When building a startup business, you need to understand how important employees are to your success. To take care of their welfare, and ensure high levels of retention and productivity, you need to have a strong human resources (HR) department. However, maintaining every task under the HR umbrella is challenging during the starting phase of business. Luckily, there is plenty of support available online that will keep you traveling along the correct road. Throughout this article, you will find guidance for setting up your startup’s HR department.
Planning Is Key
You need to plan every aspect of your business before you launch, and your HR operations are no different. Everything from budgeting to time allocated to sourcing an HR team needs to be detailed within the planning stage. Naturally, your time will be stretched and this job can be pushed to the back of the pile for too long. Fortunately, you can alleviate some of the pressure by searching for HR outsourcing companies near me.
Create A Smooth Recruitment Process
Recruitment covers everything from advertisement to onboarding, and your procedures need to feel seamless. After giving the thumbs up to new talent, you need to get the following in order:
- Retain a copy of their I-9 forms, which proves the right to work in the US.
- Hand over copies of your terms and conditions of employment.
- Collect personal details, including bank details for payroll
- Have any other contractual information signed by the applicant.
Once everything has been completed above, your job is to make sure they slot into the company with ease. To do this, hold induction sessions and provide proper training for the role, which would be ongoing throughout their employment. Further, regular 1v1 meetings will help make employees feel valued.
Carefully Consider Employee Compensations
After efficient onboarding of your employees, you need to make sure your company is the best place for them to thrive. If you can master this part of the employee journey, you’re less likely to be faced with high employee turnover. Part of employee contracts should include all compensations and perks, which can include anything from discounts and details of authorized leave to pension contributions.
Keep Compliant
Your business needs to follow laws and regulations laid down by the state and federal governments, which means creating detailed policies designed to manage internal operations and proper employer-employee relationships. In particular, you will need to include policies, taking into account the following:
- Behavior. This will cover everything from disciplinary procedures to sexual harassment and equal opportunities.
- Safety. If you have an office space, you will need a qualified first aid officer and a detailed fire evacuation plan on site. Further, you will need supporting equipment including emergency go bags and fully stocked first aid kits.
Ongoing Employee Development
Your employees will need proper training for their role, otherwise, their levels of productivity will be low. Therefore, you need to create a detailed training plan to see them through their first three months of employment, which will take them to the end of typical probationary periods. During this time, your staff should demonstrate the ability to complete all aspects of the job on a basic level at least. Beyond their initial employment period, you will need to provide continuous professional development (CPD).
Building an effective HR department takes time and hard work, and you’ll never truly reach the finishing line because there is always room for improvement and regulations change constantly. However, if you keep on coming back to your plan and updating it to reflect your current business landscape, you’ll stand a much better chance of surviving and being successful.