Been in the business for a while now, you must’ve been approached by numerous HR outsourcing companies to undertake their recruitment process outsourcing and payroll services for saving money and the ability to focus on core business function. Perhaps the most significant drivers to prompt shift towards HRO is initially global economic downturn and the pressures to reduce costs while the ability to elicit handling the inherit complexity of payroll functions and the required correctness.
The key pointers for small businesses trying to stay afloat in tough times using services of a specialized partner include access to outside expertise, ability to business performance, and the ability to focus on core expertise. They enable a small business to allocate its resources in areas such as engineering, research & development, production etc. other than maintaining records or processing payrolls. Small business owners often find themselves hunting for the right resources – the in-house human resource talent that is perhaps available at budgets beyond the permissible limits. Outsourcing the HR function like transactional processing & RPO not only justifies the projected expenses but maintains the quality confidence in the level of competency these companies offer. The search for management resources for administrative functions without expertise in HR strategic management takes a backseat with an HR strategic partner handling all the requisite expertise. The proposition offers small to midsized organizations benefits typically available only to bigger companies.
Amongst the countless number of HRO firms, whom should a small business with the little budget consider to reap maximum benefits on the expenditure. Deciding to call out external facilitator while the small entity builds a strong base, the first step is to identifying those tasks that take key staff away from prime purposes within the company. Ideally, the most strategic tasks a company should send out are those that are unproductive such as benefits and retirement plan administration, managing HR compliance regulations, processing payrolls and taxes. They can make significant savings by turning to HRO for many of these administrative functions. Though few firms may find it more productive to outsource their entire human resources functions, however, payroll outsourcing, recruitment outsourcing and recruitment process outsourcing are the prime examples of specific functions that can be outsourced. Sending out single function like recruitment outsourcing also allows firms to fully utilize the skills of their existing HR personnel and other staff in areas.
PeopleStrong, India’s leading HR BPO, offering Human Resource outsoucing (HRO) services. We provide payroll outsourcing, of recruitment process outsourcing and HR outsouring.
Hiring reliable, motivated staff to add to your success is becoming harder for employers. Employment Legislation, Data Protection Laws and EU Directives have all created a web in which the average small business owner can easily feel trapped and ensnared. I have trained hundreds of managers to find their way through, and these are some of the ideas I can offer to help you.
IT’S NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM. In this article I will show you how you can shift the odds in your favour without spending a fortune on recruitment advertising. This is part one of a series, so look out for updates or contact me for more details.
1 – Designing and advertising the job
Most managers and business owners have been stuck at some point in our careers with the employee from hell, a difficult person who brings havoc to work with them. They take up time, they can sabotage work (and cost you money), and they can affect team morale, dragging their performance down and causing good staff to get fed up and leave.
Some bosses have classified their problem people and among the worst are:
· Moaners – if you want to give great customer service how will this person help?
· Liars – can you trust them with your property?
· Bullies – they don’t just scare the staff: customers will run a mile from them. Sometimes the boss is even scared
· Addicts – drink, drugs, gambling – take your pick. Whatever their weakness, they are Trouble with a capital T
· Lovers – they use the workplace as a free dating agency. It can be fine while romance is blossoming but when the honeymoon’s over the fallout will spill over at work, sometimes with violent results
· Hypochondriacs – never there when you need them
· Gossips – can cause backbiting in the most harmonious team. Good people will get tired of them and leave.
Do these ring any bells? Are you worried about employing the next member of staff? Well read on and you will find out what you can do……
There are lots of things you can do to improve the odds of getting an effective person to fill your next vacancy. A sound job specification is particularly important, and that’s not just HR-speak. It will help avoid complaints of discrimination and helps you select suitable people who can develop into valuable assets for the organisation rather than difficult employees. Write a short job specification – this describes the skills and experience needed to do the job well. Write this up for the job and you will have a set of requirements against which you can filter the applications and decide who to interview. You can include anything that relates to the job – for example Experience, Training, Special Knowledge, Adaptability, Disposition.
For example: you need someone to produce client contracts using Word and Excel. Sounds simple? Fine: let’s ask candidates to do that in a short test, using a simple draft as a starting point. Now we start to find out who can walk their talk. And on the subject of walking, if that’s part of the job, put it in the specification, then they can’t say they didn’t expect to be on their feet all day!
You can recruit without spending a fortune. Before you run into the arms of a recruitment agency, try and compare notes with another local employer. Has anyone found a really good, loyal agency? If so, grab them! Lots of companies use employment agencies to do the work for them, with varying results. They can charge a month’s salary for finding the employee, and once they place them with you they can be ready to tempt them away with the next vacancy – and there’s often nothing you can do about this!
So how do you find the right person? Just be practical – put a small ad in the right advertising medium: often one of the local papers. But also offer it to the local Jobcentre, and tell all your staff that the job is open. There’s no reason not to interview a friend or relative of an existing member of staff, if they meet the basic job requirements. Are there any other free outlets to advertise the job? Set a closing date and interview date(s) when you advertise. This lets the applicant know when they might be asked to an interview, and can save a lot of time in dealing with enquiries.
So you’ve designed a clear, simple job spec, you’ve told everyone that you’re looking for someone good, and now just wait for that flood of applicants to beat a path to your door.
Part Two coming soon, but if you can’t wait that long you can contact me – see my details below.
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