Initially, you started your business as a side project. Little did you know that it would expand rapidly and become your main source of income.
You’ve gone from working on your own to having multiple departments containing numerous employees. One of your most important departments is Human Resources (HR). HR oversees a variety of employee-based factors including salaries, contracts, grievances and disciplinary policies.
The functioning of your HR department is vital to the overall success of your company. It’s important to ensure that your HR department avoids making the following mistakes:
1. Not keeping up with documentation
From hiring new employees to providing training, it is the job of HR to document everything. This way, records can be pulled up if anything is ever brought into question. A lax approach from HR to paperwork could get your company in all kinds of trouble. Of course, records don’t necessarily need to be physically kept on paper, a digital filing system will also suffice.
2. Not establishing formal policies for employee behavior
Some work environments operate on a less formal footing and find this to be productive. There is nothing wrong with this as such, but there must be a limit. At the end of the day, it is a business and the relationships between workers during office hours should be professional. It’s vital that your HR department set out formal policies through training, a handbook and reminder emails. Anything from the dress code to the company’s ethos should be made clear to workers from the very beginning.
If your HR department has slipped up, it isn’t necessarily the end of the world. Seeking some legal guidance will help you to get everything in order again.