When does a small business actually need HR support?

For many small business owners, HR isn't something they think about when they first start the business.

There are clients to find, work to deliver, invoices to send and approximately 400 other things competing for your attention. If you're working by yourself, there isn't much reason for HR to make the list.

Then you decide to employ someone.

Suddenly, there are employment contracts, holiday entitlement, payroll, working hours, absence, performance and all the other things that come with being responsible for another person at work.

So when do you actually need HR support?

You don't need an HR department to employ someone

One of the misconceptions we often come across is that HR is something bigger businesses have.

It doesn't have to be.

A business employing its first person doesn't need the same HR infrastructure as a company employing 100 people. What it does need is to understand its responsibilities as an employer and have the right foundations in place.

At the beginning, that means getting the essentials right rather than creating processes for problems you don't have.

Start with the basics

Before your first employee joins, there are some practical things to consider.

You'll need appropriate employment documentation and a clear understanding of things such as pay, working hours and holiday entitlement. You'll also need a sensible way to manage and record things like absence and employee information.

But good people management starts before the paperwork.

Your new employee also needs to understand why you've employed them, what they're responsible for and what you expect from them.

Think about what a successful first few months would look like. What should they be able to do independently? What decisions can they make? How will you give them feedback? Who will they go to when they need help?

Getting clear about those things early makes life easier for both of you.

Don't wait for a problem before thinking about HR

A lot of businesses first seek HR advice because something has gone wrong.

An employee isn't performing. Someone is regularly absent. There's been a complaint. A conversation has been avoided for months and has now become considerably harder to deal with.

Those are all situations where HR support can help, but they aren't the only reason to use it.

Getting advice earlier can help you put sensible foundations in place before you need them.

It also means that when the first tricky situation inevitably arrives, you're not trying to work everything out for the first time while also dealing with the problem itself.

Your HR support should grow with your business

What you need from HR will change.

With your first employee, you might simply need help getting the essentials in place and knowing you're doing things properly.

As the team grows, you may need more support with managers, performance, recruitment, roles, policies or the way responsibilities are divided across the business.

Eventually, the informal ways of working that were perfectly adequate with two or three people may no longer work with ten, fifteen or twenty.

That's normal. Your people approach should evolve as the business does.

So, when should you get HR support?

If you're taking on your first employee, you don't need to wait until you've got a problem to ask for help.

Equally, you don't need to build an enormous HR system before they walk through the door.

The aim is to understand what your business needs now, get those foundations right and know what you'll need to revisit as you grow.

At People Pillar, we help small and growing businesses work out exactly that – without making HR more complicated than it needs to be.

If you're taking on your first employee and aren't sure what you need in place, get in touch and we'll help you work through it.