Small business HR: why bother?

Small business owners have a lot on their plate. Often, the employment side of things is at the bottom of their “to do” list. Which begs the question…small business HR: why bother?

Ask a random selection of people the question “What’s the difference between big business and small business?” and you’ll find response typically revolves around phrases such as “higher revenues”, “internal structure” and “number of employees”. Probe a little deeper and you may hear an accurate but less commonly articulated response: “in-house specialist expertise”.

Larger businesses are typically staffed by subject matter experts in each department: Finance, Marketing, Operations, Human Resources, Legal, IT, Procurement…the list of professionals is generally only limited by the size of the operation. Having access to in-house expertise translates to accurate information on which to make sound corporate decisions and gain competitive advantage. But what about small enterprises which, according to the Department of Employment, Skills, Small & Family Business, represent approximately 98 percent of the 2.3 million businesses in Australia? Are these businesses any less in need of expert advice to help them compete?

Greg Bowmer, Director at Bare Bones Consulting believes not. As Greg explains, smaller businesses are typically built from the passion, commitment and knowledge of one or two owners: “Think about the typical surfboard shaping or craft brewery operation as an example. Many of these businesses are not in a position to employ a full-time HR professional and often fail to comply with the complexities of employment legislation simply because they don’t know what they need to know.

“The possibility of an unfair dismissal claim being lodged by a disgruntled ex-employee is always more likely when you don’t have HR expertise to manage this risk. Small business owners also tend to spend a greater deal of time addressing employee issues when these arise which in turn, takes their focus away from building their core business. Without having access to an in-house people expert, many small businesses also miss out on growth opportunities around keeping their staff engaged, actively representing their brand and competing effectively against their larger rivals.”

With over twenty years’ Australian and international HR experience across seven industries, together with exposure to corporate, blue collar and FIFO HR environments, Greg has the expertise to back his claims. “Outsourcing certain elements of your business to a subject matter expert who gets to know your business simply makes sense. Bare Bones Consulting are genuine experts in human resources and we want to share this expertise to help you get ahead. We can show you what documents you need for your business size and type, how to find the best people, techniques to retain your high performers and what you can do to ensure your team operate at optimal level for competitive advantage. We know what HR systems work, how to tailor these specifically to your business and we know the importance of keeping things simple.”

Small business has always had advantages over big business in innovation, the ability to readily adapt to changing business conditions and building one on one contact with customers. Bare Bones Consulting is the Gold Coast HR Consultant offering all small and medium sized businesses the opportunity to level the playing field when it comes to access to expertise…at a fraction of the cost of hiring an in-house HR professional.

Like to know more about how Bare Bones Consulting can help your business succeed? It’s simple…check out our plan for success suggestions then just give us a call. No obligations, no fine print and we’ll let you know everything up front. We’ll take care of the HR side of things and you take care of yourself. How good would that be?