When is the right time to outsource your HR?

SME owners and entrepreneurs are invariably motivation rich and time poor, especially if they run a close knit but expanding and increasingly busy team. The drive to expand the business and fulfil its potential can leave issues such as effective HR by the wayside until it’s too late. We look at some of the signs that it might be the right time to outsource your HR.                                       

HR isn’t just about that old fashioned term ‘hiring and firing’; today’s HR professionals deal with a wide range of issues in addition to talent management, such as how legislation affects employers and employees, contacts, training, employee communications, benefits and bonuses. It’s an important and all-encompassing role and not one that can be taken lightly. Get it wrong and you run the risk of alienating your organisation’s most vital asset – your staff – and potentially facing costly legal action. However, often this vital function gets overlooked in the day-to-day management of routine operations.

Here’s how to recognise if you need outsourced HR help.

Your business is growing: Smaller companies may not need a HR team. They may be able to function with one member of staff who may also be involved with, for example, finance and look at HR on the side. Clearly, however, this isn’t a sustainable business model if your business is growing with an expanding workforce, when HR will take up more and more of that person’s time, to the detriment of their other work. If your HR team (be it one person or more) is struggling to cope with the amount of work they need to cover due to a company’s expansion, it’s time to call in an outsourced team.

You need to cut costs: Staffing and running a HR team at a level appropriate to your business’ needs can be costly and it can be difficult to strike a balance between getting the staffing levels right and the amount of work which needs to be done. Engaging an outsourced HR organisation can help you manage those costs, providing exactly the right level of support, whether to cover mundane, time-intensive tasks such as payroll or more difficult high-level conversations, and avoiding the overheads involved in having to take on more full-time staff.

You need to respond faster to change: Talent management is a core function of HR and sourcing the best person for the job is an art which not everyone ‘gets’. If your HR team is already struggling to cope with routine tasks, asking them to recruit a specialist member of staff at short notice could be the tipping point and have far-reaching implications for the future success of your business. Outsourced HR teams can offer vital support when it’s needed to source the staff members you need to continue your growth trajectory.

If you recognise any of these scenarios within your organisation, it may be the right time to consider partnering with an outsourced HR team. Make sure that you don’t leave it too late to make a difference. Take stock of your current situation now before it becomes overwhelming and potentially damages your business.

How we can help you

If you’d like to discuss any of the issues detailed in this blog, get in touch with us today on 0161 941 2426. We’re here to help.