An HR department is the section or branch of a company with the main responsibility of most or all aspects of recruiting employees, retaining, and tracking employees on an individual level. There are many reasons why human resources and human resource management are important to any company with employees. The main functions of an HR department are as follows:
Recruitment Planning:
Recruitment planning will often be done through the HR department since ultimately, the HR department has all the information concerning the type of employees that are needed to fill certain vacancies. Recruitment planning also allows the HR department to ensure that the proper employee count and production ratios are maintained. HR will track the gaps and needs on a larger scale while looking at both present and future needs.
Laws and Legislations:
Employment law changes all the time. By working with a company like GNA Partners, which can provide HR services Austin, you will be able to make sure that you are working with a department that has the skills to track and stay up to date with all the changes in laws and legislation relating to employees. For example, it’s important to ensure that any minimum wage changes are checked for regulation and compliance. Working with a good HR department ensures that managers are trained to make sure that everything is correct going forwards to prevent any penalties, fees, or infractions.
Diversity Standards:
The HR department needs to look at the company in terms of how it is perceived based on the diversity standards within the organization. It must take the necessary steps to ensure that all employees have equal opportunities while working within the company and that employees are hired from a range of diverse backgrounds.
Workplace Safety:
The HR department is the area of the business that is tasked with making sure that the workplace is fair, safe, and civil. For example, the HR department might investigate if a certain department is getting more employee turnover than usual to see what the underlying problem is and devise strategies and steps to deal with it.
Payroll:
Not only do human resources departments often look after the payroll of a company, but they will often be the department that ensures equal pay structures are put in place for employees, along with equal expectations, job duties, and assignments. This is important to prevent situations such as men being paid more than women for doing the same job.
Corporate Image:
Often, a company’s image can be heavily impacted by how its employees are treated. The corporate image and how others outside of the company view the business is another area that is the responsibility of the human resources department. HR is often responsible for making sure that the business is viewed in a positive light by both consumers and other organizations.
Company Future:
Human resources (HR) is a department within the company that is often tasked with protecting the company’s future. One way in which the HR department will do this is to make sure that the proper documentation is written when hiring employees, including employee contracts and employee handbooks.
Employee Benefits:
The HR department is also typically responsible for the handling of employee benefits. Rewarding the staff in a manner that is fair and attracts more potential employees into the business is a process that will usually be overseen by HR. Not only can the HR department make sure that employees have access to the benefits that are the most sought-after in various industries, but they will also ensure that favoritism is prevented at any level of the company.
Compliance:
HR is tasked with making sure that any compliance issues are met and handled in the appropriate manner. The human resources department will be in charge of handling compliance for issues such as worker’s compensation, wrongful termination, workplace injuries and accidents, in-house theft, and more.
Why Consider Outsourcing HR?
More and more small businesses are deciding to outsource HR to a more experienced company in the current employment climate. This is because outsourcing can be a cheaper and more effective option compared to hiring HR professionals in-house for many small and medium-sized businesses.
There are several considerations to make before you decide to make the transition to outsourcing HR. Outsourcing may not always be the right choice for companies that need to have HR professionals on-hand who are readily available and very familiar with the business, but for some companies that do not have the capacity to hire professionals in-house, outsourcing can have many more benefits.
Outsourcing HR allows you better access to advanced technologies, a wider range of employee benefits, and human resources services such as compliance with regulations and rules at an often much cheaper price compared to hiring in-house professionals.
Before making the decision to outsource your company’s HR department, you will need to consider several factors including the cost of an in-house HR team, the size of your business, whether the work is going to require face-to-face conversations or if you’ll be able to work with an HR team virtually, the technology that you can afford, the expertise inside your company, and whether you plan to increase your employee count yearly.
Reasons to Outsource HR:
Some companies choose to outsource the entire HR department while others decide to retain control over certain HR functions. Some of the main HR roles that a business can outsource include drug screening and background checks, regulation and compliance with laws and legislation, creating and updating policy manuals and employee handbooks, hiring new employees, disciplinary actions, handling lawsuits for workplace injuries or worker’s compensation claims, firing employees, obtaining and providing employee benefits, and much more.
If you run a business that employs people, it’s a good idea to have a good HR department to handle all the aspects relating to your employees. While many small businesses may struggle to hire an in-house HR team, outsourcing HR is an ideal alternative that’s becoming more popular.