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The Importance of HR for Small Businesses
Starting a new venture is always exciting—you get to dip your toes into something fresh and decide what direction you’ll take to complete the endeavor. When starting your own business, however, multiple aspects must be considered—the culture, mission, values, employee size, procedures, management, etc.—and this is where business owners tend to overlook the importance of a human resources department. Small businesses are pressured to bring in sales in order to keep their doors open, but as more sales are made, workload increases and more employees are needed. This is where HR is crucial.
With the need for more employees comes the need for proper management training for supervisors. If there is little to no guidance on how to manage employees, the company may be more exposed to liability for illegal employment practices. There needs to be someone who is well versed in current employment laws—if your company continues to move forward and ignores the importance of being in compliance, you run a high risk of getting yourself into legal trouble. And as a small business, a single lawsuit may close your doors for good.
Furthermore, an HR department is needed for talent management purposes. If management only cares about the dollars coming in and disregards their employees’ needs and well-being, there is a great chance these vital employees may leave. Pressure from management to complete work as well as having a large workload may lead to employee burnout. Small businesses need to retain their talent and find ways to keep their employees present—incentives, rewards and recognition are some popular tactics. Management needs to show their employees that all their hard work is much appreciated, therefore a culture that values and balances both work and play may alleviate stress and simultaneously promote productivity and overall morale. All in all, small businesses cannot afford to have a high turnover rate because the longer a seat is vacant, the more money it costs the company…and the more burnt out employees may feel if the extra work load gets dispersed.
For small businesses who cannot afford an HR department, there are outsourcing options. e-VentExe has a special service called eBasicHR which serves as a full HR department. eBasicHR gives business owners access to documents and forms necessary for compliant purposes, as well as unlimited use of an expert HR consultant who will answer and advise any question or issues that may arise.
*e-VentExe is a full service human resource consulting firm specializing in compliance law, recruiting and selection, training and development, and assessment tools. If your company is interested in learning more about eBasicHR or any of the services listed above, please call e-VentExe at 916. 458-5820.
Social Media: A Business’ Friend or Foe?
Our guest blogger this month is Angie Brown MBA, owner of Angeion Consulting. To learn more about social media and Angeion Consulting, please visit their Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/AngeionConsulting
Social media—we hear it everywhere and know we should be using it, but with business-to-business (B2B) companies many times they ask, “Why?”
Social media includes several online social sharing websites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Pinterest, FourSquare, and many more. Each medium was developed as a way for people to develop relationships and maintain friendships from afar; this is key to remember as a business when using social media.
Social media can help your business:
- Create a lead pipeline
- Project a brand
- Decrease turnover
- Increase attendance at events
- Sell a product
- Increase company morale
While these are a lot of options, your business should choose one or two goals that they want to reach. The following steps will help your business build their online social media journey correctly:
Develop your online personality
Just as a person has a personality, your business needs to develop an online personality as well. Many times the responsibility of posting on social media gets juggled between two people. When a business develops a personality, it allows your employee to take on that image and post as the same personality each time—your business’ personality, not the employee’s personal personality. Remember, this personality should align with your company’s the mission statement, morals, branding, and target audience. (See understanding your fan base below.)
Understand your fan base
If a business has the personality of a 45-year old man with strong environmental ties and a passion for outdoor recreation, then your fan base should reflect this personality as well to help build rapport. The reason for this is two-fold. If you post as this personality, you will attract a fan base that enjoys the same interests. Do this while simultaneously targeting your online ads to increase this target market and you will build your perfect fan base of leads. Developing a fan base that goes hand-in-hand with a business’ online personality will increase engagement and help increase the trust of potential customers; step one in developing online lead generation.
Consistency is KEY
Each social media platform has a “post shelf life” or the amount of time a post is visible to a person before another post supersedes it. While this varies according to the amount of interaction a certain post gets, a business should pay close attention to how quickly a post disappears from their customer’s view. Posting daily is appropriate for Facebook, while multiple times a day is key for Twitter. However a business decides to do it, they should remain consistent each week.
Toot THEIR horn
Don’t be afraid to brag on social media, but do it correctly. If your business recognized an employee internally, take a picture and post it! If someone in the company ate at a restaurant during your local middle school’s fundraiser, take a picture and talk about it! The idea here is to put the OTHER nonprofit, employee, fundraiser, etc. in the spotlight while making sure people know your business is supporting it. This type of support will connect your fan base to your company while at the same time recognizing your employees and bragging about them to the world. Even a small amount of recognition done correctly can go a long way with social media.
These steps give you some brief insight in the world of social media and how important social media can be to your company. Use it to develop relationships internally by encouraging your employees to take part in the conversations (#companyparty, #walkforacause –ask us about hashtags on our Facebook page–) and show them you care by talking about them online. At the same time you are developing relationships internally, you are causing your fan base to take notice, “Hmmmm, they like their employees and treat them well,” says your next online lead. While also building rapport externally in the form of understanding what your fan base likes and giving them a reason to stop and take notice of your company.
For more tips on social media, visit us on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/AngeionConsulting.
A little about the author:
Angie Brown attended UC Davis where she graduated with her degree in Communications. She accepted a position as a Research Analyst at Time Warner Cable in Hawaii after graduation. Angie spread her wings with multi-million dollar companies such as McDonalds, Disney, Jack in the Box, and Outback Steakhouse as she developed cutting edge research and technologies just now being introduced on the mainland.
Over the course of her four years at Time Warner, she went back to school and received her MBA in Global Logistics while organizing seminars, developing marketing packages, and starting up Angeion Consulting in 2009. She moved back to the mainland and continued to build her company here. She is now developing an innovative employment model for her employees. Angie enjoys spending time with her two children and husband.
Meet the new CALSHRM State Director…
New Year, new Human Resource leaders. The New Year is a time for embracing change—from simple things such as changing your diet to grandeur aspects such as electing new leaders. None is different for CalSHRM, the California State Council for the Society of Human Resource Management. As a full service human resource consulting company, we live and breathe HR; we take pride in assisting organizations with any of their HR needs, while still maintaining the human connection. With the HR profession growing tremendously as well as technology, what is the outlook for HR in 2014? Michael Letizia, PHR-CA, the new State Director of CalSHRM for 2014 and 2015 shares his insights and goals for CalSHRM and the overall profession.
Having been a member of SHRM since 2000 and serving on the board in various roles until 2013, Michael’s role as State Director is to primarily oversee the functions of the Council and to bring the SHRM affiliates together in the state to solidify initiatives. The Council consists of solely volunteers that Michael will manage, which he deems as a daunting task especially in such a large organization (SHRM is prevalent in California compared to other states).
In terms of goals for CalSHRM, Michael continues to strive for the plans and goals the past President and he created a few years ago, where they envisioned what they believed the California Council should look like. Michael, whose leadership style has always been collaborative, also set some personal goals for himself; he would like volunteers to feel they are part of a larger purpose and that they receive the intrinsic value they sought. One of Michael’s main focus is to ensure the volunteers understand the time, skills, and efforts they put forth into the State are truly making a difference, and that they feel they are part of an organization that is making a difference in California.
Michael hopes to educate California employers and to bring advocacy to businesses and to HR people—professionals and those who are responsible for running HR in their organizations who are not deemed as professionals. Although SHRM caters to HR professionals, Michael believes it is very important that the Council support the individuals who are responsible for HR that may not have the opportunity at this time to call themselves HR professionals.
As such, CalSHRM is partnering with SHRM to be the HR advocate for the employee and the employer. Michael believes education about HR tactics and strategies must be brought to Sacramento to bring the HR voice to the legislature in assisting the government craft ideas that will benefit both California employees and employers.
Michael finds the progression of HR to be very exciting, stating that when he first began his career in the field, he was a Personnel Clerk. Now, as the profession has gained momentum and recognition, HR is being seen as a Strategic Partner and in many companies, a member of the Executive Team. Companies are learning that if they do not direct, assess, and manage their talent, they are not going to achieve the results they hoped. They need people in order to be successful and if they fail to bring in a professional that can help them manage individuals to their fullest potential, then they are not going to get to the place they envisioned. Many Executives are not interested in developing plans for people; they are looking at it from the business perspective. Having that voice at the table talking about human talent to achieve the organization’s goals and the process to make that happen is crucial. Individuals working in HR need to articulate and demonstrate why they are essential to an organization.
Michael stresses that HR individuals and small business owners must be experts in California (and Federal) labor law compliance and understand litigation risks. With California State laws changing at an alarming rate, employers must be updated with compliance and be prepared for consequences if they come; after all, one lawsuit can close a small business.
Advice for individuals currently working in HR is that they must be realistic about the advancements of technology and its impact on society. Michael stresses that California and its employers need to change their views of the traditional work structure in regards to the younger generation entering the workforce: they have to allow workers to be flexible in their schedule in order to reach optimal results. The younger generation is not afraid to say the traditional norm is outdated and antique. Michael praises companies such as Google, who allow their employees to work wherever they can as long as they deliver and meet the company’s expectations. He believes Google and other companies embracing work flexibility are successful because they are managing their talent very strategically. Michael believes that other organizations could reach the same potential if they embrace new ideas and concepts that are shaping our society.
LegalZoom or a Real Attorney?
Our first guest blogger of 2014 is Attorney Justin Gilbert.
Justin provides personalized legal services in the areas of estate planning, probate, trust administration, trust litigation, elder law and business planning, and can be contacted at (916) 932-7416. For more information, visit The Law Offices of Justin M. Gilbert at http://justinmgilbert.com/.
LegalZoom has been getting a lot of buzz since its inception for its low-cost legal templates. For small business owners and individuals on a budget, LegalZoom can seem like a great way to save money on legal needs.
However, keep the old adage in mind – you get what you pay for.
LegalZoom has a very attractive interface and fluid navigation, but a website can never take the place of an actual attorney. Its templates are just that – templates that provide broad and generic coverage. A template will not be able to understand your specific needs, answer your questions, provide recommendations based on your unique legal situation, foresee litigation entanglements, or keep up on the most current case laws. (Who knows when the LegalZoom forms were last modified.)
Think about it this way. Let’s say that you need a bicycle to get across town. At LegalZoom, you pay a low fee and are issued a standard road bike that’s been fitted for the average body shape. As you start on your journey, you realize the pedals are too short for your long legs and the bike’s thin road tires are not made for the rock trail you need to cross. Additionally, the gears are complicated and you don’t know how to use them.
Now let’s say that you stop into a bike specialty shop instead. At the specialty shop, you pay a little more for the bike, but the store owner listens to your needs. You tell him that your path includes both roads and some rocky trails, so he recommends a hybrid bike with a frame and tires built for both road and trail biking. Additionally, the owner measures your legs and torso and fits the bike to your body. He also explains how the gears work, what type of clothing is optimal, and advises you on hydration and snacking during your trip. Now you’re really ready to go and make it to your destination in record time without a single problem.
See the difference?
Personalization matters when it comes to providing legal advice, writing legal documents, and performing legal actions like trademarking, incorporation and estate planning. Sure, you’ll pay a little more for a living, breathing attorney in the short term, but if you aren’t careful and don’t properly understand your LegalZoom documents, you may end up paying far more in the future if your templates don’t cover your particular situation as well as you thought.
To speak to an attorney in Sacramento who can provide personalized legal services in the areas of estate planning, probate, trust administration, trust litigation, elder law and business planning, please contact the Law Office of Justin Gilbert at (916) 932-7416.
The Human Balance 