangements; and
- Carry out an employee opinion questionnaire to find out negatives and turn them into positives.
All your contracts and policies should be drafted by experts
Legally qualified Employment Law experts can draft your contracts of employment to ensure that they contain what must be included by law and should be included to protect your best interests. Poor drafting can leave you exposed to legal claims; therefore make sure you make it is a priority.
Your managers should be trained in HR matters
All your managers should be aware of your workplace rules, understand how to carry out key procedures and handle awkward conversations.
Think about if all your managers can do the following:
- Can they resolve disputes between colleagues?
- Do they know how to deal with grievances?
- Are they aware of how to reduce short term sickness absences?
- Are they equipped to identify engagement issues?
- Do they know how to investigate misconduct?
If your managers can’t do these things, this can lead to problems further down the line. Ellis Whittam runs events and e-learning courses to help you keep on top of your HR and Employment Law obligations. Contact us to find out more.
Your HR and Employment Law can be outsourced!
Entrepreneurs want to spend their time on their core business activities and making their business strategy a reality.
By outsourcing your HR and Employment Law you gain access to highly specialised HR and Employment Law expertise; get step by step advice when dealing with challenging workplace issues and ensure compliance with the law.
With a fixed fee service, your costs remain the same no matter how many times you call or email for support.
Find out more about how Ellis Whittam’s fixed fee service works and how it can be your business’ best option for your HR and Employment Law needs.
