HR myths about SME’s busted

For those of us that live and breathe HR, it can be frustrating to constantly defend the importance of what we do. I frequently hear “Oh, we don’t need HR, our Office Manager handles that.”

Then there are those that think HR is nothing more than maintaining files and making sure payroll gets submitted. The truth is HR is much more than paper pushing and file maintenance. It takes great dedication, commitment and knowledge to be a true HR professional. There are a lot of areas where SMEs get into trouble with their HR, such as:

• Managing grievances e.g. bullying, sexual harassment
• Unfair dismissals
• Managing underperformance of employees
• Parental leave and the requirements for the employee and the employer
• Managing absenteeism
• Keeping up to date with HR legislation and implementing HR frameworks
• …and the list goes on.

So on that note I’d like to bust some common myths that SME business owners hold about hiring external human resource consultants.

Myth: “I’m not sure they’d have a place in my business.” Reality: Every business that hires and deals with employees most likely needs an HR consultant at some point. You may need your HR framework drawn up and implemented from scratch, a strategy for recruitment, help managing an employee’s performance, or a business restructure to best facilitate growth and change.

Myth: “Hiring an HR person would probably cost me an arm and a leg.” Reality: Not hiring an HR consultant might end up costing you much, much more. Let’s look at unfair dismissal. In recent times, unfair dismissal payouts cost businesses sums of five figures or more. In the financial year 2016/17 Fair Work awarded 7,194 monetary claims for unfair dismissal at a median rate of equivalent to 8 weeks pay, of these, 810 were for amounts of $10,000 up to the maximum amount payable (26 weeks of the employees earnings), these figures do not include fines imposed on businesses where applications were heard before a full hearing of the Commission,  a recent sexual harassment pay out was  $130,000. Evidence suggests that these high costs are usually incurred due to a lack of compliant HR policies, procedures or poor documentation. Hiring a HR consultant means you’ll be fully compliant in all these key areas.

Myth: “They’ll just give me cookie-cutter advice that won’t apply to my business.” Reality:  The People & Culture Office will come into your business tailoring a solution to your exact needs. For example, you may be managing the performance of your operations manager. How can you manage the risk? We provide commercially viable and relevant advice helping you deal with any and all HR issues.

Myth: “These HR types will try and lock me into some kind of pricy ongoing agreement.” Reality: The People & Culture Offices’ business model works on a once-off or project basis. Depending on your business needs I don’t need to stick around for months or years on end. The People & Culture Office can provide a framework for your HR needs with ongoing HR support as and when required. It’s your business, you control the level of involvement, not me.

Myth: “HR is just about recruitment.” Reality: Recruitment is just one of the activities an HR professional does. Human Resource function is as vast as any other technical function can be and is segregated into multiple areas. While HR is the first and last point of contact for any employee in the hiring and exit process, it surely isn’t the only thing HR professionals are there for. There are several other areas any successful HR department caters to like employee engagement, training and development, performance management, resource management and many more.

Myth: “Anyone can do HR.” Reality: HR activities are based on theory, research and most importantly, practical experience to understand how to apply HR principals into the workplace. I decided to launch my own consultancy service after hearing many stories from Goldfields business that employees were being directed by the “HR Person” to take annual leave on a gazetted public holidays, to book annual leave just to get day’s off from continual rostered shifts, leaving them with no leave to actually take a holiday, telling employees on parental leave their job has been given to someone else and employees being given written warnings for time off sick when a Doctors Certificate is present. There is a shortage of skilled HR people in the region which unfortunately has seen the rise of admin personnel being promoted into positions that require a great deal of technical skill & knowledge, this practice isn’t good for business and exposes the organisation to a great deal of risk.

BASED IN KALGOORLIE, THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE IS AN INDEPENDENT HR CONSULTANT WHO CAN PARTNER WITH YOU TO OFFER A ONE STOP HR SOLUTION, WE ONLY CHARGE YOU FOR THE WORK WE PERFORM; NO CONTRACTS, NO ANNUAL OR MONTHLY FEES, JUST QUALITY SERVICE. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

SaveSave