HR Tools and Resources for Small Businesses (Guest Blog)

Human resource responsibilities are often an area of neglect for small business. Small business owners typically try to handle these tasks on their own in order to save money. As your company starts to grow and expand, it’s important to prioritize these tasks. There are important HR functions that are essential to making sure your business runs smoothly and efficiently. Regardless of the size of your company, having HR practices within your business will help ensure your business is up to compliance standards.

Human Resources EDU defines human resources as the people who work for a company and the department responsible for managing those people. Though it may seem simple, there are many elements of human resources that are more complex. Today, there are plenty of online resources that can better help aid small businesses in their HR strategies. In this article we will be highlighting the different areas of focus for small businesses HR, as well as provide helpful tools and resources these businesses can use to help streamline their HR practices.

Recruiting

Recruiting top talent to your business is the first important step in the HR process. In order to attract the right talent, you need to post your positions on the most accurate sites that will attract unique, industry driven talent. When posting a position opening on these sites, it’s important to craft a proper job description. The job description should be a clear and concise description of your company and why it’s a great place to work, a description of the role itself and what experience is required to qualify, and next steps for applying for the position.

Here are some great resources to reference during the recruitment process:

• Writing Effective Job Descriptions from the U.S Small Business Administration
• 34 Best Free Job Posting Sites for 2019 from FItSmallBusiness
• Career Builder small business recruiting resources
• Monster.com job description templates

Interviewing and Hiring

Though hiring managers are usually responsible for the interviewing process and hiring decisions, there are many other aspects of the hiring process that human resources is responsible for. As a small business owner, you may be responsible for the entire process. In order to weed out the qualified candidates from the bad, you need to have a proper interviewing strategy to help you efficiently sort through your prospects.

The cool thing about job posting sites, is that they have a built-in tool to help you sort through the candidates. You can set filters that will better help you sift through candidates according to their experience, education level, and any other needed requirements.  

Consider these sites for all your recruiting software needs:

• Workable
• BambooHR
• RecruiterBox
• Indeed

After sorting through qualified candidates, you need to schedule some phone interviews. Phone interviews are great for a small business’ interview strategy because it helps narrow down candidates even more before deciding which to bring in for in-person interviews.

• Phone interview questions to ask the interviewer from the Balance Careers
• 6 interview questions every small business owner should ask from Recruiter.com

Aside from the interviewing process, there are a lot of other aspects that go into the hiring process such as pre employment background screenings, reference checks, and crafting job offer letters. Here are some resources to help you with those additional factors:

• Where to get a background check for employment from Transunion ShareAble for Hires
• How to Write an Offer Letter from Inc.com

Payroll and Benefits

Payroll is a major aspect of human resources and fortunately for small businesses, there’s a ton of resources available to help you track employees pay as well as their different benefits, all on one platform. The larger your company becomes, the more important it will be to monitor everyone’s payroll and benefits. You, as well as your employees need a space that will allow them to their paystubs, paid time off and any other benefits such as health insurance. These platforms also allow you to upload important documents for your employee’s reference, such as their employee handbook. All the needed information can be conveniently stored in one place for your employee’s convenience. Set up a process now so will help you better understand what you need to

Below are some great resources for tracking payroll and benefits for your small business:

• Best payroll software for small businesses from Finances Online
• Small Business Solutions from Paychex
• 7 industry-leading options for HR software for small business from Fundera

Legal Requirements and Laws

For a small business to run, it needs to be legally up to standard. There are many legal aspects that go into running any business including federal, state and local requirements that you as a business owner will need to understand.

The U.S Small Business Administration does a great job of outlining all of the legal processes and laws you need to abide as a small business. Below is some important information to understand regarding the laws and regulations for SMBs:  

• Staying Legally Compliant
• Legal Requirements for Small Business

Human resources is a vital part of running a small business. Your employees are the core of your business and for your business to run smoothly, you need to implement a strong HR system that will retain those employees. As a small business owner, you may have no choice but to take on many roles, HR being one of them. By using the helpful resources and tools provided in this article, you can understand and jumpstart your HR system. Though you may not have an official HR department, implementing a system will help your business improve tremendously.  

Author Bio:

Corey Doane is a contributing editor for 365 business tips HR section. She has a B.S in Public Relations from San Jose State University and has experience in PR, marketing and communications.