An Ode to HR

You already have what you are looking for. Yes, you, the small business owner who feels like you are drowning, who struggles with imposter syndrome, who doesn’t know if you can cover all your expenses next month. You may ask “How so? I’ve been searching for my superpowers, and I can’t seem to find them anywhere. I may have even left them way back in my dreams before I got started in this whole entrepreneurial path.” Well, I am here to tell you otherwise. Look around you, look within you. The unique skill sets, quirks, drive, innovation, and passion you and your teammates bring to this work every day are what set you apart. These “human” resources are your superpower, they cannot be replicated. They are your biggest asset and advantage in running a successful small business. Let’s take a closer look…

Human Resource Management can be defined as the policies, practices, and systems that influence employees’ behavior, attitudes, and performance. It also encompasses the processes designed to improve the ability of staff members to do their job. This includes the practice of recruiting, hiring, deploying, and managing an organization’s employees. By creating these practices and implementing them within your company, you are setting yourself up to be a well-oiled machine. Each day these practices, and the people participating in them, are honing their skills, and therefore strengthening your business overall. Another company cannot create the same output because Katie doesn’t work on their operations like she does yours, coming in with a laser-focused vision and attention to detail. They cannot expand the same way you do because Alberto has worked with your company for 12 years and holds such immense historical data in his mind he can recreate your brand in the new product launch in record time. Lindsey’s training manual is written with such care because she appreciated the detail given to her when she was training herself. If you need some more convincing here is another great article from Forbes about HR and your potential for success. These positive outcomes do not happen by chance, they do not happen because you bought the newest “shiny” productivity app, they happen because you invested in yourself, in your team, and in your systems. These skills cannot be duplicated by another company, and they cannot be duplicated by A.I. technology going forward. 

So, what are some actionable ways you can develop your HR systems? First, take some time to plan for the future. What do you want your company to look like and how do you want it to behave 5, 10, 15 years down the road? Make sure your systems and training programs reflect these goals when you are starting out. What type of values and skills do you need to see in a potential new hire? What do you need to offer in terms of pay and benefits to attract these folks to work with you? All of this informs how you build and execute your HR systems and they should be continuously updated as you move through work cycles to improve the process time and time again. If you’d like to chat more about this and how to implement these strategies into your own business I'm happy to chat with you and set up a call here.