Managing HR in a small business

Most small businesses can not justify having a dedicated HR person. The admin heavy and / or complex HR processes can be a real drain on management time. Companies often hire in a part time person to help with HR but this can cause problems:

• Hire a highly skilled HR person and you run the risk of this expensive resource getting bogged down in HR admin (booking holidays, recording sickness etc..) or
• Take on extra admin resource to help with HR processes and you run the risk of non core processes running out of control.

If you are a manager in an SME the chances are you didn't sign up to do HR - nothing wrong with HR, its just not your thing. You should be focusing on selling, operations or delivery. The solution can be found in automating the repetitive HR tasks and outsourcing the complex HR activities.

Tasks that can be automated include:

• Holiday booking & authorisation
• Sickness reporting (including back to work interviews)
• Employee address and core data updating
• Frequent tasks - appraisal reminders, new starters, leavers etc
• Report production

Having a central system for HR data relieves management of a non core task, saves time, increases accuracy and satisfies data protection legislation. It is also an essential tool to maximise the efficiency of outsourced HR services.

Lastly, it provides management with reports and analysis on staff activity. Managers can easily combine data on various topics into one report on which to base decisions. Having access to pre-formatted reports on such topics as employee absence by reason, workers compensation statistics, and salary by department makes understanding the strategic "big picture" much easier.

One word of caution - not all HR systems have the ability to automate tasks. Some only act as an electronic filing cabinet. To get the maximum benefit from this approach you need a system that has employee self service functionality and has been designed for SMEs. Take a look at breatheHR.