Conquering the necessary evils

New business owners should handle human resource issues professionally and lawfully

BY TONY JOHNSON of Davidson Insurance

Running a small business requires the ability to put up with many necessary evils. When I contemplated starting my own business six years ago, I was confident in reaching my audience and providing valuable services. However, some of the things that scared me about running a business were how to pay taxes, how to get insurance and how to protect the business from a human resources standpoint.

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The first two evils were pretty easy for me to accomplish once I realized that – in keeping with my own business model – the best way to move forward is to partner with business specialists. I believe it is critical to align yourself with trustworthy professionals, rather than attempting to master everything yourself. I partnered with a strong lawyer, accountant, insurance agent and bookkeeper to keep me safe and protected from a tax and insurance standpoint. That leaves us with human resources.

Three minimum requirements necessary to protect your company from HR issues are:

• Sound hiring practices

• An employee handbook

• Keeping informed and up to date regarding changing HR laws and practices

Sound hiring practices include establishing and following a consistent and fair process. Hiring should be viewed as a project with a check list and tools that support the process. The successful recruiting outcome is to bring in qualified candidates who complement your current employee base and culture. Developing a job description, identifying candidate resources and advertising strategies, creating interview questions and conducting a new employee orientation should all lead to this successful outcome.

An employee handbook documents and sets clear expectations, policies and procedures pertaining to your business. It is a legal document that, when communicated and kept up-to-date, can help employees understand company requirements, values and practices. It can also help companies with communication, consistency, fairness and certain legal issues. The goal is to be clear, fair and consistent in your intentions and practices. A few key topics that employee handbooks should address include: employment at will, a performance management system and a clear grievance or complaint process. The outcome of a solid employee handbook will be that it meets legal requirements, sets clear expectations and is reality-based.

Staying current with HR laws and practices can be accomplished using a variety of methods, including aligning your company with an HR consulting firm and connecting with an HR professional organization.

An HR consulting firm will partner with you to identify human resource needs affecting your organization; recommendations are then provided on how to best meet those needs in the constantly-changing HR environment. The second method is more hands-on and involves connecting with an HR organization such as Southwest Washington Human Resource Management Assn., which meets on a monthly basis. SWHRMA and its national counterpart, Society for Human Resource Management, are designed to keep members up-to-date on HR changes and create a network to facilitate the use of best practices throughout the HR field.

Entrepreneurs get into business because they are passionate about delivering a high quality product or service. The business of being in business should not be a detractor from entry into the market but instead an opportunity to learn, grow and achieve success.

Tony Johnson is president of TJ & Assoc., a small business offering custom services in recruiting, business and human resource consulting. He can be reached at 360-263-2676 and www.TJandassociates.com.

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