Successful businesses set goals.  With the start of a New Year, it is the ideal time for business owners to establish workplace goals that will help find the path from where you are right now to where you want to be – and most importantly, where you don’t want to be.   Here are 3 actionable workplace focus’ that will help put your plan into action.

Compliance

So may laws, not enough time or resources! As a business owner, it’s often easy to overlook the importance of human resources and compliance issues when you’re so focused on sustaining or growing your business. In most cases, these business leaders are focused on excelling at their core business function and don’t have the time, resources or know-how to understand the risks that exists in failing to comply with the numerous laws that cover the employment relationship. Workplace regulations are always changing, and it can be difficult to keep up to date and ensure your company stays in compliance.  Understanding the alphabet soup of workplace regulation such as regulations administered by the EEOC, DOL, NLRB and laws like FLSA, ADA & FMLA – can be intimidating.  Yet failing to do so can put a business at risk for substantial monetary fines and expensive lawsuits which can easily impact any business’ bottom line.   Having your internal human resources staff conduct internal audits before circumstances make it a necessity to do so is a good first start to determining what risk areas you need to improve upon or adjust.  If you currently do not have internal resources that are knowledgeable in these areas, seek outside assistance from a consultant or attorney, begin the new year on the right footing and make compliance a priority for your organization. It will save you in the long run.

Recruiting

When determining a business’ success or ability to grow, having the right people in the right roles is probably one of the most important things a business can do.  Yet surprisingly, for most small businesses, hiring isn’t given as much of a strategic focus as it should. The quality of the team you have around you is the single best predictor of future success for any business venture.  Having a recruiting strategy that properly lays out the method in which the business will recruit and the resources it will tap to hire the right candidates for your business’ current vacancies as well as future positions is vital. Make your plan now – Start strategizing for your recruitment efforts next month, next year and well into the future.

Retention

Although employee retention is being discussed last, by no means should it be a last thought.  Employee turnover is not just an HR issue it’s a business operations and continuity issue.  Your employees are the lifeline of your business and retaining those that are adding value and helping your business succeed is crucial for any business, but even more crucial for small businesses.  As a small business, increasing your revenue is key to growth and high turnover very simply equals an increase in your costs.   A revolving door of employees results in loss of productivity, can impact product quality as well as result in poor customer service to name a few.  Now actually getting to how you retain your employees is a longer strategic discussion.  It involves creating an intentional plan that will focus on how you will meet the needs of your employees beyond simply providing a paycheck.

Not sure how to get started?  The good news is we can help.  At HR & Beyond, we have over 15 years of combined legal and human resources expertise to help your business achieve each of these goals.  HR & Beyond offers a full range of affordable HR Support services – so that you can focus on the business of running your business.  Visit us at www.hrandbeyond.com or email us at [email protected].