Human Resources (HR) and Talent Management are key pillars to any business no matter what size you are. In a smaller organisations, the founders typically take on these tasks because of financial reasons so they can redirect funds towards improving their services and products.
This makes perfect sense.
However, as the company grows, inevitably so too does the workload. I have worked with many small businesses and I have seen founders and senior staff trying to do it all – develop products and services, manage execution, build their brand, get new customers, manage IT, finance, legal and HR.
If you are a small business owner, this is an incredible amount of work to get through and there are usually tell-tale signs to show:
- Staffing and people problems are keeping you awake at night.
- You realise you are hiring the wrong people.
- The team is constantly directed away from their core purpose and trying to hire and/or manage staff issues.
- Your people processes are not clearly defined or consistent.
- You lack consistency in how you recruit and manage performance.
- You can’t grow because you are bogged down in people stuff!
To solve these issues, you may decide to bring on a HR resource. But you might be leaving it too late if you are only starting when you see the signs. The need for dedicated HR and Talent Management support really kicks in much much earlier.
The key for emerging businesses is to set themselves up for success early. You know the old saying “start as you mean to continue” – you need to know when to start implementing processes to ensure you don’t have to unpick bad practices or let go of managers who are not aligned with your way of doing business in future. The ability to identify the moment, or what we call the “outsourced HR sweet spot”, is crucial as you scale your business.
The “outsourced HR sweet spot”
The “outsourced HR sweet spot” is the critical time for you to develop your people strategy and processes. It will ensure that as you grow, your HR processes are aligned to your business and will position you well as you scale.
As a start up or emerging business (<50 employees), you typically only need part time dedicated support, perhaps one or two days per week and it can be outsourced. This can be operational, tactical and strategic.
Benefits of an outsourced HR partnership model:
- Get strategic, tactical and operational support when you need it, without having to carry the cost of a dedicated senior resouce who has 20+ plus years experience and more junior resources for transactional support.
- Tap into support when you need it and as your needs arise.
- Enjoy the flexibility of having to pay for what you need, when you need it.
- Support is typically embedded into the team, using current systems (if available) and adopting your style of work (remote/onsite or hybrid).
- Choose to continue working on a retainer basis or hire the dedicated HR support full time as your needs grow.
The general advice is to hire a full time HR resource when the company reaches about 40 employees. As a rule of thumb, the ratio of full time HR practioners to full time employees is typically 2.5 to 100.
At Innov8te, we have been offering outsourced HR/Talent Management services for several years now and proudly partner with a number of organisations as their outsourced HR function (part time and full time). We help our partners with:
- HR Processes and HR systems – we can create them for you or execute for you using your own, this includes help with building your tech stack.
- Recruitment – we recuit on your behalf and can use your systems
- Vision, culture development and employee engagement – we will help you and your team get clarity.
- Performance management – we can create and embed annual performance review and check-ins frameworks and train your managers on how to use them.
- Support with any of your people needs.
For all intensive purposes we are part of their team, attend weekly catch ups via Zoom and are an integral part of their organisations.
So there is a “right time” to ensure that you have the right level of HR strategy and support.
Reach out to us today to learn more or visit www.innov8te.com.au.