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Starting or managing a small business can be overwhelming, and it’s easy to either overthink every detail or overlook important aspects entirely. Both approaches can lead to anxiety or legal repercussions.
Whether you’re a small business owner, head of operations, director, or anyone in charge of HR (even if it’s not your main role), this is a big no-no.
Staying compliant and on top of legislation is crucial to your business' success. This is true for any business, but it’s especially important for small businesses, as facing an employment tribunal or a penalty can be particularly damaging.
So, how can you achieve this without hiring an experienced professional? Here’s a simple process to get you started along with additional resources to support you:
Employment contracts are vital to stay on good terms with your employees as they clearly define roles, expectations, and professional boundaries.
A person’s employment status is what defines the rights and employment protections they are entitled to at work.
An employee database is essential for businesses big and small, as it’s where you keep all the important information about your team.
Going through the complications of UK employment law is a daunting task for any understaffed small business.
Receive HR inform's updates on forthcoming legislative changes, including the implementation of new laws and the dates when new statutory rates come into effect.
Learn how Charlie can help your company stay legally compliant and get HR off your plate for good
An employee handbook is essential for HR, yet it's often seen as a “nice-to-have” for when your company grows larger.
The problem with this do-it-later approach is that you may have to deal with challenging situations such as employee grievances or misconduct that you’ll need to address, and you’ll need to be button-down about it to avoid any legal complications.
Without an employee handbook or HR policies, you risk mishandling these situations and creating uncertainty among your employees about basic issues like remote working or holidays.
So let’s focus on the basic requirements your business needs to run smoothly:
Your employee handbook encapsulates who you are as a company and how you operate.
Small companies need to figure out what works best for them and be prepared to revisit or adjust their HR policies whenever their business needs change.
A free and accessible document from our small business to yours.
Hiring people at your business can feel like a massive task, especially when you have to source the candidates yourself.
But it’s not impossible, and it’s often not worth paying a recruiter for, despite what you might hear.
Once you’ve hired them, it’s important to onboard them properly. Without a structured process, onboarding can feel rushed, leaving new hires to figure things out on their own, which is not a good idea.
If onboarding is poorly managed, you may end up with a disengaged employee who is confused about their role and potentially leaves your business soon after.
To avoid that, make sure you:
Interviews are an important part of your candidate's experience, especially if you want to look professional and convince them they need to pick you as an employer.
Crafting the right job description to attract the right candidate is a lot like knowing which bait to use to catch the right fish. You have to know what’s going to make them bite.
Check out and download our onboarding checklists to go through every aspect of onboarding.
Learning and Development is a term used to describe everything a business does to encourage professional development among its employees.
HR is often seen as a checkbox on your to-do list, but it’s much more than that when it comes to meeting your team's expectations.
From the benefits you offer to the company values you promote, there’s a lot to consider. As a small business, it’s important to focus on what has the most direct impact on your team members while staying within budget.
In this section, we’ll focus on:
Learn what salary sacrifice is, how it works, and what the benefits are.
Understand the legal requirements, and get expert tips so you can confidently get your pension scheme up and running.
If you want to be competitive in the hiring market, you need to go above and beyond to give your team the best employee benefits. Find out how we did it.
Performance management can be a real challenge problem for small businesses – either it’s non-existent, or you have trouble putting it into place, often due to a lack of expertise or resources.
But performance management is an aspect of HR you shouldn’t underestimate. Even though setting up a good performance management process takes time and effort, it’s worth the investment, leading to better productivity and employee satisfaction rates.
When it comes to performance reviews in particular, our advice is to have regular and frequent catchups rather than yearly ones – it will help your team to feel connected, engaged and to ask for help when they need it.
More on performance management below.
PDPs will help your team members define their ideal professional development, what they’re really looking to achieve, giving you the information you need to make that alignment.
We’ve collated feedback examples, methods and tools into this blog so you have everything you need to implement 360 reviews, simply and effectively.
If you're looking for a simple and effective tool for boosting your team's development and encouraging them to learn new skills, look no further than the humble Personal Development Plan.
Implementing the right employee onboarding process steps for your small business or startup can take a few attempts.
With all the resources provided in this HR toolbox, you’ll be able to build HR processes that work for your small business, but no matter how well you set them up, you’ll still spend a lot of time doing manual HR. Here are some examples:
If managing this feels overwhelming or if you're already seeking more proactive solutions, HR automation could be the answer.
Employment contracts are vital to stay on good terms with your employees as they clearly define roles, expectations, and professional boundaries.
A person’s employment status is what defines the rights and employment protections they are entitled to at work.
An employee database is essential for businesses big and small, as it’s where you keep all the important information about your team.
Make sure your company is legally compliant and get HR off your plate for good.
Your weekly dose of small business insights: how we strive to build happy and high-performing teams at Charlie with words from our very own CEO Ben Gateley. Sign up today.
As a small business leader, it’s important to stay up to date with what your peers are saying – that’s not done without a bit of reading. Another way to do this would be to join communities and networks, so make sure to get on LinkedIn to find the right events.
This doesn't require dedicating an hour each day to reading (we know you don’t have time for that), but scrolling through newsletters or listening to podcasts on your morning commute can be a quick win.
