Up Your Start-Up with HR
With the global pandemic, some people had a lot of free time, many were laid off or ran into financial difficulties over the past two years. This was a time when people were inspired to start what they had always wanted to do. Some started for passion while some purely out of financial necessity.
Either way, the pandemic generated a boom in start-ups. However not all of these survived. According to an infographic shared by Entrepreneur.com on start-up failures, half of them failed by the fifth year. This is a very significant proportion while considering the amount of money, time and energy people have invested into them.
Addressing the HR Stereotype
There is a wrong perception of HR amongst some start-ups. Some small tech companies do not believe in recruiters unless they can code. They see HR as a barrier to running their “fun” and “flexible” work environment. One of the many reasons as to why these start-ups fail is because of poor or no human resources management in place.
Here’s how HR will help your start-up?
Creating a great company culture
The presence of a human resources team will enable the cultivation of amazing start-up culture. Another common stereotype is that if a start-up has bean bags and pool tables, they have a “fun “work environment which is not the case at all. These are just physical elements that add to culture, HR is the one who brings in the real essence.
The first person a new recruit would interact with straightaway on his/her first day would be someone from HR not the ping-pong table. They are the ones who take the employee’s experience into consideration, communicate with them and keep in touch with them throughout. This is what builds culture in an organisation. As entrepreneurs you can choose to have any type of culture but ultimately it is fostered by HR and maintained by all within the company.
Managing administrative tasks
There is a lot of administrative work involved in businesses including start-ups. There is a lot of paperwork e.g., employee records, timesheets, legal documents. In a nutshell, you will be handling a lot of files and documents and these will need to be organised and updated regularly. Someone would definitely have to maintain this area and that definitely would not be the start-up’s CEO or software developer or marketing executive. Who do we call for help? THE HR. If there is anyone who can have the willpower to go over this multitude of paper it is HR and this process can be made easier, economical and more effective with the help of HRM software like Peoples HR Cloud. It would help you get rid of using all that paper for documentation and help your start-up become environmentally friendly as well.
Recruiting and retaining the top talent
Recruitment is a prolonged process and start-ups do not have huge hiring requirements but what is important is that they get the perfect person for the job from the start. The HR function would help you here as well. They have the expertise to find the best talent who is suitable to be fit for the position. Processes like screening, contacting candidates, setting interviews and all these related activities are looked at by them. As entrepreneurs you can rely on them and save a lot of precious time and money.
Once your start-up grows, you will have a set of experienced individuals working for you who know the ins and outs of your start-up. The next challenge you most likely will deal with is to retain these experienced employees who are like valuable assets to your business. Unlike big companies’ start-ups simply cannot afford to have frequent employee turnover and allocate more time on training new recruits and getting them accustomed. After a certain period, employees are motivated by meaningful aspects like future growth opportunities. Having a good HR team would help set necessary systems in place for employee growth, performance management, training and development etc. Employees will feel empowered and looked after which will encourage them to stay in the organisation thereby helping the organisation retain talent.
Legal Compliance
The work load within a new start-up can be a lot and entrepreneurs tend to be fully invested. At a point as such no entrepreneur would want to be troubled by representative of a government body and use their time into solving legal matters. They would most likely not have the experience to handle such situations as well. Compliance requirements may change from time to time. This is where HR comes and saves the day. They are the go-to folks for legal issues like state and labour laws.HR would educate you in these areas, ensure that work is carried out lawfully and that the company does not have to face any issues.
Start-ups do not need to have a huge HR department. A couple of dedicated HR professionals along with some good HR Tech would make this so much convenient. Using customisable DIY HR software like Peoples HR Turbo would be a good choice for start-ups.
Some start-ups still may choose not to have a HR function in house and may just outsource this completely and that’s still fine as long as you have HR somewhere. Solutions like HRO are suitable and an economic option for businesses who wish to outsource and meet their HR needs. The only downside being the lack of personnel within the organisation who would know the ins and outs of the function and the resulting lack of control. Therefore, do not give into stereotypes and get onboard the right mix of an HR Team along with the right HR Tech to run your businesses smoothly.
