Recently, I wrote a blog describing my experience of moving into the human resources world, from a non-human resources background. I described my journey, my greatest obstacles, as well as my approach to learning.
As I continue on my human resources journey, I want to address the mentality I’ve found, in many instances, surrounding human resources, and how a shift in perception could help small businesses become employers of choice and effectively, positively increase their overall earnings.
What is the perception of human resources in the business arena? Let’s explore from the perspectives of employees as well as business owners. Many employees see human resources as the people who may interview them, share with them the benefits package, dull out discipline, and the last people they speak with on their way out of the company.
Businesses often utilize human resources in much the same manner as employees, the recruiting voice, the smiling faces presenting the changes in benefits and benefits packages, payroll (not really an HR function, but I digress), and generally as the terminator, when an employee needs to be fired. The only real difference with the business is that at times, human resources is brought in almost as the hired gun, to reactively handle the issues that had been then all along, but have not resulted in legal action from an employee or other source. These issues typically are expensive from a true monetary cost perspective or can be much more costly from an image and reputation perspective, which can have long lasting negative implications.
How should we view human resources, and how can human resources be leveraged to best benefit employees as well as the business? Human resources need to be viewed as the protective measures taken to proactively identify potential pitfalls and securing the fort, instead of the damage control/damage assessing rebuilder of the business it is so often used as. Your human resources team should be viewed as a foundational pillar of your business, thought of almost as the inspector who examines the foundation of your home before all the beautiful brick and mortar is carefully placed. That beautiful home is only as strong as its’ foundation, so you want to ensure that it is free of cracks, built on solid land, and can support the weight of the structure. That is what the right human resources approach provides for your business!
So, that begs the question…. what is the “employer's advantage” of working with Employers Advantage? Employers Advantage has years of experience inspecting the “foundation” of small businesses, and knows not only where to look for existing cracks, but also knows how to identify what causes the vulnerable area in a business, and we have the tools to fix them.
Employers Advantage understands how to prioritize a business’s greatest areas of exposure first, while also creating and implementing a comprehensive strategy for short term and long term success and plans for future growth. Employers will gain an understanding not only of what issues are, but also how solving that issue fits into the vision for their business.
In a competitive market for good talent and business longevity, an employer’s advantage over another is foundational, proactive and support rather than an after though, reactive and a necessary evil. We will give you the employers advantage.
- Robert
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