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As a business owner, how do you know when you need HR support? We hear many business owners say things like “I’ve never had any issues with my staff, why would I need it?” – Quite often, when it’s needed, its sometimes a little too late to put this in place effectively. UK Law is extremely favourable to the employee, and as such a business needs to ensure it is protected for even the most unexpected circumstances when it comes to staff.
Without taking a pragmatic approach to this complex area, your business will often be focused on paying the bills, getting the work through the doors, often leaving the staff as an afterthought – which is something in today’s workplace – nobody can afford to do.
Accidental business owners, those on huge growth, those who are treading water – there is no bias – each business can (and inevitably WILL) encounter many challenges surrounding the people in your business that make it happen: Sickness, Absence, Staff Retention, your overall PEOPLE culture – all of this comes at a financial cost to the business owner. Delays in fulfilling orders, jobs, customer service …. Remember those goals you once had? People are a key factor in ANY business creating success for itself.
There will be one thing that keeps EVERY business owner up at night, about their business. Trace the origin of this, there is a high % chance this can be traced back to a person within your business on some level.
If any of the above sounds like you, then it could be the time to start looking at having some effective, structured HR / People support in your business.
Content Directory
- The 5 Key Areas Which Will Help You Decide if Now is That Time
- Staff Turnover is High, and They are Leaving to Join your Competitors!
- Finding the Right Talent is Challenging, & the Recruitment Process is Failing to Find the Talent
- Short and Long-term Sickness is on the Rise
- Policies, Procedures & Handbooks Haven’t Been Reviewed in at Least 12 Months (That’s Even if You Have Them)
We’ve Identified the 5 Key Areas Which Will Help You Decide if Now is that Time:
You are spending more time dealing with people issues than growing your business
As businesses grow, it can be quite a challenge to effectively manage staff with a consistent monitoring process. Employee disputes also increase, when more staff are on board – again, how is this managed and resolved. It can be a huge time drain, but something that needs to be prioritised, and something that needs to be done correctly.
How do you ensure this is done correctly? Employment law is a funny old game at the best of times so don’t leave yourself vulnerable – invest in the correct HR support before something happens you weren’t expecting and focus your attention on the growth of your business.
Staff Turnover is High, and They are Leaving to Join your Competitors!
The one thing every employer dreads – investing in staff, training them up, only to find they leave you for your competitor. Unfortunately, in today’s workplace, it’s not all about the end of month payslip anymore (in fact, was it ever really?) The UK national average is approximately 15% per year on staff turnover – of course this will vary between sectors and job roles.
As a business seeing a revolving door when it comes to your employees? This usually means something is out of kilter, and usually the time for a HR expert to get involved to help navigate this tricky time-consuming situation.
Giving your staff a voice is imperative, and understanding why people stay and why they leave will be the key to a strong, engaged workforce in the long term – your HR expert does exactly that all for you, saving you the time.
Finding the Right Talent is Challenging, & the Recruitment Process is Failing to Find the Talent
Recruitment is hard, advertising jobs, sifting through applicants, finding candidates – this all takes time, and time is something as a busy business owner, you don’t have much spare.
This is where an expert HR person can help – they will do all this work for you, until the position is filled with the exact right person for the role.
They will take the time to meet you, understand what / who you are looking for and the craft the full recruitment pack – Job description, advert, interview process and screen the applicants beforehand. Your HR expert can also be on hand to assist with interviewing, alongside you, with the goal of getting the right person into the role. The right expert will also be able to complete the new starter onboarding too!
Short and Long-term Sickness is on the Rise
Sick days cost the UK business a great deal of money …. The ONS reports the following:
An estimated 149.3 million working days were lost because of sickness or injury in the UK in 2021, equivalent to 4.6 days per worker.
Whenever there is a spike in absence due to sickness this should cause concern to business owners – are your employees unhappy, generally sick (could this result in a long-term sick issue?) are they stressed, are they struggling to complete daily tasks and seem disengaged? All of these should be Red Flags pinging in your head when you see a consistent pattern with an employee.
Does your business operate return to work meetings, or for long term issues, monthly welfare meetings? These are key to understanding WHY people are off, and how you as a business owner address this moving forward. The welfare of your employee is your responsibility, something that needs to be taken seriously – Do I need to remind you about Vicarious Liability? (More on that another time!)
Policies, Procedures & Handbooks Haven’t Been Reviewed in at Least 12 Months (That’s Even if You Have Them)
It is a legal requirement that every employee has a legally compliant Employment Contract / Statement of Main Terms. It is advised under best practice that this is accompanied with a staff handbook which lists your business policies and procedures.
This should be reviewed (by a professional) every 12 months, in line with UK employment law changes, which usually happen around April & October (twice a year)
The Good Work plan which came into play in April 2020 was the biggest single change to UK working conditions in a generation – are you aware of the GWP – or has the pandemic caused your documents to slide out of date?
If this is you, then this is the biggest indicator that using a HR Expert is needed in your business in our opinion – we have seen and heard of many good people fall into tricky times with their employees (and the often-unfair system in the UK) all because their documents let them down in a tribunal setting.
Remember, if it’s not written down (and compliant) then it doesn’t exist, so protect your hard work in your business and invest the time to get the right expert HR person working for you, and not against you! Get in touch with CH4B today to arrange a no obligation conversation with our expert HR partner who can take care of ALL of this for you, thus helping you sleep better at night 😉
