Guest Blog: Why outsourcing HR makes great sense
No matter how few or how many employees you have, there’s a whole host of rules and regulations you need to respect to stay on the right side of the law. Everything from recruitment to dismissal has to be treated compliantly and in respect of the legislation that’s in place at the time. Staying up to date with what often seems like ever changing HR legislation, in addition to running your business, can be just a step too far for many business owners, which is why more and more start-ups and SMEs alike are choosing to relieve themselves of their HR burden by outsourcing to an expert.
Here are 10 great reasons to outsource your HR:
1. Your business is big enough but still too small. Your company isn’t big enough to employ an HR manager, but you need to know you’re doing everything by the book. Small businesses that can justify having their own, dedicated HR manager these days are few and far between. The main reason for this is the cost. If you retain your HR responsibilities in house, you need to invest, not only in your HR manager, but also in keeping them up to date and covering their post when they’re off sick or on holiday.
2. You’re facing new HR challenges. For example if you’re increasingly finding yourself in the situation where you need specific HR advice, maybe about discipline or grievance issues. Irrespective of whether you’re facing the happy task of managing your first maternity leave or you’ve got your first disciplinary situation staring you in the face, knowing where to turn can be a nightmare. It’s in situations like these that the right HR outsource support is worth its weight in gold.
3. It’s time to get things formalised. Your business has reached the stage where you need to formalise your HR policies and procedures. At what stage this will happen depends on how many members of staff you’ve got and the nature of their contracts, but making sure you have an HR policy and HR procedures in place becomes essential for most growing businesses at some point. Creating your own HR manual is costly and probably not the best way forward. Working with a professional HR outsourcing company, you’ll get the documentation you need at a fraction of the cost of investing in the development of bespoke materials if it’s not
necessary.
4. You’re struggling to fill the gap. If your staff holiday and sickness leave is driving you up the wall, then your outsourced HR company will provide you with the right software to stay ahead of the game.
5. You want a different carrot. You’d like to introduce a reward system that calls for ‘out of the box’ thinking. In this case, it may well be that you’d welcome some outside support. A good outsourced HR facility will have lots of ideas on how you can legally and compliantly incentivise your staff in a way that fits the budget and objectives of your business.
6. You need to make someone redundant. If you’re in the horrible situation of needing to make one or more of your staff redundant, then you’ll need all the support you can get. Outsourced HR services will be there for you every step of the way, making sure that you operate compliantly and at the same time caringly.
7. Planning for the future. If you are about to go over 5 employees and need to find out more about stakeholder pensions, your HR support staff will make sure you do just what you need to do and no more.
8. You know you need to stay up to date. You’ve managed your HR in-house up until now, but you’re losing pace with changing HR legislation and are worried
that you might get caught out.
9. You want to organise a complex recruitment drive. Making sure you get the right people on board starts with placing the right ads or making the right searches in the right places. With the recruitment world changing at a scary pace, it’s tough knowing where is the best place to look for the people you’re hoping to hire.
10. You want to stay out of the tribunals. Getting dragged over the coals by a disgruntled employee is every employer’s worst nightmare. Working with the right HR professionals will help you avoid this at all costs.
About the author: This article was written and submitted by Paul Marsden, who looks after the Payplus payroll bureau, which also runs recruitment sector payrolls. By qualification Paul is a Tax Accountant, but these days does little in the way of tax accounting. In his role as accountant he has worked with small and medium sized businesses for over 25 years; a period that has seen many changes, particularly regarding the accessibility and implementation of technology.
Paul has an exceptionally strong personal and professional interest in technology and gets a real buzz from helping business owners use technology to become more efficient so they have more time to focus on business growth.
He’s spent the last 5 years running an outsourcing business that provides bookkeeping, payroll and accounting software services to SMBs. Paul is a member of the IAAITC (International Association of Accountants Innovation and Technology Consultants), a group of UK accountants who combine to promote forward thinking in IT across the accountancy profession. Currently the IAAITC is developing a framework for SMB’s to deal effectively with Information Security.