For many small business owners, the human resources side of the business is frustrating, especially when it comes to hiring staff or knowing exactly what policies need to be implemented and when.
Luckily, outsourcing your HR needs to an external company is a great solution to dealing with it all yourself or having to invest in a permanent in-house team. Here you can learn about the role of an outsourced HR team and what they can do for your business.
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What is an Outsourced HR Team?
For clarification, you may be curious as to what an outsourced HR team is.
It is a third-party provider that is hired by a company (small or large) to oversee its human resources functions. This prevents in-house hiring, which can be expensive and take up a fair amount of space.
External HR experts, like the HR Dept, can offer businesses a range of functions, based on what they need to help their business tick over and develop. Many of these external departments will oversee the onboarding of new staff by posting adverts, screening candidates, and conducting interviews, or they may oversee payroll and handle taxes come tax season. That’s no small thing!
Usually, a business will outsource to an HR agency to reduce internal costs, to get access to specialised expertise, and to help them scale without needing to hire an entire department.
How Can Outsourcing HR Help Your Business Grow?
Research by Forbes indicates that outsourcing your HR team if you are a small or medium-sized business can help with business growth, but you may be wondering how. Isn’t this another business expense with no real benefit?
HR Compliance
When you are a small to medium-sized business, you are unlikely to have the time or the money to hire an entire HR department, and so, you may be inadvertently be breaking a few HR laws without even knowing it. Indeed, it has been found that only 49% of employers are consistently on top of the ever-changing HR compliance, and the remaining 51% only react to issues when they arise, or address them when they fall behind and it gets flagged.
The outcome for this is obvious. You are exposing your business to legal and financial risk. An HR team can help you get and maintain the essential HR structure and compliance to stay ahead of legal changes, and will help you avoid expensive mistakes. That’s great for employee satisfaction and will also offer you peace of mind.
Helping With Hiring
It is a sign that a business is growing when you need to hire more staff. Of course, this can be a bit of a double-edged sword, as overseeing all the legal requirements for hiring can be time-consuming and costly.
By hiring an external HR team, you will have access to help with hiring the right staff, and you can rest assured that any job adverts will tick all the legal boxes based on where your business is based. This, again, will save you time and will help ensure that your business only gets the top talent. Also, an added bonus: an external HR team will also be able to write employment contracts and oversee PAYE in the UK. As any small business owner will tell you, that latter point is worth its weight in gold!
Freeing Up Resources
If you have ever been to a job interview at a larger company, you may remember having to meet their HR team. These teams can be vast and full of trained and dedicated staff. If you tried to replicate that by yourself, you would certainly burn out within a week.
For small business owners, a core advantage of hiring an external team of HR professionals is that it saves resources. You, or unqualified members of staff, no longer need to fill this role and can focus on other tasks to keep the business running. Then, if an issue arises that is not in your department, you delegate it to HR and get advice. No need to worry and no need to wear multiple hats at the same time.
Professional Development
It is impossible for a business owner to oversee inexperienced staff training, as well as run the business. By hiring an external HR team, you can outsource the necessary training, or, if you aren’t sure which training is needed to get your unfamiliar staff up to scratch, you can seek their advice. This will help new staff to hit the ground running, which will help your business to expand.
So, if you are struggling with HR related issues at your small to medium-sized business, there is no better time to seek the help of an external HR team to see what they can offer you.