Latest / HR Spot / Episode #76 - You Don't Have HR But You Should Have HR

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Episode #76 - You Don't Have HR But You Should Have HR · HR Spot

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hello everyone.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to HR Spot.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Linda Mikers.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I can't even talk.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Linda Michaels.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's that kind of day, Gary.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hey Mikers.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Mikers.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Linda Mikers.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, Gary is with me today.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we have a doozy of a topic.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so sometimes we hear from business owners, we don't have HR.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Or sometimes we'll hear, we're too small for HR.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: So our topic today is you don't have HR, but you should have HR.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_03: You should have HR, right?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_03: I think what's interesting about it, that statement, right?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_03: About we're too small or we don't have it, whatever, is that if you have employees, someone's already doing HR, right?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: Someone's already doing the hiring, someone's already doing the paperwork.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: So you do have HR.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_03: And if you're not versed on it, then you might not be doing it right.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_03: Even if it's the office manager or someone in accounting who's doing payroll, a manager maybe inherited it along the way.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_03: The real question isn't whether you you have HR, because you do if you have employees.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: The question is who is doing it?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_03: And oh, this is a tough one.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_03: Are they doing it correctly, Linda?
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: Mikers, yeah.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're gonna talk about today.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: You may not need a full-time HR person, but you absolutely need someone paying attention to HR.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: So let's let's jump into part one.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: We're too small for HR.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, Gary, what what do you say to that?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: You still need it.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_03: I don't care how small you are.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_03: If you have an employee, you need some some knowledge.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: I think one of the biggest misconceptions among small businesses, that least that we talk to or have friends or whatever, is that HR is something you add when you're a company of 150 people.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, the stats say you need one HR for every 100 people.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: So we're only at 30 for the last 20 years, we don't need it.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, well, you still have to worry about HR, but think about what happens before you reach 50 people or 100.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_03: You're still hiring people, you're still making salary decisions.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_03: Guess what?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_03: If you have more than one person or more than just you, if you have one person, you're managing performance, you're dealing with attendance.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, if you've ever had to terminate someone, you're probably offering some type of benefits, maybe not one person, but if you have 20 or 30, you have sick time if you have one employee, right?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_03: Those are all people decisions that have people impact.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: So when somebody tells us they don't have HR, I usually start asking questions.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Who does your onboarding?
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Who handles your payroll issues, who determines whether someone is an employee or one of those famous 1099 contractors?
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh, that's a big one.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, drives us both crazy.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Who handles when an employee complains?
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Who helps a manager with the performance problem?
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Who makes sure your policies comply with employment laws?
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And usually we get a pause when I ask these types of questions, and then I hear, well, I do, and they're the owner and they're not trained, and they shouldn't be doing it.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: Uh right, I yeah, that one still gets me all the time, or I'll deal with it when it happens.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that usually means the owner is the CEO, but they're also the salesperson.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, guess what?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: They're the operations leader, uh, they're probably doing payroll.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_03: And guess what?
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_03: That also means they're the HR director.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's when HR starts pulling the owner into the weeds, and we don't like so HR actually should start earlier than you think.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, from an HR perspective, you need to start thinking about this with employee number one.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Once you hire someone, your company has responsibilities.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: You have payroll and tax requirements, you have wage and hour considerations, you have workplace safety requirements, you need proper documentation, you need to know whether somebody should be an employee or a 1099 contractor.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you also need to understand which employment laws apply to your organization.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and from the business side, right?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_03: I think there's another reason to think about HR early.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_03: And I and I want to just get this out there, right?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_03: HR doesn't mean a person, HR is a department, HR is a whole set of things.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: It's not just, oh, you know, I don't need HR because I do HR or I'm the person, the owner, right?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's more than just an HR person, it's an HR function.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I think it's easier to build good practices when you're you're small than it is to fix problems when you're bigger, right?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_03: You you can build those practices and the structure with that function.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_03: But if you have eight employees and your onboard boarding process isn't very good, you can fix it.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_03: And onboarding is a huge, huge issue.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_03: And if you don't have a process, that's an issue, and you're probably gonna lose people because of it.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: Most people know after orientation how good you are.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_03: So if you wait until you have 70, 80, 90 employees, you probably created 10, 20 other problems around those processes.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and it's probably a bad process, and and that's what you just said is is a great point.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: So today's workforce makes this even more complicated because employees may be working in different states, and that is a whole new ball game.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, that was a killer during COVID, right?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_03: And people decided they were gonna just move without telling anybody, and now guess what?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_03: Six months down the road, you got tax issues, and now the HR function, whether it's the CEO or not, is dealing with that.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, you could be headquartered in Arizona, but have employees working all over the country.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_03: Suddenly, this little tiny company with 10 people isn't quite as simple as you thought if you're an owner.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, especially in in some of those key states, you know, California is wicked, Colorado is wicked, Washington's wicked, New York is wicked.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: So small doesn't always mean simple.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: So let's shift gears, Gary.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: When the owner becomes HR, talk to me about that.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_03: All right, well, let's talk about it.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_03: Let's talk about the owner who thinks that they're handling HR.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, yeah, they're handling it, but are they good or bad?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_03: We don't know.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_03: So, because in the beginning, that can actually work.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_03: You can make it work again.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_03: It may not be the best, but you can make it work.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: You have three employees, everyone talks to the owner because it's a small group.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_03: There aren't a lot of systems because you don't really need that many yet, but then you grow.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_03: What if you double?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_03: And now you have nine, ten, eleven, and you're growing even faster than that, then you have 20.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um, now the owner is answering questions about PTO and sick time and dealing with an employee who isn't performing and doesn't show up.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_03: And you're interviewing people because you're growing so fast, and you again might be terminating people, resolving conflicts, trying to figure out whether somebody can be terminated.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_03: How did you document it?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_03: Meanwhile, the owner is now not doing their owner stuff, they're doing the HR function because they're dealing with all that, yeah.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And what's scary is once you cross that 15 employee threshold, a whole set of laws apply to you that most people don't even know about, right?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I have never met many entrepreneurs who start their companies because they were excited about writing employee handbooks and policies and all that stuff, right?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: Or documenting performance problems or tracking attendance, or investigating complaints, yeah, and there's there's a real cost to all of that that you know HR people see, but the owner might not see.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we tend to think about HR cost as how much will HR support cost me?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_03: But what about the owner's time?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_03: Isn't time money?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, if you're responding to five or ten hours a week dealing with those quote unquote employee issues or that employee, what's other stuff isn't getting done?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_03: Is are you missing sales?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_03: Are you missing calls?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_03: Are you missing customer relationships and business development?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: And gosh, are you planning for your strategy for next year?
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: What are you missing?
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and one of the big busy biggest reasons we tell owners do business, not HR, or stay in your lane and not HR, right?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's not because HR isn't important, it's because it's important enough that you shouldn't consistently distract yourself from running the company, which is what you should be good at.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Linda.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: If you have a plumbing problem, do you call an electrician?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: I call my dentist.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_03: No, yeah, right?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because you know that's kind of the point is like if you're a business owner and you're selling widgets, don't you want to focus on selling widgets?
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_03: Let the HR person handle the HR, let the operations person handle operations.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_03: You you don't need to do triple hats just because you're the owner.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so sometimes we're told, well, Sally handles HR.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Not like, oh, I love it.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love it, right?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, finally, somebody is internally, you have appointed them as your unofficial HR person.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's call her Sally.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: So Sally's your office manager, she's organized, she's great with the employees, she processes payroll, she handles onboarding.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: So everyone says, Oh, Sally handles HR.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and Sally may be really good.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: She may be excellent at the administrative side, but you know, there's that one day an employee walks into Sally's office and says, you know, Bob, the manager over there, Bob's harassing me.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_03: Now Sally isn't processing paperwork anymore, she's managing risk.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: So is Sally trained and know what questions to ask?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Does Sally know what she should not say?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Does Sally know whether an investigation is necessary?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Does Sally understand confidentiality?
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Does Sally understand retaliation?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: Does Sally understand how to document everything?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, this isn't about Sally doing a good job, right?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_03: Or a bad job.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_03: The company has put Sally in this really precarious spot that she's not trained for.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: She's just there to do office manager work.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and that's right.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: And she should stay in her lane and be an office manager and manage office, but not manage HR, right?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we see highly incredible, capable office managers, controllers, operations, all kind of get thrown into the HR space.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the problem is that employee relations and employment compliance requires skill and expertise.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's like asking your bookkeeper to suddenly become your corporate attorney.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: It doesn't turn out well.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: Just like hiring an electrician to fix your plumbing, doesn't work out.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_03: You have a lot of well, I'm not gonna say the word.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_03: If your plumbing's backed up and you call an electrician, you might have a lot of blank piled up, right?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_03: Just saying.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_03: They're both important functions, but they're different skill sets, different education, different experiences that you have to know how to handle.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so Gary, here's another good one.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: We've never had a problem, Gary.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, this is yeah, this is a good one.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_03: And okay, kind of the laugh.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_03: You're wondering why we laugh so hard.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_03: But we had this today with uh with a company business that we met with is oh, we're really good at that.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_03: We've never really had a problem with that.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but that's when you're increasing your odds of of something happening, right?
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_03: Because you're kind of brushing it off thinking, oh, we we've got it covered.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: We've been doing this for years and we've never had a problem.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I always want to add the word yet.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's never got a problem yet.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yet, yeah, because I think that's the problem with risk, right?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: Is everything looks fine until it isn't.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: Everything looks fine right up until that moment, and it only takes one second, one person, and yeah, all that hasn't happened yet, is thrown out the window.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: So an employee says, you know, hey, I'm being discriminated against, or someone asks for an accommodation, or a manager wants to terminate somebody immediately.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, maybe an employee has a medical issue and needs leave.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: You discover that your employees have been classified incorrectly, or one of your employees files a wage complaint with the DOL, and then usually that's when HR automatically becomes super important.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and at that point, you're reacting, right?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's something we've talked about in our strategic thinking series.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: It, you know, that reactive leadership is super expensive.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: You can't go back and fix that stuff.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's now you're on the hook for some things and you're paying legal fees and you're paying your time as money, and you're now spending a lot of time doing other stuff.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_03: You're making decisions under pressure instead of making decisions ahead.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: You're not being proactive.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: Now you're reactive.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and HR is exactly the same way, right?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'd rather have a company call us and say, Hey, can you review what we're doing?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Or then call and say, We terminated somebody yesterday and now we received this letter.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'd rather you be proactive on the front end.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Can you review what we're doing?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then you yes, we can walk you through the termination.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and those are two completely different ends of the spectrum on a conversation point, right?
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: Can we help you ahead of time to prevent things?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_03: Or okay, now we have to react and we have to backtrack a little bit.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so now let's talk about signs that you've outgrown your DYI or DIY.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: I had it back.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's D I Y H R.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, D Y I.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's give some people some warning signs.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: So the first thing is inconsistency.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe one manager handles attendance one way and another manager handles it completely differently.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe one of your employees gets written up for something while another employee does the exact same thing and nothing happens.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the risk starts creeping in.
• 16:40
  unknown: Yeah.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_03: And from the leadership side, I'd add that the owner is becoming the bottleneck, right?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: Every employee problem has to go to the owner because they're in that function.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: Every decision needs the owner's approval.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: And managers aren't managing because they're afraid to make the decisions, and that's a sign that the company has outgrown its current structure.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I just want to add a little one in there, right?
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: We talked about you brought up the ADA and the the accommodation, right?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_03: If the managers don't know to listen for the key flags, right, they're gonna be missing all this stuff, right?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_03: And if the manager doesn't know to communicate it up to the well, the HR person, office manager Sally, they might not be handling these things correctly.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: So another warning sign is documentation, your favorite, Gary.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Lack of it, which we see almost always.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, where are the personnel files?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Are your I9s properly maintained?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have current job descriptions?
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: When was your handbook last reviewed, or do you even have a handbook?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Are your managers documenting performance conversations?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: I could go on and on.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, let's just add turnover to that.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: If you're constantly replacing people, telling yourself, well, no one wants to work anymore, this generation, blah, blah, blah.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_03: It might be time to look a little deeper about what's going on.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_03: What's happening with your managers?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_03: Is it a specific manager, maybe that that team is losing people all the time?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: What's happening during onboarding?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mentioned that's you know, that's a key sign about how employees are gonna just how long they're gonna stay, depending on how how onboarding goes and what it's a good experience for them.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_03: Do employees understand expectations?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: Do they really, really understand them?
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_03: Are there compensation issues or is there a culture problem?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's a great one, right?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: So another major warning sign is is when everyone knows an employee isn't performing, but nobody addresses it.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, until six months later when the manager says, I want this person gone tomorrow.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's we hear that.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then HR will say, Well, where's the documentation?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and everyone looks at each other kind of like, I don't know.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so good HR helps managers manage the problems when they're small.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, okay, another time we hear um or or we tell people you don't need a full-time HR director.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, let's make an important distinction, right?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_03: We're saying companies need HR.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_03: Again, it's not a person, it's a function.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_03: We're not saying every 15-person business should run out tomorrow and hire a full-time HR director or CHRO.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why fractional HR has become such a great option for growing businesses.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: You might only need eight, 10, maybe 20 hours a month of HR support.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you can have access to HR expertise without adding another full-time executive salary.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe I'll keep going until Gary comes in clear.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um so one of the things that we want to, I guess, ask, you know, what level of HR support does your business need?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe you need somebody just to review your policies and handbook.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need somebody to help with employee relations, maybe you need manager training, maybe your payroll system's a mess, maybe you need compensation benchmarking, maybe you're expanding into another state, or maybe simp you just simply need an experienced HR professional available when something happens.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_03: Not sure you can hear me, Linda.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: I got you now.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_03: All right, yeah, and the needs can change, right?
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_03: A company might need more support during a period of rapid hiring or an acquisition or leadership transition.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe the leader is retiring or a difficult employee situation, which happen way more than people want to admit.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: Then after that, maybe they need to decrease a little bit.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the benefits of being fractional HR support, the supports can scale with the business as you're growing, or maybe you're declining.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, a full-time person just doesn't make sense in those situations.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: So HR should be responsible and should help businesses grow or grow the business.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, Gary, talk to me about that.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I want to to hit another misconception, right?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_03: Some owners hear HR immediately think police, policies, rules, compliance, the department that tells you what you can't do or tell you no.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_03: But the good HR function should actually help the company grow, make people happy, um, make it a better business and a better culture.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, HR really, when you look at it, a good HR partner should be a partner to the business owner.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're not here to say no.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: What good HR should say is tell me what you're trying to accomplish, and let's figure out how the right way to get us there.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because if you're trying to grow from one to two or two to five or five to 10 million, you can't just think about revenue and forget everything else.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_03: You have to think about who, what person or people are gonna get you there, right?
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: How are they gonna help?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have the right people?
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have the right managers in place?
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_03: Have you trained the managers?
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_03: Are people clear?
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_03: Do they have clear expectations about their roles?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_03: Can your current team handle growth like that?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that and that's where HR should be a part of the strategic conversation.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Your people strategy is your business strategy.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and you know, like I said, culture becomes part of that.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_03: That's a big piece.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_03: Culture isn't the HR person doing Pizza Fridays, that's not it.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_03: Culture is what employees experience every day.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_03: How the managers communicate, how problems are handled, what behaviors get rewarded, and what behaviors are tolerated, because what's tolerated becomes your standard.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love the last one, what behaviors are tolerated.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because um, sometimes culture isn't defined by what you write in your employee handbook, it's defined by what leadership allows to continue.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's not what's in your handbook.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_03: Let's just get it right.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_03: Those are the policies, right?
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: If the culture is not the handbook.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: So then let's talk about the small business HR checkup.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: We want to give listeners something practical.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're wondering whether your company needs more HR support, I want you to ask yourself these questions.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Are your employees and contractors classified correctly?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I bet you nine times out of 10, they're not.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, are exempt and non-exempt employees classified correctly?
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer is probably no to that one as well.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: Are your payroll practices compliant?
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: God, I hope so.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, do we have current job descriptions?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I would imagine most are pretty hit or miss.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, is your employee handbook current?
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then are your personnel rec records organized, medical files separated, the whole nine?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'd have to go out in a limb here and say, um, do we have current job descriptions?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_03: Are they up to date?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_03: Are they accurate?
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_03: Do they list essential functions in case you have accommodation or a leave?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_03: When's the last time you did your handler?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_03: Four years ago?
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_03: No, that's not good.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_03: Where are your employee records?
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have access to them?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, those are all big ones.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_03: And and from the leadership side, do your managers know how to manage?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_03: Have they been trained?
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_03: Do employees understand what's expected of them?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_03: Are performance problems addressed quickly?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_03: Are they hopefully you reprimand in private, not in front of the whole group?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_03: Do you document?
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_03: Do employees know where to go if they have a concern?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have a process that's in the handbook if you have a handbook?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_03: Do we have a consistent onboarding process?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, everyone goes through the same thing and we're consistent across the board.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_03: Do we know why good employees leave?
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_03: Do you do exit interviews to find out, ask the questions?
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_03: And could the company function if a key employee suddenly resigned tomorrow?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have any kind of succession planning or even a thought about who would fill that role?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's an amazing list, Gary.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to throw one more in the mix.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Are we compliant everywhere our employees actually work?
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, good one.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_03: Good one.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_03: If you're listening to this and your answer to a lot of those questions is, yeah, I don't know.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not sure.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: Let me ask the office manager.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: Hmm.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_03: What do you think, Linda?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_03: Is that a good answer?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if if your answer is I don't know, you probably need someone to take a look.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: So let's dive into don't wait for the HR emergency, Gary.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, let's let's bring it back, right?
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_03: To where we started.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_03: You don't have an HR function, but you should have HR.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_03: That doesn't mean you need another full-time employee tomorrow.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: It means someone needs to own, own it.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_03: Own the people side of your business.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and please don't wait until something goes wrong.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: And don't wait until you have a complaint, the lawsuit, the wage claim, the bad termination, the employee relations crisis, or the manager has completely lost control of the team.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Build the foundation while things are going well.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because the proactive HR isn't just about avoiding the lawsuits or reacting to the lawsuits.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's about building a better business and culture, better managers, better hiring, better communication, better accountability, better retention of your employees, and fewer surprises for the owner.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the most valuable HR conversation we can have with a client is super simple.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: A business owner calls and says, Here's what's happening.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking about doing this.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes our answer is before you do that, let's have a conversation.
• 28:57
  unknown: Yeah.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_03: Almost always.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_03: Let's talk about that.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_03: And then that 10-minute conversation could prevent 10-month problem.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not even going to guess at a monetary value to what we just prevented, right?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_03: So if you're listening today and you're thinking, yeah, we don't have HR, maybe change the question.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_03: Instead of asking whether you have HR, ask who is handling the HR function today.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_03: And are we confident we're doing it right?
• 29:38
  unknown: Yeah.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if the answer is I'm not sure, that's totally okay.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where you're going to start.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Take a look at the policies, the practices, your managers, your documentation, and the employee experience you're trying to create.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: You don't necessarily need a full-time HR department, but if you're if you have employees, you definitely need HR expertise somewhere in your business.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's at that point, every business has a problem with their people.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_03: And having someone you trust before the problem happens can make all the difference.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_03: Please check to see when your last handbook was updated and your policies.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_03: Are you paying minimum wage?
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_03: Because it goes up all the time.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_03: Are you paying attention?
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_03: Do you have your legal posters that everyone's required to have?
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_03: Even if they work at home, you're supposed to supply them with those.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, your list can go on and on, Gary.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we we love working side by side with business owners so that way they can focus on what they do best: running the company, growing the business.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we like to say, do business, not HR.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, everybody, thanks for listening.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I love that one, Linda.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_03: Do your business, not HR.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_03: Let us or HR do HR.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_03: So thanks again, everybody, for listening.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_03: Linda, how do they contact us?
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, if you know a business owner who's still doing HR off their desk, send them this podcast or reach out to us at lynda at azhrhub.com or Gary at azhrhub.com.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: Check out our website, azhrhub.com.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see you next time on HR Spot.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: But you may not have an HR department, but if you have employees, you already have responsibilities.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: So um call us, reach out to us, we are happy to help.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_03: You don't have to be a big company to need the HR function.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_03: You just need employees.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Catch you next time.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, bye bye.