3 "HR Hats" of Small Business for Successful People Management

As a small business owner, you’re likely finding yourself putting on “hats” left, right and center. You’re doing it all — from payroll to bookkeeper, marketing and social media, and of course, human resources (HR).

When it’s just you, it’s usually easy. When you add more team members, it gets more complicated.

Notably, your biggest business asset is your people. Taking care of the people who work for you is as important as taking care of your customers. They’re usually the ones at the front of the shop or on the phones, making sure your customers are getting the best experience possible.

Free Guide: Modern Small Business Playbook

In this guide, we’ll show you how to modernize your business with the right tools.

Save Now

This is why having an effective people strategy in place is good for the health of your organization. Below are three ways you can wear the HR hat in your company. In doing so, you’ll expand your business and give your customers a better overall experience.

Wear the Recruitment Hat

Setting your expectations at the interview stage is as important as training your new staff in business procedures. Moreover, being open about expectations from the job advertisement means there’s less worry about candidate burnout. Remember, the goal is finding someone who thrives in your work environment.

In addition, be honest about salary and work challenges. But, just as much, offer a point of difference to working for you. Explain why working at your business will help your employee achieve job satisfaction and feel like a part of the team.

Wear the Well-being Hat

Giving employees reassurance that you have their health and well-being in mind is crucially important. Of course, this is especially true during difficult times.

60 – 80% of workplace accidents are attributed to stress.

This has a flow-back effect on customer experience, which directly affects your bottom line. Your business benefits when you take care of your employees’ well-being. Plus, you’ll create positive word-of-mouth in the process.

Wear the Culture Hat

Organizational Culture (OC) isn’t a buzzword. It’s directly tied to how your employees feel about you and your workplace. A toxic OC can have a feedback effect that creates exclusion, harbors bullying and incubates harassment.

Forcing people to work overtime, providing limited resources or “calling out” people who take sick leave leads to toxic work environments.

Positive OC starts from the top (that’s you). You’re an example to your employees on what they can and cannot do in your workplace.

While this is a very general view of the many hats you can wear for successful people management, we’ve got a more in-depth strategy for growing businesses on how to recruit more efficiently, create a positive work culture, and drive easy-to-implement well-being strategies.