When to hire an HR Consultant.
Outsourcing your Human Resources function to an HR professional can save your business money. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the reasons why HR consulting and outsourcing makes sense.
Is your company large enough to need internal HR? Most companies outsourcing human resources tend to have between 10 and 20 employees. However, there are many exceptions. Better Call HR has been outsourced by various functions that include general HR as well as Organizational Development. When you find that the administrative processes begin slowing down productivity, it might be time to outsource.
• What level of control is essential to you? With an outsourced HR team, the ideal situation is to find one that works in partnership with your organization to ensure all policies and practices nurture the culture you’ve worked so hard to create.
• What services do you need? As you start to look for an HR partner, you will be unsure of the services that you may need. To help relax this situation, Better Call HR conducts a free and no-obligation HR audit. We do this to ensure you are aware of “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” Providing this audit gives the business owner and the team the necessary knowledge to make smarter decisions during this tumultuous time.
• What level of support do you need? As you wind through finding a trusted partner, remember that this is a relationship that will EVOLVE with time. Choosing an HR professional with varying levels of experience with multiple industries will help ensure that you have a real “third party” viewpoint. Frequently, organizations will use an HR Consultant to support their primary HR practitioner. Just remember that the Consultant does not desire to take over or become the HR representative for the company.
Outsourcing and using an HR Consultant can be cost effective:
Outsourcing can be very cost-effective. For example, with human resources consultants, you often have access to HR professionals who have more experience and specialized knowledge than your HR staff. To hire individual employees with this experience would cost you more than hiring a team of HR consultants.
It can also be more cost-effective for smaller companies to hire a team of HR Consultants who will do the job well and efficiently than it can be to build up an HR department from scratch. For example, recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and training HR employees to perform at the level at which human resources consultants perform can cost a great deal of time and money. One approach might be to outsource HR functions first and, as part of your contract with them, have them recruit in-house HR employees who can continue the great work they started.
Frequent Services provided by HR Consulting and Outsourcing:
Employee Development
Strategic Planning
HR Foundational work
Auditing
Compliance
Workforce Development
Workplace Investigations
Sexual Harassment Prevention
Cost Savings (by not employing a full time HR professional)
Ultimate Decision is yours:
HR consultants have to maintain their expertise to be valuable to their clients. Small-business owners who don't have a dedicated HR department within their companies benefit from an HR consultant who can guide the day-to-day operations. Even if an HR staff member is in place, the HR consultant can advise him or her on HR functions that will sustain employee engagement and productivity. When selecting an HR Consultant, make sure that they are SHRM and or HRCI certified.
