Naresh

HR function albeit small in small business play an important role to help management succeed their short term and long term business goals.

Recruitment

To start with as I am sure you all agree, recruiting the better (if not the best depending on the remuneration , if it is a small business it may not be paying competitive salaries according to the market, if they do then yes, they can hire the best talent) who can actually hit the ground running, i.e get on with the business rather than someone who needs to be trained to get on with the job.

Retention

It is easy to recruit staff when compared to retaining them. I understand that there are contractual obligations here in India that ties employees from working for the competitors but so far I have not seen any measures here that help retain staff. Some of the widely used retention methods in Europe, especially in the UK are allowances that are tied up with number of years of service.

Compensation & Benefits

Good compensation schemes that reward employee performance is often suceesful in not only getting the best out an employee but also helps with staff retention. But in small businesses compensation and benefits are usually tied up with the annual profit.

Employee Relations

Policies that are clearly spelt in line with the labour laws which help employees resolve any workplace disputes show that the company takes any work place disputes and their resolution seriously. This will portray that the company is keen on the welfare of the employees and strive to provide a better working environment.

Training & Development

Bigger schemes of training may not be posisble in small businesses as they usually start with small budgets and possibly with zero budgets in this area. However mentoring and coaching by immediate managers does help. Later when the company grows they can establish a TRaining department by investing in staff training, but initially it may not be feasible - financially.

Ideally a HR Generalist who is able to advise management on all of the above should be able to help manage staff and thus help kick start the business. If I would ensure that the HR Generalist has a good business acumen i.e be able to draft policies with the business unit in mind.

I must admit I am not including the payroll function as it usually is an administrative wing of HR, whether there is a HR dept or not every company should has a payroll function (and often calls it as HR...LoL!).

Welcome your comments.

Shalini

Hi Pradeep

Thanks Yaar for the comments.

I agree with you on the first point Discipline - I actually included this under the Employee Relations bits. Anything to do with Employee conduct, performance or complaints should be dealt with under the Employee Relations. Typical policies and procedures that are included in this division are:

Disciplinary
Grievance
Unsatisfactory Performance Management
Discrimination complaints
Harrassment complaints
Victimisation complaints
Bullying complaints


I may have to differ on the second point. It is a valid one, but this should be already expected of staff being recruited as a small enterprise cannot afford to start a company with freshers. I beleive you have read my comments above where I mentioned that small enterpreises should allocate very small or preferably zero budgets for training initially. I don't think it will be a sound business decision to spend money initially on training but instead route those funds in obtaining the best talent who can hit the ground running, i.e get on with the job from the very first day. Everyone needs induction when joining a company to know about the company policies and induction is different from training. Induction is an introduction about the company and the policies, the sites etc whilst training is the actual training to do the job.

Once the company is established and has carved an image for itself in the market they can then invest in Training, it is here the Etiquette is included.

Let me know your thoughts.

Shalini

Pradeep

I knew I could get some meaningful debate from you. Glad you threw this at me :-) .

Well, if you refer to my initial response, I would stand by my statement , recruit the better if not the best. Use the funds you want to use for training to get the good ones in the market.

Let's say you want to recruit freshers and start it low, you do need experienced ones who can train them initially - don't you? Instead of using the time for training the freshers use those resources to set up the business and doing the business by the experienced ones, once the company is established you may wish to expand by bringing on freshers.

It depends on the nature of business/trade as to what option you would go for!

Come on then, let me hear from you!

Shal

Hi Shalini!
Yes Shal, recruit the better available talent (not the best) and it should be a combination of both fresh and talented so that the experienced and talented can always guide and mould the freshers as per the requirements of the company.It need not be completely with freshers where you end up with nothing.Best example is how small BPOs and Medical Transcription people are doing now, take the freshers train them by paying some stipend and use them later in a more full fledged way.
Above all, it depends on the kind and nature of business or trade as you have rightly pointed out.
Thank you for your prompt response Shal.
Cheers!
Pradeep