Trusted Ways to Build a Quality Human Resource Management Team

Human Resource Management Team Pic by Me04015 at Wikimedia Commons

Let the sales of your creative business products and services take off (great news) and you may face the prospect of having to hire employees (more change). If you’ve been operating your creative business as a small two to five person outfit or as a solopreneur for a year or longer, it’s understandable if you aren’t familiar with the plethora of local, state and federal employment, discrimination, hiring, record keeping laws and payroll tax policies and procedures. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a professor of these laws to manage a successful business; instead, you can build a quality human resource team and let these experienced professionals do the heavy lifting. 

Key components of a quality human resource team include: 

• Recruiting (Sure – you can use external staffing agencies to help you meet your hiring needs, but if you bring your recruiters in-house, you can save on agency fees. You can also work with your in-house recruiters to provide new hire orientation, etc. for new employees.)
• Learning and Development (These human resource professionals can build and deliver customized training programs for your entire workforce. They can also tailor training programs to specific employees or departments. For example, your learning and development human resource team can design a marketing program for members of your product sales team who have been at or below quarterly sales goals.)
• Compensation and Benefits (Reviews base salary, stock option and cash bonuses for each employee at your firm to ensure employees are paid equitably across the board. Also develops rewards and benefits programs to encourage increased productivity, job satisfaction and employee engagement.
• Employee Relations (As much as you don’t want it to happen, there may be instances when you have to investigate employee complaints of harassment, discrimination, unfair treatment, etc. Employee relations human resource professionals are licensed and trained to respond to these complaints.)
• Human Resource Information Systems (Also known as HRIS, this human resource component creates and distributes reports on your employee population. For example, HRIS creates and distributes headcount, diversity, business continuity, new hire and salary reports.)
• Human Resource Management (Human resource generalists, directors and other senior human resource leaders make up human resource management teams. These professionals face off to division and department business managers at your company, advising them on hires, layoffs, salary increases, promotions, etc. They ensure that all other components of your human resource team work together seamlessly.) 

Benefits of Having a Quality Human Resource Team

Furthermore, build a quality human resource management team and you can steer clear of class action lawsuits, individual civil court cases, negative media exposure and low employee productivity. The money that a quality human resource management team can save you creative business could extend into the millions of dollars, especially as your creative business continues to grow and expand. You might even find yourself adding components to your human resource management team like a shared services department, employee security and safety department or an ethics and sustainability division. 

Organizations like the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Professionals in Human Resource Association, National Human Resource Association and the Human Resource Research Organization host ongoing training events, conferences, networking events and advocacy programs for human resource professionals. As a creative business leader you can also leverage these organizations to learn about recent updates to employment laws, discrimination policies, mandatory overtime payment rates and regulations, state and federal employee reporting requirements, telecommuter work arrangements, Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) laws, work related Visa sponsorships, privacy right, youth employment guidelines and background investigation regulations. These professional organizations, as well as external staffing firms, can also help you to identify top human resource talent so you can build a quality human resource management team. 

Get more information on Spiral and Long Walk Up at www.chistell.com.  

Sources:

http://www.shrm.org/Pages/default.aspx (Society for Human Resource Management)

http://www.humanresources.org (National Human Resource Association)

http://www.pihra.org (Professionals in Human Resource Association)

http://www.humrro.org/corpsite (Human Resource Research Organization)