5 HR Essentials for Small Businesses
Hiring new employees is a fantastic milestone for small businesses because it means that growth is happening, which indicates you’re doing well. However, taking on new staff means increased responsibility in the HR department. You need to ensure that you stay compliant with business regulations to ensure further company growth. It takes one missing policy to have costly lawsuits on your hands. You will find a snapshot of five HR essentials for small businesses below.
1. Employee Handbook
Businesses operate more effectively when employees and employers are on the same page. Producing an employee handbook is a great way to highlight the most important aspects of your policies. When an employee has questions ranging from pay to grievances, the employee handbook should point them in the right direction.
2. Payroll and Pensions
You will need to put in place an effective system for paying employees. Unless you’re a finance expert, the best way to manage payroll effectively is to outsource the task to an accountant. If you can’t afford the service, you should adopt the help of powerful payroll software. Depending on where your business is based, you may be required to set up a pension scheme. Even if you’re not obliged to contribute to a pension plan by-law is an excellent employee retention tactic.
3. Small Business Insurance
There’s no use growing your business if you’ve got nothing in place to protect your business. You need to put the best small business insurance in place, which will cover you in the event of worker’s compensation claims, accidents, professional errors, and natural disasters. When you’re finding the best small business insurance, choose a reputable company with a large customer base, awards, and at least 30 years of expertise behind them. Opting for insurance from a long-standing firm means that they’ve been there from the beginning of the technical uprise, which is important today.
4. Health and Safety
Health and safety policies help govern the way employees operate within a business. Failure to have in place and comply with an H&S policy can end up in enormous fines being directed at your company. As a small business, you only need to codify your H&S policy when you have more than five employees, but it’s good practice to do so in the first instance. Your policy will include essential information regarding trips and falls, fire safety, electrical safety, and working at height.
5. Data Protection
People are warier about sharing their data than ever before, so you need to be cautious. Put a detailed policy in place that explains how you will store data, how long you will retain data, and how you will use held data. It would help if you made it clear that anyone has the right to have their data removed.
This article is not an exhaustive list of required HR policies but is enough to put you in a position to start hiring. First, start your HR process by putting a detailed employee handbook together to highlight the questions employees will have.