Some business owners may question the need for having a Human Resources department, especially when they are on a tight budget. After all, HR is a department that doesn’t produce any revenue. This leads to some people viewing HR professionals as nothing short of individuals that try to prevent them from accomplishing what they want with their business.
However, this line of thinking is definitely incorrect. Today’s HR professionals have the skills and training necessary to help an organization achieve balance between staff, management and strategy.
Human Resources Saves You Money
Even though HR doesn’t directly generate revenue in the way that a sales department does, it can help you solve certain issues within your organization before they become costly problems. Human resources professionals can help you avoid various types of monetary losses, which can in turn help your business achieve success. An HR professional is responsible for staying current on changes to labor laws and regulations. They will also see how these changes will impact a business and can provide information or training to management and staff.
An HR professional ensures that every company procedure and policy complies with applicable laws and will help owners or management implement the changes needed to stay compliant. Ignoring changes to labor laws can be costly to any organization. For example, a company that violates OSHA standards can receive fines between $7,000 and $70,000, not to mention face litigation from employees.
HR Manages and Reduces Employee Turnover
Reducing your operating costs can be achieved by lowering your employee turnover. This is due to the fact that turnover costs can come from various sources, such as losses in productivity, costs of recruiting new employees and training them for their job functions, as well as facing potential down time when an employee leaves the company. Any business owner should be aware that these costs will add up very rapidly. An HR professional can help mitigate them by putting together strategies that will help keep turnover rates low, as well as developing a good recruitment program.
Experienced HR professionals know how to select new employees that will adapt to your business environment with ease, thus costing you little to train them. HR professionals are also able to see if the needs of your organization are changing and provide training for your employees so that they can continue to have the necessary skills and work efficiently.
When you have a good on-boarding process, this makes it more likely that a newly hired employee will stay with your organization longer and help it grow. While the actual turnover costs will vary from one employer to the next, a study done by the Center for American Progress in November 2012 shows that turnover costs could be over 20% of the annual salary for an employee.
All of this goes to show that HR professionals can be valuable strategic partners for your business, rather than roadblocks that prevent you from achieving your objectives. HR can remove the burden of keeping up to date with changing labor laws off your shoulders and work together with other elements in your organization to help your business achieve success.
