During my Human Resources and Talent Management career I have been fortunate enough to work for both small businesses with basic HR services and large corporations with established cutting edge HR functions. Both types of organizations present their own challenges and opportunities.
When leading a HR team for a small business or start-up you will find that you will rarely have a generous budget for employee programs and employment brand marketing, and will have to do without talent management systems and other time saving technologies. You are however much closer to the business, work closely with the executive team, or be on the executive team, and are able to see the direct impact of your work on business success and employee engagement.
At large organizations you are likely to be part of a corporate HR function specializing in one area of HR, such as talent acquisition or benefits and compensation. Your employees will enjoy numerous engagement initiatives, like rewarding employee programs and events, and you will utilize cutting edge technology to streamline and automate HR processes which will eliminate paper and administrative burden.
In my current role I support a small innovative business as an HR Director supported by a full-time coordinator, and together we provide full HR support to over 160 employees in 3 countries. The service we provide includes payroll processing, recruitment and selection, employee relations, benefits and compensation, and employee training and development.
Yes, we are busy… very busy… but we can be creative, inventive and we have a great opportunity to positively impact the business we support.
Here are my tips on how to be a successful HR practitioner within a small business environment:
In the world of HR and Talent Management we are classified as either Generalists or Specialists. Generalists are known to have a general knowledge of all HR functions but without depth. Specialists are experts within one specific HR function, but don’t have a strong knowledge of all areas.
In a small business you have to specialize in EVERYTHING! You are responsible for every area so a general knowledge isn’t enough. If you don’t know it, learn it… quick.
When leading an HR function strategy is extremely important, but it isn’t as important as execution. To find the perfect balance create your 12-month or long term plan, break it down into projects and tasks and put a timeline against it. Then EXECUTE, EXECUTE, EXECUTE!
In a small business environment you don’t have the luxury of a large team to share the work with, so it’s time to roll up your sleeves and work as hard as you can for maximum business impact. If you don’t show results in a small business it will be noticed.
HR is tough. We are service providers, process improvers, rule enforcers, bad news delivers, advisers, encouragers, motivators, supporters, defenders… this list goes on and we need to pirouette seamlessly from one role to another.
In a small business you are much more likely to be working closely with the executive team, or even be part of the executive team. I would place a bet on the fact that each executive will have completely different styles and have conflicting priorities, and each of them want something different from you. So what do you do? PLEASE ALL OF THEM… that’s what you do.
Work with what you have. Assess all of the talent management systems you work with (if any) to make sure you are using them to their optimum potential. I even found out that we had numerous fields in our payroll system had not been populated, and the information for those fields kept on a spreadsheet! Look at where you are spending money (background checks, benefits administrators, job boards etc.) and make savings to invest in much needed tools for your team.
Another area of opportunity here is to reach out to people in your network to assist you. Maybe you have friends or former coworkers who can share their expertise and advice on low cost alternatives to the expensive talent management tools that you may be used to in previous roles.
After all your hard work, expertise, flexibility, pirouetting and resourcefulness you should be seeing the results and beginning to make a real impact to your business. SHOUT ABOUT IT! Your business leaders need to see the results of their investment, and employees need to see the positive changes you are making to their work life.
Take every opportunity you can to enthusiastically launch new initiatives, benefits and programs, and market them using as many tools as possible such as email, social media, company meetings and executive reports. The more you share your successes and receive positive feedback the more energy you will have to continue to have a direct impact on making your small business successful and an awesome place to work.
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