4 Reasons It’s Hard For Small Businesses To Hire

According to recent research, a surprising amount of new employees were hired by small businesses. In fact, around 45% of new hires were with small businesses. That realization should put some new perspective on where growth is in the business world today. If you were to ask a group of small business owners about what the marketplace looks like these days, they will still tell you it's hard for small businesses to hire, no matter what the numbers say. Why is this?   It is a great time in America to be a small business owner. Small businesses are growing exponentially more than big business. At a time where it seems like small business’s day has finally come, it is bringing with it challenges that many entrepreneurs did not anticipate having; namely HR issues.

It’s Still Hard For Small Businesses To Hire -Here’s Why

While a lot of small businesses are successful, they still feel like their are failing their employees on some level. Needing to hire new employees brings with it many challenges. These issues are causing small business owners many lost night’s sleep and also lost profit dollars, making it feel like it's hard for small businesses to hire. We took a look at the four key areas that these challenges are materializing in:  

1. Hiring is expensive. Let’s face it, if you want to find the right candidates, you are going to have to pay to find them. There are a couple ways you can do this; hire a recruiter or pay for advertisements through a myriad of social outlets. Either way, you are going to have to shell out some money to let available talent know that you are looking for them. This will also take lots of time. You will have to write ads, find a place to put them and then spend hours reading through resumés, and also spend more time sitting through interviews than you have time for.
2. There is no formal process. Unfortunately, for a large amount of small businesses, there is no person on staff who is properly trained in HR best practices. When there is no HR person knowledgeable in HR and employment law, the hiring process can be clumsy at best and put the company at risk at worst. When small business owners are busy working in their business, they find it very difficult to take the time to work on the ways that HR can be better at their companies. Not taking the time to do it correctly will means you will still feel like it's hard for small businesses to hire.
3. Onboarding employees is not automated. Even when a lot of small business owners find the right candidates, they struggle with a systematic and efficient process to onboard their new hires. Talent that is used to working with a larger company get gun shy when things seem disorganized, especially with things like HR. This realization is problematic at getting small business owners to acquire new talent and keep them there. Getting to the stage of hiring an individual is a feat in itself. Being able to quickly get them onboarded, acclimated to your organization, and feeling confident in their new position is difficult.
4. Entrepreneurs are clueless about HR law. This is a big one; entrepreneurs are struggling with keeping up with HR law. With constantly changing laws and regulations, entrepreneurs are too busy keeping up with the growth and demand of their businesses to wade through Internet sites looking for changes in employment law, if they are even taking the time to think to look for it. This can be a dangerous situation to be in. Fines are steep, lawsuits are imminent, and difficulties lie ahead of the small business owner who is not keeping apprised with what changes have been made in HR law and what they need to do to implement them into their businesses.

 

What Small Businesses Can Do To Ease HR Issues

So what is a small business to do? When working on the business and keeping up with employment law do not seem to work together well, what is the solution? There are couple things that can be done, it just depends on how much budget you want to spend in fixing the problem.  

1. You can hire an HR Manager. Putting someone in charge of HR at your office, be it a person fully dedicated or a person who officially absorbs the responsibilities of handling HR issues, you will need someone to own that position. Of course, you will need to either hire a trained, certified person to do the job or pay to train someone to do it. That is up to you.
2. Consider a PEO to ease the burden.  A PEO is an efficient and cost effective way to handle HR issues and take the burden of HR law off of your company. Because a PEO co-employs your employees, they take on the responsibility of keeping your employees and your company safe with HR and Employment law. Not to mention, they also offer your employees outstanding benefits that compete with the largest employers in America. If you are not offering benefits that you would like to, a PEO is a tremendous cost saver in making excellent benefits a reality at your small business.

No matter what you decide, we can all agree that hiring is not easy. How you make it better and what you want to spend on it is your decision. Talk to a PEO broker like PEO Spectrum today to find out if a PEO would work for you in meeting your hiring goals this year and stop feeling like it's hard for small businesses to hire.