HR MANAGEMENT VALUING HR
UK - Small businesses in Britain are suffering from appointing people who lack formal HR training to manage time-consuming HR issues.
According to a survey by management consultancy firm Croner, 60% of managers in charge of HR issues in SME organisations have no formal HR training. These include CEOs, managing directors, finance directors, operations directors, line managers, personal assistants, and even HR managers themselves. Yet one in 10 respondents spent up to 15 hours or two days a week managing HR issues. They said dealing with red tape and regulations (40%) and health and safety (19%) took up most of their time at work. Managing employee performance, monitoring absenteeism and logging leave days were also pointed out as having a negative effect on the business.
This led to 75% of CEOs and managing directors reporting that functions such as new business development and customer service are areas mostly likely to suffer due to these time-consuming HR activities.
Furthermore, 26% of people managing HR in SMEs said they were unsure if they are managing employees the right way. The survey said these respondents were worried that their company would face an employment tribunal claim if they made a mistake. A quarter of respondents also admitted to having no external HR support while one in 10 would research for help online even though it is unproductive.
While Richard Smith, head of service development at Croner, said it's important that all companies adhere to HR processes, he felt it shouldn't be at the expense of business growth. "SMEs need to look at new ways of simplifying HR and other compliance activities and freeing key people to attend to the core responsibilities of their job."
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