Resources for Humans
Dear Erin,
We’ve been struggling with HR at work lately… no real crises but rather confusion here and there due to the lack of a formal HR, or Human Resources, function within the organization. Technically, right now I’m it, as the responsibilities belonged to someone who is no longer with the company and I’m interim until a new person is hired. And, in his defense, although he didn’t make much progress on creating a formal HR department, we didn’t really have a burning need for one. Or so we thought.
The thing with HR is, you don’t need it until you do. And then you really do.
You may think you are not big enough to worry about any of this right now. That’s what I thought when it was essentially me and Mike in a start-up business. However, in looking back, I wish I had at least the list of things we were going to have to build procedures and policies around. As we have brought on more and more people, those new people expect that we have clear solid systems and rules in place; they deserve as much.
We still don’t have all the answers, and are struggling to get it right. But at least I now have a list of what I think the primary HR functions are (or should be) and we’re working through it.
Payroll and compensation. I list this first, because we at least do this pretty well. We get people paid, on time! We have a system for reviewing compensation annually and offering raises as appropriate.
Benefits. We do some of this pretty well. We have generous health benefits and optional vision and dental coverage. However, I believe we could be offering retirement benefits (e.g., a 401k plan) that we haven’t gotten sorted out yet.
Paid Time Off. There are two parts to this: setting the policy and then tracking people’s time off as they both accrue it and take it off. It can get confusing pretty quickly, especially when we have a lot of “comp time” for working weekends or evenings. You are like me - you just work, with little thought to taking vacation, and when you want vacation you can just take it because you’ve worked way more than you should have anyway. I’m sure you don’t take all the vacation you’ve earned. That’s bad, by the way - I have not been a good role model. Sorry. But most people have a healthier approach than me and Mike. They want and need to know how much time off they get, how much they have taken and how much they have left. Eeeep. Gotta configure the payroll system to keep track correctly. Otherwise, it can get out of hand quickly.
Recruiting and Hiring. Seems easy and maybe a one-off thing, right? Not so much, especially in a growing organization when jobs change quickly or morph into new roles and responsibilities. You should maintain a clear and updated org chart, along with an accurate job description for each position. When you need to hire a new person, grab that job description and use it to create the indeed.com post or LinkedIn post or whatever. If it’s a new position, be sure you know where the position will fit into the org chart and know that when you are creating the job description, it is clearly differentiated from the positions already in place. Once you want to hire someone, you should present the new hire with an offer letter, outlining the terms of the offer and referencing the job description. (I don’t have this issue at my job, but if you have international hires, this could have quite a few tasks related to Visas, helping them find housing, etc.)
Onboarding. There is some first day paperwork to be sure, especially that needed to get the person on payroll. But good onboarding is the process of easing the person into the job, the team, the culture and the organization. It’s everything from a welcome meal to showing how to order supplies to letting them know what might be expected in the first 30, 60 or 90 days. Strong onboarding is your best chance at making a good impression - and increasing the chance of the new employee’s success. It’s not too hard to create a generic list of onboarding activities that you can follow for all new hires.
Offboarding. Actually, I don’t really know if is called “offboarding”, but regardless you also need a clear process for what to do when someone leaves, whether it is a voluntary or involuntary departure. Close down the email, get the keys, final payroll, there might be some severance…
Performance Monitoring. I was going to write “issues” but not everything is an issue. Sometimes, you have rock stars! This function could include management of annual performance evaluations, if you want to do that. (There’s lots of debate about whether these are a good thing or a bad thing. You can decide for your own organization.) If someone is not meeting expectations, there should be a remediation process, if you want to train or coach the person to better meet expectations for the job. If it’s just not working and you have to let someone go, well, yup, that’s a procedure. And one that you want to be clear, fair and consistent out of consideration for the employee.
Development. On a more positive note, development would mean having an approach for continuing education and professional development. Actually this might be a big deal for you, insofar as I’ve heard you say that “taking class” is often part of the employment package when you are with a dance company. How much class? What kind of class? Do you pay for it as an organization? Are employees allowed to skip out? Do you hire coaches/ trainers for individuals? Send them to workshops or conferences? Will you pay for it if they attend?
Contractor Management. This one will resonate with you, too. Depending on your business model, you may wind up with lots of independent contractors who are paid for their services and receive 1099-NEC forms at year-end. As you know, to bring on and pay an independent contractor, you should have a Statement of Work in place, a W-9 from the contractor, and a process for mutually agreeing when the work has been completed satisfactorily and therefore the contractor must be paid. Some places might get away with tucking this into the Finance Function,but when you have lots of coaches - or dancers - working as independent contractors, it makes sense to me to run that through HR.
Risk Management. Last but certainly not least: people are awesome but people bring risk and that risk has to be managed. You need workers comp insurance - and someone to deal with all the forms and phone calls if heaven forbid someone has a workers comp claim. Other issues: are your people following all of your policies with respect to safety? And, is everyone managing your organization complying with all federal, state, county and sometimes city labor laws? Do you have any workplace safety issues that involve OSHA? Do all of your employees feel like your organization is a safe and fair place to work? Do you have all the other various forms of insurance in place?
When it’s just you, or, in my case just one or two of us working together for years, all of this can sometimes seem like, “whatever” or “we’ll figure it out if there is an issue.” But believe me, growth happens sometimes without you noticing. And when, all of a sudden, you are big enough that you really should have a firm grasp on all of this, you’ll be glad that you started putting policies and procedures - and people to manage them - in place early on.
Love, Mom
