The right HR for you

Blog article: The right HR for you

Confused about the right HR for you? It’s simpler than you might think.

As a HR consultant, I work frequently with start-ups and businesses in growth phase. Typically, these ventures are founded by people with expertise in their own field. And while these individuals have a wealth of specialist knowledge, they oftentimes have less awareness of what might constitute “the right HR function” for their operation when they get to the stage of employing and retaining staff.

Such employers can be easy prey for HR Consultants. “You really need this package of documents”, “your subscription with us includes access to unlimited HR policies and procedures”, “pay a monthly fee and everything after that is complimentary”: all statements my clients have told me they’ve heard when approached by HR providers seeking their custom.

Here’s the thing: a big business HR function contains literally hundreds of employment documents, policies and procedures; ranging from recruitment and selection, onboarding, industrial relations, learning and development to compensation and benefits, employee relations and global mobility. But unless you’re a big business, you simply don’t need most of these. Having worked as HR Manager in a number of large operations, I can reveal an in-house HR professional generally uses the same 6-12 documents over and over again. And that’s for a large operation, employing hundreds of workers.

So where should you start when it comes to setting up a HR function for your own operation? While it can be tempting to fall into the “more is better” approach, we suggest you ask yourself three key questions:

1. Why do I need this?
2. Is there a Fair Work/Work Health and Safety compliance requirement?
3. What’s the worst than can happen if I don’t have this right now?

Try to not have so much structure or bureaucracy in your HR function that it encourages your team to bypass using your systems. A small business has advantages over a large one in terms of flexibility to respond to new opportunities, the offering of a genuinely personalised service and the ability to focus on delivery of a specialised product. Your HR function should reflect this. It should help your front line people achieve your business objectives; not hinder them.

If you plan to invest in a consultant to help design your perfect HR function, speak with more than one. Ask as many questions as you need. Find out whether they’ve been a HR Manager (and trust me, this is a big one). And ask which of their clients might recommend them. Go in with your eyes open…it’s your business and you’ve made the commitment to jump in with everything you have; why not get this one right?

Bare Bones Consulting never forgets you’re the customer. We’ll fit in with your business model and can help you with a single employment document or design a full HR function that aligns with your budget, people, where you are now and where you’d like to be in the future. We’ve helped others achieve genuine results and we can help you get there too. We think that’s the best indicator of the “right HR”.