A Fractional HR service can be a valuable time-saver for a busy small business owner. Here are 5 creative ways to free up your schedule and cost-effectively support your employees at the same time.
Small business owners are always busy. They are often the CEO, CFO, COO, and HR manager all in one. It is not uncommon for them to be so busy that they don’t have time to take care of their own HR needs.
Getting some form out outside help is a must for these small business owners as their enterprise grows and they begin hiring more employees. A Factional HR service can be a very cost-effective solution. There are many benefits to using a Fractional HR service (read our article - Advantages of Fractional HR), including saving time and money, reducing risk of legal trouble, and effectively offloading tedious tasks.
If you are an overworked small business owner, here are 5 creative ways to use a Fractional HR service to help you get time back on your schedule:
Run Payroll
Outsourcing payroll can be an excellent option for small business owners, even if they have a payroll processing platform and have the expertise to handle their own payroll. Outsourcing your payroll will not only save you the time it would take you to do it yourself, but it will also ensure that everything is done correctly and in compliance with legislation. For a small business, payroll can be quite straightforward when everything goes smoothly. However, payroll platforms are notorious for not quite getting things right, and lengthy waits on hold if you ever need to reach out to someone. The situation has gotten much worse over the last couple of years, as the payroll platforms have struggled to retain high quality support personnel.
Using a Fractional HR service to run your payroll can be a very cost-effective mode of outsourcing. For a small number of hours per month, you can free yourself of the stress and time burden of getting payroll right.
Get Compliant
Companies that get outside help for HR are far more likely to be compliant with federal, state and local employment law than those who don't. Most smaller organizations manage to stay out of trouble when they only have a small team of trusted employees, but the risk of an issue increases exponentially as your company grows. A Fractional HR service can offer you valuable legal protection by making sure your current processes are compliant, but can also periodically check in with you to discuss any changes that may affect you.
Support Your Employees
An HR service can help you manage employee benefits and provide support during times of need like accidents or illness, as well as discipline employees when necessary. A Fractional HR service can also provide onboarding support as your company adds employees, and can act as a first-line support for any questions your employees might have - e.g. a payroll inquiry or a complex benefits question.
Administration
There's no way around it - running a business with employees generates a significant administrative burden. Furthermore, administrative tasks relating to employment often require a significant about of expertise to get right. I can't remember the number of times I've seen mistakes made on an I-9 Employment Verification form, for example. Such errors are not only inconvenient, causing trouble later down the line, they can also be accompanied by significant fines.
For a small number of hours per month, a Fractional HR service can take care of all of the tedious record-keeping and reporting tasks associated with your employees.
Grow Your Team
Outsourcing recruitment is an attractive option for small businesses looking to grow. In today's market more than ever, companies are struggling to attract and retain the talent they need for their business to thrive - and experience of how to do it well is invaluable.
Outsourcing recruitment can be done in two ways:
- Hiring a third-party recruitment agency or consultant to source candidates for your positions
- Using a Fractional HR service to run the whole process
The first option is not only more costly, but it has its own disadvantages. The agency will charge you a fixed fee and will not provide any long-term commitment. They might also not have enough knowledge about your company and what kind of people you need. Worst of all, a recruitment agency will not provide you with all of the processes and support you need to successfully run a recruitment process - they will simply feed you candidates.
Using a Fractional HR service can set you up with an entire recruitment process - from writing job descriptions through to scheduling interviews, storing all of the information you need to comply with the law, and managing candidate interactions.
Would you like to find out more about how our Fractional HR service could save you time and money? Take the first step and Book a Discovery Call.