Human resources departments within most companies are responsible for much more than simply processing payroll or handling the open enrolment season every year. Whether a business is large or small, human resources can play a large and often essential role in developing company strategy and handling all aspects of the employee-centred activities of an organisation.
Here are some of the ways in which HR handle more than just payroll:
Controlling the budget:
Human resources have developed methods for curbing more spending than is necessary, by ensuring that the management costs for the workforce are trimmed. They do this by negotiating good rates for benefits such as healthcare coverage, and when studying the labor market, employment trends and salaries – both locally and nationally – they make certain that the employees are paid competitively but realistically, for the roles they are expected to perform.
Understanding the value of human capital:
Human capital has always been vital to any businesses bottom line, and especially for small businesses, human capital can be critical because they often have employees performing more than one, or cross functional, duties. All it takes is one employee to leave a small business, and the company are left with a large void to fill that can easily be a threat to their bottom line. Having an in-house human resources department can help stress the importance of this and give value to each employee.
Training and development:
The current workforce of a company often under-go assessments conducted by human resources, to determine their skills sets and what further training they might need to better fulfil their role. In the early stages of a company’s growth, this can be extremely beneficial, and the cost of training existing staff, far outweighs the cost of hiring a new team who may already be more qualified.
Conflict resolution:
With so many different people working under one roof, conflicts in the workplace are not uncommon, but without a human resources department or individual trained to handle employee relations, situations can quickly escalate out of control. Positive working relationships are often the focus of a good HR department, and they can resolve disputes that may otherwise have turned into lawsuits or arguments at the very least.
Employee satisfaction:
With employee surveys that have been meticulously designed, focus groups and exit interview strategies, HR can get to the root of any employee dissatisfaction and go on to address any issues leading from this. Hopefully, once addressed and tackled, employee motivation can then be restored.
Saving money:
With HR to focus on a quality recruitment process and training and employee satisfaction, they can minimize the expenses related to advertising job postings, training new employees and enrolling them in benefits plans.
Improving a company’s performance:
Performance management systems are usually designed by human resources, enabling them to measure whether employees are meeting the demands of the job, and assess whether those employees whose performances are below par, can remain on the payroll.
These are just a few of the ways in which HR handle a lot more than just payroll, and for some businesses, it proves easier and more profitable to outsource this function. To explore your human resource options, get in touch with your local payroll provider.