It doesn’t matter the size of your business, or how new you are to business ownership, the team you build will determine your success. The people we hire matter. How we train our crew, and whether or not we manage them well, will ultimately play a role in our ability to grow our business.
Unfortunately, it isn’t easy to manage the human resources processes of a business. Whether you have three or 300 employees, it takes a lot of knowledge and planning to execute the hiring, training, discipline, and management of your employees well. As you grow your business, make sure you are avoiding these four human resources mistakes.
Waiting to Create Systems
If you think you don’t need comprehensive systems for your human resources until your business experiences growth, you couldn’t be more wrong. Waiting to create the systems that will guide you as you hire, train, and even fire your employees is a big mistake. From day one, it is important that your human resources processes are consistent. This means you need things like check-off lists that will make sure that you aren’t missing a single step along the way.
These systems should include a check-off list for the application, interview, and hiring process, a system for documenting the face-to-face discussion you’re having about performance issues, and an up-to-date, comprehensive employee handbook. Additionally, you should also have a system in place that guides the training process so that it is automatic. It may feel like you can manually manage these process now, while your business is small, but these type of systems will be invaluable as you scale your business. As you make each new hire, these systems will simplify your growth.
Failing to Document
In human resources, there is nothing quite as important as proper documentation. For example, there may come a time when you realize one of your employees isn’t the right fit for your team. If you have failed to properly document the conversations you’ve had with them about their unsatisfactory performance along the way, however, you won’t have sufficient proof for letting them go.
Like many business processes, this is something that comes back to having systems in place. Before your first encounter with an employee, you should have a process in place for documentation of training, disciplinary conversations, and termination of employees. It could be as simple as following up each conversation with an email, then printing that off and placing it in their file. For formal documentation, something more official, like write-up form the employee signs, is more appropriate.
Moving too Quickly
When your business is growing, it is easy to get caught up in the excitement, to start making quick decisions about growing your team. For instance, if a large contract is offered to you that is beyond your capacity, it is easy to assume you need to quickly hire new employees to accommodate.
Moving too quickly through the hiring process can be a mistake with big consequences for businesses. Each hire should follow the same steps, multiple interviews, background checks, and calling their references. This prevents the hiring of employees that are ill-fitting, who don’t care about the mission of your organization.
To avoid making a poor hiring decision because your business is growing quickly, we suggest connecting with contract employees with experience in your industry. These connections will enable you to meet business demands while still taking your time finding the right long term employee for your company.
Inconsistent Enforcement of Policies
In human resources, consistency is key. Running a brand new business creates a strong bond between owner and employees. It is easy to let these relationships create favoritism in the workplace, to feel a special sense of loyalty to those who have been with you from the start, compared to those you hire as your grow.
As difficult as it might be, however, each employee needs to held to the same standard. Each team member, whether they helped you build the business from the ground up or just joined the team this month, needs to under the same expectations.
Inconsistent enforcement of company policies can create resentment and tension in the workplace. For the sake of the health of your organization, hold each employee to the same standards. Require everyone to submit to the same rules, from arriving to work on time, to honoring uniform and break time policies.
At More Floods, we work with water damage restoration business owners to create seamless systems that keep their business running. From human resource policies to marketing campaigns, we have tried and true methods that we pass on to your network members. Become a part of More Floods. Click here or call 1-866-667-3356 to learn more about the benefits of a network membership.