11 Ways HR Consulting Outsourcing Could Help Your Business

Human resource consulting outsourcing can give small and medium-sized businesses access to specialized HR experts without needing to generally bring on additional specialists in-house.

In working with an HR consultant company, a business can obtain a wide range of services which can include:

• Review of your current HR processes and recommendations for increasing efficiency.
• Talent strategies to increase employee satisfaction, retention, and productivity.
• Expert guidance on best practices for supporting HR administrative functions.
• More effective employee recruitment and development.
• Specialized support for risk mitigation.
• People analytics and compensation benchmarking.

These experts can help SMBs streamline their HR operations, attract great employees, enhance employee productivity, get answers to everyday and complex HR questions, and mitigate the risk of non-compliance.

Let's take an in-depth look at what's possible when an SMB turns to HR consulting.

Core HR Services Offered by Consulting Firms

As an employer, you are responsible for attending to all the nuances of human resources. It’s a lot for an SMB to handle on its own. 

Many HR administrative tasks are a necessary part of keeping your company running smoothly and fulfilling your legal obligations. But there's another level of HR services that require specialized expertise. 

These HR services could help a company reach its highest potential. Many SMBs get basic HR functions help from a vendor and they also turn to HR solutions to meet their most challenging HR needs.

A small business might obtain HR solutions from a variety of sources, including:

• Professional employer organizations (PEOs), which provide specific HR solutions and administrative services as allocated within a co-employment arrangement. 
• Administrative services organizations (ASOs), which give you more options to choose the services you need support with.
• Consulting firms, which focus on providing expert advice on HR processes and issues.

The strategy of engaging third party help that will work best for your company depends on whether you are looking strictly for consulting support or whether you need other HR specific support such as for administrative HR tasks. Whichever route you take, here are 11 ways that HR consulting outsourcing could help.

1. Compensation

How do you decide on the compensation you offer for each position in your company? If the compensation is too low, you could face costly employee turnover and lower employee morale. If it’s too high, you could allocate those resources elsewhere.

HR compensation consultants use their expertise and advanced HR technology to help you hit the compensation sweet spot. You could gain access to detailed benchmark reports showing current compensation norms in your industry and geographic area.

2. Talent acquisition

The key to business growth and success is hiring, keeping and motivating talented employees. HR consultants can provide help throughout the employment cycle by:

• Developing and implementing best practices for talent acquisition. This includes best practices for finding and attracting the most suitable candidates for your industry and employment roles, streamlining the steps of the application process and establishing an efficient onboarding process that gets your new hires off to a great start.
• Talent management. Consultants can help you bring out the best in your employees by providing guidance on best practices for reviews, facilitating communication between employees and supervisors and among team members, helping employees set and meet goals, and helping remote employees feel included and more connected with other employees and with the company culture.
• Contract management. If you have independent contractors engaged for your company, HR consultants can help with contract management. If your contractors are located in another state or country, HR consultants with specialized expertise in that geographic area can help navigate the laws that can affect contractor relationships.

3. Payroll services

Payroll is complicated, and it’s crucial to get it right. Employee satisfaction depends on your processing payroll accurately and on time. In addition, mistakes in payroll processing can get you in possible trouble if you violate any one of the rules and requirements.

HR consulting outsourcing can provide you with human and technology resources to help you keep your payroll processing easily and efficient. You can expect:

• Access to technology systems that provide speedy payroll processing and data syncing throughout the system to help minimize clerical mistakes.
• Assistance from experts with years of industry experience and advanced knowledge of payroll processing.
• Help to stay up to date with the constantly evolving payroll landscape.
• Best practice guidance in understanding overtime rules, time-off requirements, final-paycheck rules and other wage and hour requirements.
• Help with handling unique or unfamiliar payroll requirements.
• Best practices guidance on navigating compliance with multi-state payroll requirements if you have employees in more than one state.

4. Employee benefits

Providing attractive employee benefits, like offering competitive compensation, is a key element in getting and keeping the top employees you need. Consultants can help you choose and manage benefit packages, saving you the time and effort of trying to navigate unfamiliar territory on your own.

5. Leadership and organizational development

HR solutions vendors can help when you need to implement leadership development programs, helping you prepare your most talented employees to assume greater responsibility and move up in your company. Consultants often have expertise in organizational development, which can help make your business more effective by analyzing and suggesting enhancement to the company culture and processes.

6. Vision and strategy

Business leaders know that change is inevitable. Operational drift, however, is not. HR consultants can help with strategic planning that helps you focus your organization's mission and vision. They can help business leaders:

• Review their strategic planning
• Update their organization structure and design
• Communicate effectively. 

Growing SMBs might also need help with merger and acquisition issues, too.

7. Training and development programs

The benefits of training and development are two-fold. First, they provide your company with the skills that it needs, especially as the business grows and the need for new roles arises. Second, they keep employees engaged and motivated, which can enhance productivity and reduce turnover. HR support services can guide you in finding the best training and development solutions for your company.

8. Change and performance management

HR consultants can provide the expertise and experience to help you gain a competitive edge by gracefully navigating changes in your industry or the overall economy. They can introduce best practices for performance management to help you maximize your employees’ productivity.

9. Compliance support

Compliance involves keeping up to date with many different moving parts. HR consulting services could help with both big-picture compliance support and attention to the crucial details.

10. Global HR solutions

When you have employees or contractors in more than one country, you have to comply with each country’s rules and requirements. The assistance of an HR consultant with localized knowledge and experience can be essential for avoiding potential compliance pitfalls.

11. Process enhancement and workforce optimization

HR consultants can analyze your HR processes and work with you to develop and implement plans to enhance your HR functions and increase the productivity of your workforce.

A Wellspring of HR Expertise

Many SMBs have everything they need to thrive in a shifting marketplace, except for the specialized expertise that could help them make the most of their human resources. This is where TriNet’s experts can help.

When choosing an HR solutions vendor, experience counts. TriNet has developed in-depth knowledge that you can tap into to help your company achieve its strategic goals. We’ll support you as you evaluate your company’s strengths, find areas for enhancement and work with your stakeholders so you can have an insightful action plan that will support you to success step-by-step.

To learn how HR outsourcing and solutions can transform your HR functions from a cost center to a strategic advantage, download our free eGuide: The Power of HR Outsourcing; From Overhead to Advantage.