Does Small Business need H.R.M?

We all know that employing and managing people is not the easiest task.

Human Resource Management is the science of managing people at work. No matter whether you employ one staff member or one hundred, you need to apply HR principles in your business.

Why? Because Tasmania is moving more and more to service industries -
tourism, call centres and service centres, retail and specialist 'quality' manufacturing. All of these industries depend on people, and the quality of the service they provide to customers. Developing these attributes in a business takes planning and attention to detail.

What is Human Resource Management?

Recent developments in business over the last ten years have led to a strategic approach to managing people at work. These developments include:

The increasing cost of employing labour

The need for continuous improvements to productivity in an environment of shrinking resources

The increasing complexity and pace of change

Direct links between occupational injury and poor human resource management, and

The changing legal and social environment.

The goal of strategic Human Resource Management in organisations is to focus on people adding value in what they do - helping them to achieve the objectives of the organisation in a personally fulfilling manner and assisting to improve operational performance continuously.

In addition, HR aims to minimise any factors that may interfere with people achieving maximum performance. These may include:
bad working conditions, poor morale, industrial disputation, unfair pay, lack of work skills and poor communication.

The HR approach that best suits Small Business is one that emphasizes personal development as the joint responsibility of the employee and owner of the business. More details on how this approach works are inside this edition.

But first, you need to be able to recruit the right people to suit your business in the first place. Inside you will find some easy steps to recruitment. Also included in this first edition is an introduction to Occupational Health and Safety. Future issues will discuss how to develop a workplace agreement and using training options for which Government incentives may be available.

To conclude, good staff and high quality service to customers don't just "happen" - they are the result of planned strategies. Developing HR strategies for your business will not take much of your time and will be a good investment for the future.

Want to find out more about HR and how it can assist you in your business?
Got any questions or feedback on the above article?

Back to Home Page