Valentine’s Day is celebrated on the 14 February each year. It’s known as a day of love which is celebrated around the world, often with an exchange of gifts, or romantic gestures. However this February, I want you to think about the process of choosing a new partner – but in this case an HR/Recruitment partner.
When you are running a business, you simply don’t have the time to do everything, that’s why outsourcing your HR and recruitment to an industry professional makes sense. Not only can you streamline administrative tasks, improve the quality of hires, reduce your operational costs, ensure legal compliance, and have access to specialised expertise, but you will also have more time to focus on core business growth.
Getting the right partner first time
But how do you choose the right partner for you? Selecting an HR outsourcing company is a crucial decision, which ideally you want to get right the first time. But there’s a lot of choice available now and if you’ve not done this before, it’s easy to be swayed by those organisations who shout loudest, make unrealistic promises and/or guarantee unsustainable discounts. To help you navigate this maze, we’ve developed a guide covering the 10 most important things you should think about before you commit to one particular company.
- Define your objectives, assess the capabilities of your current HR team (if you have one) and make a decision about where you need additional help. For example if you have little to no HR function in place you might want a full service outsourcing solution or perhaps you just need just specialised help with certain areas i.e. payroll, recruitment or compliance. Don’t forget to include any upcoming plans that you have for the business and flag up any situations or challenges that you might be currently facing.
- Select someone who has a good knowledge of your specific sector – whether that be education, healthcare, hospitality etc. to ensure they fully understand your industry and expectations.
- Assess their service offerings to determine if what they provide is actually what you want.
- Ask for references, review case studies, read online reviews and check LinkedIn and their website for testimonials which verify their success in the areas in which you are interested.
- Check that they have proper qualifications – CIPD, REC, degree/diploma and lots of years of relevant experience.
- How much you can afford to invest in your HR? Look at their fee structure and what is included. Some organisations provide comprehensive contracts which include unlimited ongoing advice via email but may charge separately for work outside this contract scope at higher rates. Whilst some offer hourly, monthly and/or on-call support. Find the arrangement that works best for you and remember it’s not always about the lowest price as you are looking for a partner who will provide long-term value.
- If you need on-site support from an HR outsourcing company, it makes sense to look for one that is based locally to your business and can support you in-person when needed. However, if their role is more about providing phone advice and/or writing contracts, policies, procedures etc. they probably can be based further away.
- Find someone who is both a good personal and cultural fit with your business. You should choose someone who takes the time to understand your business ethos, values, business goals and who can behave like a trusted member of your internal team and with whom you have good rapport. It’s also worth ensuring they are diplomatic and empathetic when dealing with sensitive matters like disputes, performance management, or redundancies but equally they must be flexible when it comes to scaling up or down their services based on your needs.
- An outsourced organisation/person with strong commercial awareness will be able to act as a strategic partner who understands your business model, goals, and profitability drivers, rather than just handling administrative tasks. They will be able to help spot inefficiencies and help to drive engagement, performance and growth.
- Ensure they are a good, clear and proactive communicator. Effective communication is the “glue” that holds the outsourcing relationship together, ensuring seamless alignment and consistency, transparency, mitigation of risks, maintenance of compliance, a proactive information flow, legal accuracy, handling sensitive matters, providing the personal/human touch and ensuring employee trust and moral are at their highest levels.
Planning for success
To find out more about the difference our HR & Recruitment consultancy can make to the future success and efficiency of your business, get in touch today. Contact Debby on 07780 692784 or debby@total-spectrum.com.
