It’s easy, when you are a small business, to feel a little intimidated and overwhelmed by the human resources side of your company, Suzanne Kirk told some 100 members of the Savannah Chamber’s Small Business Council gathered Tuesday.
“When I ask small business owners what comes to mind when I say ‘human resources,’ the answers are pretty predictable — paperwork, benefits, compensation, the Affordable Care Act,” said Kirk, a human resources consultant and president of Employee Development Strategies Inc.
“Rarely does someone say ‘people,’ but that’s really where the focus should be.” she said.
Kirk served up the first of her two-part presentation on “the most common self-inflicted wounds in the world of HR” at the council’s monthly SMART lunch in the Savannah Morning News auditorium.
No. 1 on her list: “Forgetting that there is an ‘H’ in HR.”
“Finding and keeping good employees is not rocket science, although we tend to make it harder than it is,” she said. “But it does take some planning.
“Start with recruiting. Do you have a job description? Do you know what the right person for this job will look like?” What qualities will you need in this person?
“Once you’ve hired someone, do you say ‘There’s your desk’ and expect them to find their own way or do you implement an orientation and continuous coaching strategy?”
Kirk explained the first three of her “eight great self-inflicted HR wounds” — avoidance, “Band-Aid® fixes and applying global solutions to isolated problems.
“Avoidance is probably the most common problem I see,” she said. “Let’s face it, some of the HR stuff we have to deal with is not pretty. But, unpleasant as it may be, it’s really important to deal with it head-on. Here’s where it’s good to have performance expectations set out and discussed in the interview process before you hire. A job description really helps with this.
“And, no, it doesn’t have to be a 20-page legal document.”
“Band-Aid® fixes are simply that,” she said. “You can’t patch a big problem — you have to get to the root cause. For example, if your sales staff is underperforming, do you offer cash incentives in the hope they will do better? Until you know why they are not selling, throwing money at the problem is a temporary patch at best.”
Applying global solutions to isolated problems is one way employers avoid having to have awkward conversations, she said.
“For example, choosing to send out a companywide memo or post employee rules regarding tardiness when only one of your 10 employees is habitually late tends to send the wrong message to the other nine,” Kirk said. “It’s much more effective to talk one-on-one with the tardy employee.”
The biggest HR mistake small businesses make, she said, is something she learned early.
“Small business owners have to wear so many hats they often think they don’t have time to just push the pause button and reflect on what they are doing and why. But investing the time in employee infrastructure — job descriptions, performance expectations, evaluations — will pay dividends down the road,” Kirk said.
“Sometimes you have to slow down to go fast.”
