As a small business owner, you are ultimately responsible for your company's bottom line, and you may feel that what you have taken on is overwhelming and exhausting. Chances are, you have taken on many roles to get your company off the ground and headed for success.
Some of these roles are typically considered to be the responsibility of a human resource department, which include recruiting new staff, coordinating interviews, screening new applicants, hiring, firing, promoting, demoting, managing employee benefits, overseeing payroll, handling employee relations, labor law compliance, training, planning, directing, and coordinating all of the administrative functions within your organization. While you are probably a superhero to your employees, you are only one person with limitations.
When to delegate
Generally speaking, you should delegate responsibilities when you feel overloaded and begin to find yourself focused on tasks that are taking time away from critical and pertinent duties. Keep in mind that the process of delegating tasks includes handing over the stress that comes with managing many responsibilities, and does not mean that you lose control of how things are handled. Of course, the mere fact that you need help may or may not justify the cost of a new hire or outsourcing. You still need to be cost conscious.
Three ways to delegate
There are basically three ways to delegate human resources responsibilities:
- Select individuals within your company and redirect their job descriptions
- Contract outside of your company with a business that specializes in outsourcing HR departments
- Use a hybrid method that delegates to either in-house or outsourced workers, but uses software and other helpful tools to automate and streamline some of the human resources functions
Put it in writing
The process of delegating begins with putting everything in writing. All tasks that need to be accomplished should be jotted down, which can help you prioritize responsibilities when viewed. You can then quickly glance over your notes to get a clear picture of where your time, profits, and energy are being spent.
Weighing the cost
The business saying may sound trite, but time really is money, and there is not much room for wasting even seconds. Begin to track time spent on projects and then analyze what is productive and what is not.
Assign duties
The final step in delegating is to determine who is able to perform the necessary tasks in the most time and cost-effective manner. If there is already an employee within your company able to take on the human resources duties, now is the time to craft their new job description. However, make sure the new HR employee is adequately prepared. According to an ADP (Automatic Data Processing, Inc.) Ad Hoc Human Resource Management Study, 70 percent of HR workers in companies with 49 or more employees don't feel as though they have been properly trained or ready.
If there is no one within your company who can serve as HR director, determine if you have the funds to hire a new in-house employee to do the job or if it will be more efficient to outsource. If you choose to use an in-house employee to do some of the HR functions, many businesses find it helpful to streamline or outsource some of the tasks such as payroll services, benefits management like health coverage or 401(k) plans, employee assistance programs (EAP) or counseling, training, employment-related legal compliance, and background screenings.
This article was written by Tere Scott for Small Business Pulse
