In the last YES! Your Human Resources blog, we talked about how a solid Human Resources foundation can help a startup company gain footing in areas like talent acquisition, employee development, policy setting, record keeping, and legal compliance. Your business isn’t too small to budget for the benefits of HR structure and compliance! A knowledgeable HR resource can help establish policy and ensure compliance, and it can also work to overcome or avoid these common HR challenges that startups face.

Employee Hiring

Startups often hire people the founders already know, but as the business grows, an informal hiring process with minimal onboarding won’t give new employees the direction they need, plus it will look super rinky-dink. Now, remember from our last blog that businesses fail 23 percent of the time because they aren’t able to maintain the proper workforce. Maybe that means you’re hiring the wrong talent or that you’re not able to hang on to the right talent, but as a startup with limited resources, you need to get your hiring right the first time. Turnover is expensive! A great HR resource will help you hire the right talent at the right compensation, onboard them properly, and set a strategy for long-term hiring. You’ll start to establish your company’s reputation as a great place to work.

Employee Training

Stagnating employees are less happy, less loyal, and less competitive than their counterparts undergoing career development. An IBM study found that employees are 12 times more likely to quit if their development needs aren’t being met. Remember—turnover is expensive, so you want to avoid it where you can. HR can identify the training your workplace needs most, and can even provide that training to your employees, from onboarding training for new employees, to management training for leadership.

Employee Retention

Let’s be honest: work-life balance isn’t the best in startups. If that’s not enough to scare off some employees, there’s the idea that employees may take their newly developed skills and business acumen to organizations with better balance. So what can you do to keep them on board? There’s the training and development we talked about, and then there are invaluable intangibles that will make your company great: offering respect, responsibility, appreciation, non-monetary rewards, and generous PTO. Create a culture of value and appreciation that workers will love.

Company Culture

Many startups let their company culture develop on its own, based on the ideals of its founding employees. But it’s wiser to intentionally steer your company culture, especially if you have employee retention in mind. Start by setting your company’s core values. Hire employees who embody those values and your company’s desired culture. Incorporate your values into your company’s daily activities—walk the talk.

Employee Feedback

Without employee feedback, how will you know how your employees feel about your company? In a startup, HR provides an outlet for employees to share complaints, opinions, and suggestions for improvement. Then, of course, it’s also an outlet to hear the good stuff. Employees feel valued when their feedback is heard, considered, and implemented. HR can determine the best tools to gather employee feedback, then help you determine which strategies to consider and how to implement change.

In Conclusion

Your startup isn’t too small to face Human Resources challenges. It’s better to head them off before they impact your growth! A Go-To HR resource like YES! Your Human Resources Solution can steer your HR strategy so you can focus on driving business results.

Contact us for a free consultation to discover how your startup business can leverage the power of saying YES!