The Importance of Quality HR for Start-Ups

Starting a new business is a heady, exhilarating undertaking – and one which can take up a great deal of your life, as you familiarise yourself with every aspect of efficiently and effectively starting in your industry of choice. Over the past year, new small businesses have created over 300,000 jobs, as successful enterprises grew enough to necessitate workforce expansion. When your business expands to such an extent, there is one department it may behove you to institute first: HR.

What is HR?

For the completely uninitiated, HR stands for Human Resources and regards the internal management and control of staffing and staff issues – from employment and onboarding to drafting and upholding codes of conduct, managing employee grievances and even organising payroll. HR is your employees’ primary point of contact for concerns or queries outside of their immediate work and a valuable breakwater for employers and management.

Whether or not you invest in a full HR department in the early days of your start-up, you will still need to assign some necessary HR duties to somebody – which is what makes HR considerations so vital as you properly begin to build your business. But how exactly is HR so crucial to business longevity?

Growing Your Business

From a completely pragmatic perspective, instituting a HR department is a powerful step towards equitably growing your business. Entrepreneurs often have to wear many hats when developing a brand or business, and the hiring of more staff only adds more hats, so to speak. When, as a business leader, you are devoting increasing amounts of your working day to staff hiring, onboarding and retention, your business growth is naturally going to grind to a halt. Delegating such tasks to a third party frees up your time, giving you space to focus on the bigger picture.

Problem Solving

HR departments are instrumental in the management of staff, especially so when it comes to interpersonal issues. Where employees have a professional or personal disagreement, or where problematic behaviours pose a threat to company culture and employee safety, HR departments are there to problem-solve for the betterment of staff and, of course, the company. Conflict resolution is a necessary provision, and should be there as something you hope not to need as opposed to absent when you do need it.

Supporting Your HR Team

Of course, HR departments need their own support in order to operate at maximal efficiency. On a base level, HR workers need to be provided with software to assist in essential parts of their business; payroll software is a must for managing employee salaries, for example.

Investment in further tools can make HR departments much more effective in their operation, too. A HR portal for onboarding and disciplinary documentation makes the sharing of relevant information with staff far simpler and reduces man-hours associated with problem-solving.