Benefits of Human Resource Management and Why It Is Important for Small Businesses

The multi-faceted requirements of human resources (HR) can present problems for even the most successful organizations. Small businesses who handle HR internally tend to neglect important day-to-day tasks required to run a successful business. Over time, the stress of wearing multiple hats may lead to compliance issues, missed deadlines or worse. Help avoid problems and give your business the attention it needs to thrive by working with a human resource management (HRM) company—a company that helps you manage your HR processes. Here’s everything you need to know about human resource management and how it can benefit your small business.

The Basics of Human Resources 

To understand HRM, it’s important to know the basics of human resources. While each industry is different, there are certain components that almost every company deals with. They include the following:

• Recruitment and hiring
• Performance management
• Employee development
• Employee compensation and benefits
• Expense management
• Time tracking and attendance
• Risk mitigation
• HR data and analytics
• Employee retention

What is Human Resource Management? 

If you’re looking to outsource your HR, you need to find a reputable company that offers industry-specific HR solutions. HRM is an umbrella term that encompasses functions that help you manage your employees such as those listed above. It starts from the moment recruitment and hiring begins, covers performance management, employee development and effective communication. It continues through the establishment of proper protocols for employee separation and carries on well afterward.

7 Ways Human Resource Management Benefits Small Businesses 

It’s important not to underestimate the impact of HR on your business. While you might think that you can handle things internally, outsourcing your HR offers a multitude of benefits. Partnering with an HRM expert can help you secure top talent, create a stronger onboarding process, improve employee retention, elevate employee benefits, deal with fewer compliance issues, access HR remotely and save valuable time and energy.

1. Secure Top Talent. 

Attracting industry-leading talent takes a big commitment. It requires time, energy and finances. Businesses report that on average, it takes about 23 days to find the right candidate for a job, but the best candidates are off the market in 10 days. If your business is more technical or in a specific niche, this timeline changes. Once you find a qualified candidate, you’ll still need to conduct interviews. If you don’t ask the right questions during this process, you can end up hiring the wrong employee. This can have financial drawbacks of $10,000 or more—depending on the length of time they were employed.

Instead of wasting time posting to irrelevant job boards and ads, you can work with a professional employment organization (PEO) to help secure top talent. By defining your company culture based on your mission, vision and values, you’ll attract strategic talent. You’ll have access to industry-specialized expertise and insights to make informed decisions more efficiently.

2. Stronger Onboarding

Even if you find the perfect candidate that will work well with your company, onboarding can make or break their future. Your company’s onboarding process is how you make a first impression on your new hire, welcome them to your company and prepare them for success in their role. When handled poorly, onboarding can have adverse effects and set your new employee up for failure. By working with a PEO, you’ll have access to expert guidance and time-tested onboarding procedures—so your new employees can hit the ground running.

3. Improve Employee Retention

Companies with high turnover rates tend to lose money and eventually, deter top talent. For every employee that leaves and needs to be replaced, you’ll spend about 33% of that position’s salary. Unfortunately, many small businesses don’t understand why the turnover is occurring. Human resource management companies can help you understand the reasons for turnover with a detailed analysis of compensation in targeted markets. While you might need to increase the salary for certain positions to retain employees, you’ll save money in the long run.

Strategic HR solutions from a qualified company can boost employee engagement, performance and improve team building. Real-time feedback may uncover hidden issues, find solutions to problems and make sure that your employees feel valued. By utilizing proven performance management tools, you can transform your employees into productive and effective teams. Team building can help your employees reach their full potential, which may lead to increased company productivity and higher profits. And with continuing education opportunities, you’ll give your employees resources they need to learn relevant information and stay up to date on industry specifications.

Keeping your employees safe while they’re on the job is also an important facet of HR. By utilizing risk mitigation programs and industry-specific assessments onsite, you may reduce the likelihood of workplace injuries. If they do occur, you’ll have access to a strong workers’ compensation program.

4. Access to Big-Company Employee Benefits

Small businesses are often limited in their employee benefits packages, but when you team up with an experienced PEO, your business’ size no longer limits benefits. You’ll receive access to a variety of insurance carriers with great options for spouses and pets, plus perks for employees. This will keep your current employees happy and help you attract industry-leading talent. You’ll gain access to a broad range of health coverage and retirement plans as well as voluntary benefits such as critical accident and illness policies, access to auto and home policies, commuter benefits and more.

TriNet is proud to partner with leading health insurance carriers that include access to premium benefits beyond medical, dental, vision, life, disability, retirement and transit.

Not only can you offer more desirable employee benefits, you’ll have relief knowing that the TriNet sponsored medical benefit plans comply with employee benefits regulations and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). You’ll have expert support and guidance to navigate this complex environment, a plan administrator to accept fiduciary responsibility and peace of mind knowing that your medical plans meet coverage requirements.

5. Fewer Compliance Issues

There are potentially hundreds of individual rules and regulations with which HR departments are required to comply. If you’re not trained in this area of expertise, staying in compliance becomes a full-time job. You’ll need to ensure your company is in line with all of the applicable rules and regulations that impact employment and employee relationships. This includes everything from hiring, benefits, payroll and termination.

Even the smallest companies are required to uphold compliance regulations. If you only have a few employees, this takes away valuable time and energy from running and growing your business. By outsourcing your HR, you’ll be able to help protect your business and gain the confidence that you have resources to help with the ever-changing employment-related regulations and compliance obligations. Experts will be there to act as your HR ally and assist with federal, state and local regulations while helping with certain employment- related inquiries. They can also assist you to create a well-documented trail to help protect you if legal issues arise.

6. Access HR Anytime, Anyplace

One thing that makes HR more difficult is the dependence on office-based resources to get things done. By teaming up with an outside PEO, you’ll have access to a comprehensive HR software platform with self-service and mobile tools that allow you to manage your HR in real time. This allows you to save time and energy while gaining immediate access to the insight you need to make the right decisions.

Your employees will benefit from an HR technology platform as well. They’ll be able to view pay stubs, make changes to Form W-4s, enroll in benefits, update direct deposit info, request time off and more. This technological integration gives you access to the HR data you need anytime, anyplace.

7. Help Save Time and Energy

One of the most beneficial aspects of partnering with an HRM company is the time and energy that you may save. By having a thought leader for your HR requirements, you’ll free up valuable time to grow your business and develop your products and services.

The first step in benefiting from HRM is making the decision. According to SHRM, 54% of small businesses handle human resources internally, using a PEO with comprehensive HR solutions will allow you to focus on company growth without the accompanying challenges.

By teaming up with an HR service provider like TriNet, you’ll be free to focus more on your people and growing your business. To help free SMBs from HR complexities, TriNet offers access to human capital expertise, benefits, risk mitigation and compliance, payroll and real-time technology. Contact us to learn more about how your small business can benefit today.

This communication is for informational purposes only; it is not legal, tax or accounting advice; and is not an offer to sell, buy or procure insurance.

This post may contain hyperlinks to websites operated by parties other than TriNet. Such hyperlinks are provided for reference only. TriNet does not control such web sites and is not responsible for their content. Inclusion of such hyperlinks on TriNet.com does not necessarily imply any endorsement of the material on such websites or association with their operators.