Starting an HR department from the ground up January 7, 2019

Starting an HR department from the ground up

When you are starting up a business you need to ensure that you are adding a human resource department as this is crucial for the existence of the business. While you might start from nothing, you can mould the corporate culture into the exact vision of the company. The human resource department has evolved over the years. You may think that they are simply there to hire and fire people but they also set goals for employment practices and guide the vision and ideals of the company.

Nowadays successful companies need to be adaptive, resilient and customer centred. The HR department looks at systems that have performance development, career succession planning and employee development. They are the people that keep the employees motivated, happy and personally engaged which all contribute to the success of the company.

The HR department has individuals that have completed many HR management courses, these human resource courses help them to have a strong hand in the development of organisational culture in which the employees have competency, concern and commitment to serve the customers to the best of their ability.

Here is how to start an HR department from the ground up:

It is important that the first thing you do is spend time determining the core values as a company. Be clear on what you would like the HR department to do, get a team rather than one person trying to run the department. Have different members that have completed HR courses to focus on compliance, admin duties, retention, culture building, training and recruitment. There are very different skills required which not all HR team members will possess.

Always put the company first which means being thoughtful of who to bring in to lead your HR efforts. The HR team needs to understand the type of culture that you have given to the organisation. This is so that they will be able to recruit the kind of people that will integrate well into the company. You can be in big trouble if you don’t hire experience people that are willing to have the difficult conversations and help you make tough decisions.

The HR department is required to think about the vision, mission and values of the start-up. It is critical to make sure that the HR department is consistent with policies, job descriptions and benefits, the team has the opportunity to shape and drive the employee culture that can determine the success of a business.

For start-up organisations the environment is constantly moving fast and growing quickly. They are required to make smart investments and reducing risk which is critically important. The key for HR is to keep it simple, you will need to put programs, processes, tools in place to meet the organisation’s needs.

The employees and the culture of the company are the primary drivers of success. Many directors hand over the reins of hiring, employee development and culture improvement responsibilities to the HR department. This can lead to a dramatic culture shift, the HR team should be highly involved but with someone always looking over them.

Need help with starting up a successful HR department? Contact London TFE to find out more about the human resources courses we have available.