When Do You Need an HR Consultant?
Have you been contemplating hiring an HR Consultant, but don’t know if it is the right time to do so?
First, ask yourself the following questions –
- Are you a startup organization and the CEO/Founder is focusing on the business as well as the HR function?
- Has your organization just lost your HR Director?
- Do you have an HR team, but need support with specific topics?
If you answered “Yes” to any of these, then your organization is ready to hire an HR Consultant!
Now that it is time to outsource HR, you’ll want to understand the different areas where an HR Consultants can be of critical assistance Red Clover Consultants assist organizations with organizational restructuring, planning, and design, recruitment process overhaul, policy development, and outsourced HR management on an interim basis.
Planning
In order to successfully operate a Human Resources department, the HR team must be ready to engage in high level thinking and planning. This planning incorporates process design, including job descriptions, compensation structures design, organizational charts, and onboarding processes. Why is long-term planning so important to the HR function? Planning is key to the success of the organization as it allows the team to look toward the future and understand their role in achievement of their goals and objectives.
The first step in planning is to understand the organization structure and where the employees fit in. This planning will ultimately help an organization understand the reporting structure, required experience level for each role, and the expectations of the leadership team and their accountability level. It answers the question – who is responsible for what? In addition,a defined organizational structure assists with performance development plans.
The second step is to understand the job description for each position. Why is this important? Having a clear and concise job description will help the organization attract top talent by specifically outlining the role and job responsibilities. Setting specific expectations and clear job description will ensure the necessary duties and responsibilities will be completed by someone who is experienced in that area.
Once you have the first two steps completed, it is time to review the compensation of each role. What are you going to pay your employees for performing the duties and responsibilities outlined in the job description? A leader in the HR function will understand that a salary range is needed for each role based on experience and level of position. The organization will need to understand what they can afford, and how the salaries will attract top performers. Finally, the last stage of the planning process is understanding the onboarding process. You have successfully recruited and hired a talented individual. It is time to onboard your new hire correctly and ensure they are mentored through the start of their employment. An effective onboarding process incorporates weekly check-ins, training opportunities, manager and HR check-in conversations at an employee’s 30, 60 and 90 day anniversaries, and strategically providing necessary information to the new hire to set them up for long-term success
Recruitment
Recruitment is the process of identifying, attracting, interviewing, and selecting the best possible candidate for your open roles. We completed the job description design in the planning phase, it is time to share the job description publicly to find your next great hire. A strong HR consulting partner understands the need to find the right fit and take the time to interview these candidates through an effective, organizationally-aligned recruitment process. At Red Clover, we use several different platforms to support you in the recruitment process. We use LinkedIn Corporate Recruiter and SparkHire as tools to enhance your approach to strategic talent sourcing.
In this day in age, most job seekers have a LinkedIn profile and can network with people all over the world. LinkedIn Corporate Recruiter is a fantastic way for our team to source talented individuals who would be terrific hires for your company. In many cases, sometimes these candidates would not have known about the company or position without us reaching out to them on LinkedIn. We also promote certain job postings to ensure wider reach in the candidate pool.
We also leverage SparkHire as our video interviewing solution and our clients have full access to the tool. SparkHire allows candidates to answer questions through their robust video interview offering. This allows the hiring team to see if we would like to move forward in the interview process with much more time efficiency. We create customizable questions for all the unique positions in a company, and the candidate video interviews are easily shareable among all decision makers and hiring managers.
Policy Development
Business leaders understand the importance of policy development to grow the business, hold individuals accountable and mitigate risk. Without policy development, an organization is subject to issues and concerns with their employees. If you do not have policies and procedures in place, employees may feel like they are able to do what they want, when they want. This will not allow for a successful organization and growth of the company.
No matter what type of organization or type of HR function you’re running, it is important to implement the following components into your policy development. First and foremost, a company handbook needs to be created and correctly rolled out to the organization. This handbook needs to incorporate local and state regulations, company policies and procedures, as well as benefits provided to the employees on behalf of the organization. A qualified HR consultant can develop this essential document with your company culture in mind, while also developing a communication plan to successfully integrate the handbook into employee experience and management development.
Local & State Regulations
In accordance with local and state regulation, some of the areas that should be included in the handbook are harassment policies, overtime regulations, sick and unpaid leave, paid family leave, ADA regulations, and time off for voting and jury duty.
Company Policies/Procedures
When it comes to company policies and procedures, a clear explanation should be outlined surrounding working conditions, acceptable employee behavior, hours of operations, employment classifications, and workplace safety.
Benefits
Your organization’s PTO policy should be clearly outlined in the handbook. If the organization is going to provide their employees with vacation time, they must outline the number of days, when they receive these days, and any incremental increases based on years of service In addition to vacation, other benefits listed in the handbook can include health benefits and 401K information.
Interim HR Management
Has your HR Director resigned and now you are frantically searching for an HR resource? In this case, working with an HR consulting firm to serve as your outsourced interim HR management function is the way to go.
There are so many great benefits of hiring an HR Consultant for an interim engagement. One of the biggest benefits is that an HR consultant is not considered a full time employee (FTW) so the business saves money by not being liable for the medical benefits, 401K, payroll tax cost. In many cases, an HR Consultant can complete the job of an HR team in less than 40 hours a week. When this is the case, an HR consultant is less expensive than hiring a full time employee at 100% occupancy at a competitive salary.
At Red Clover, our HR Consultants are here to help, and have the practical experience in serving as the interim HR resource for our clients. During an Interim engagement, we take ownership of the entire function so the rest of the leadership in the organization can focus on running the business, while we focus on what we know…Human Resources! Contact us today to learn more.
