Seeing your small business expand can be one of the most exciting and fulfilling experiences for a business owner. This means that your business is generating more profit and helping more people. However, this also means that business tasks are becoming more difficult to handle. Handling your employees on your own will not be the same as when your business was smaller. At this point, you might have to consider getting help from an HR consulting company.

HR consultancy firms are there to help you and your staff with HR-related tasks from hiring to dealing with employment laws to developing HR policies and programs. Here are some of the roles of an HR consultant:

  • Helps in recruitment and hiring.
  • Helps business owners or managers formulate and execute plans for human resource activities and programs.
  • Recommends solutions to HR issues, such as internal conflict, experienced by different departments in the company.
  • Assists with legal requirements related to employment, salary and benefits, and ensure that the company’s HR activities or programs comply with government laws or policies.
  • Guides the company in formulating, evaluating and revising its HR policies.
  • Prepares internal and external reports on HR projects.
  • Assists with establishing the appropriate salary structure, salary increases, bonuses, compensation packages and benefits based on your company’s budget.
  • Evaluates workflow and recommends improvements if needed.
  • Provides advice on organizational development to maximize workers’ performance and engagement to achieve the company’s goals.
  •  Attends company meetings, seminars and conferences.

Aside from the expertise an HR consultant can offer, some human resource consultancy firms can also offer HR technology that can help speed up HR processes and store employee data accurately.

You might be having second thoughts on whether your business really needs external HR services due to its costs. How will you know that it’s time to seek help from an HR consultant? Here are indicators that you should already hire an HR consultant:

  1. You have too much applicants and you need to hire a lot of employees ASAP.

 At first, having an endless list of candidates for your job openings may seem like a completely good thing but at the end of the day, you’ll realize someone has to sift through all those applications. Although you need to hire a great number of employees immediately, you can’t rush the screening process if you want to get the best people for the job. A good selection process takes hours or days of sorting through applications and finding the best candidates. As your business expands, you or your managers have to deal with more important tasks so you will have less time for administrative work. With the help of an HR consultant, you won’t have to worry about whether you’re selecting the right people or not. HR consultants are experienced and well-trained in recruitment. They offer advice on how the company can distinguish the best personnel for the position. They can also help you in attracting the best people by guiding you in creating job descriptions, application processes and writing offer letters.

  1. Your employee count is above 50.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found out that as the number of employees in a company increases, the more they found the need for HR experts. Usually, businesses with less than fifty employees do not have their own department for HR but instead, the owner acts as the HR manager. As the employee count exceeds 50, CEOs will have to assign someone else to accomplish HR-related tasks. Your employees are the most important assets of the company. However, when your business is at its growing stage, you need to focus on formulating business strategies to further boost your company’s performance so getting help from HR experts will be necessary.

  1. Managing pay and benefits is getting more difficult.

According to the 2019 Robert Walters Salary Survey, the top factor in determining job satisfaction of Filipinos is remuneration or salary. This implies how important it is for HR managers to make sure workers are being paid the right amount. Overpaying workers will be costly for the business while underpaying them greatly affects their morale thus also affecting their performance. As the size of your company grows, so does your workers’ compensation packages, making it more difficult to manage. With the help of HR consultants, you can avoid committing mistakes in your employees’ pay and benefits.

As mentioned earlier, HR consulting firms can also offer you HR technology solutions. In case your payroll and benefits system is not yet fully automated, human resource consultancy firms can also provide your business with the technology needed in administering pay and benefits. This will also ensure more efficient and accurate data keeping.

  1. You need help with legal requirements- employment laws and HR compliance. 

Once your employee count reaches 50, you will encounter employee relation issues more often. There are also additional labor laws that will apply to your business as its size grows. It is likely that company owners lack the time, energy and legal knowledge to process the requirements of new employment laws. If you want to avoid any legal complications, HR consultants can help you ensure that your business complies with labor laws. One of the expertise of HR advisors is legal compliance so they can also help you develop HR policies, procedures and employee handbooks. Hiring consultancy services may have its costs but failing to adhere to legal requirements will incur bigger costs.

  1. HR-related tasks are costing you too much time.

If you try to convert the amount of time you take up in dealing with staffing issues to money, the cost will most likely end up overwhelmingly high. Then, compare the cost of all the time you have spent to the cost of availing the services of an HR consultant who can deal with your staffing matters. Your time is valuable and so is the time of your staff.  With the help of an HR consultant, it will be easier to allocate your time to focusing more on making big decisions for your growing business while leaving HR-related tasks up to an expert. As Barry Moltz, a small business expert, said, “the owner should always delegate when their time can be spent better elsewhere.”

  1. Low employee engagement

A team of more than 50 employees is harder to manage than a team of 15. Besides the increasing number of employees, the tasks you have to deal with as an owner of a growing business also increases. It is likely that you won’t be able to monitor and interact with your employees as often as you used to. It may also be harder for you to immediately recognize conflicts your employees are experiencing or see signs your employees are slowly becoming disengaged. Through an HR consultant’s assessments and observations, you can promptly address the concerns of your employees. They can propose HR programs or activities which can improve employee engagement.

Are you and your business experiencing these signs? If yes, then it’s time to get extra help from HR consultancy firms.

If you’re looking for an HR services company in the Philippines, check out Springboard Philippines. Springboard does not only offer HR consulting but also a wide range of HR services and solutions. Know more about them at www.springboard.com.ph