By Nicole Visedo
When you sit down and think about how you can attract, engage and retain the best people for your business, you’re probably contemplating where are those ‘best people’ currently working or studying? How can I get them to come and work for me? What can I do to transform my current staff to perform to the levels I need to achieve our business goals? And how do I keep these great people in my business?
Whether you have a formal HR function or not in your business, someone needs to ask and answer these questions; and importantly, someone needs to plan and execute these strategies to give your company the greatest chance of success, sustainability and performance. These are the areas that business owners and human resources practitioners alike should focus their time, energy and money on for the greatest return on investment.
But what about risk and compliance? According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs we need to meet our most basic needs before we can hit our optimum performance stride. Basic needs such as legal compliance, HR policies and procedures, employee files and record management; and most importantly ensuring that employees are paid correctly and on time. Without these basics, it would be near impossible to achieve that vision of optimal performance for the business.
Dave Ulrich, named The most influential thinker in HR of the decade by HR Magazine, believes that HR functions have four roles to play:
- Strategic Partner.
- Change Agent.
- Employee Champion.
- Administrative Expert.
The Administrative Expert role is, in part, responsible for creating and delivering efficient and effective HR processes to meet a business’s needs. In practice, this includes the transactional and often administrative processes or activities such as managing employee grievances, disputes and performance issues, achieving legal compliance in policies, procedures and contracts, addressing employee queries relating to pay, entitlements and employment terms and conditions, assessing workplace health, safety and security risks; and of course managing terminations, to name just a few.
Meeting these basic needs requires a plethora of knowledge and expertise, yet most of these activities are not strategically aligned to helping a business achieve growth, change or optimum performance. It is for these reasons that many organisations prefer to outsource the expertise to take care of these basic needs so that businesses can focus on achieving their goals, including the HR activities that add the greatest value such as building employee relationships.
Sounds good in theory, right? In practice, outsourcing your HR administrative role can be as seamless as it sounds. HR Assured has assisted tens of thousands of clients to outsource various transactional HR activities. We’ve mastered the balance of working for you and with you so we don’t waste your precious time and provide you with the best support to achieve compliance and best practice in workplace relations. What makes us different from the others? We invest time in getting to know you and your company so that our advice and support is not generic; it’s tailored to address your needs.
If your business is looking to outsource its HR functions, contact the team at HR Assured.
Nicole Visedo is the Senior Workplace Relations Consultant at FCB Group, HR Assured’s parent company. In a previous role, Nicole worked in HR Assured’s Telephone Advisory Service where she ensured our customers receive tailored support and advice. She has over 18 years of HR experience and has developed a deep understanding of this vital business function.