Clever Strategies to Assist your Small Business Succeed

Thu, Jul 29, 2021 10:31 PM

As we enter a new decade, it's important to reflect on how far your small business has progressed over the years and to identify strategic improvements that you want (or need) to make shortly.

Sitting down to dive into strategic changes after working through the end of the year to wrap up critical year-end payroll, compliance, and other activities may seem stressful. A new year, on the other hand, is usually a good time to review your company's strategies and examine any chronic pain areas.

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This is particularly true of internal procedures like payroll, recruitment, and human resources. The following are four ways that can help any organization, both nonprofit and small for-profit, better its internal processes in 2020:

* Make use of specialist platforms and services that are outsourced.

* Give your HR practices more strategic thinking.

* Make flexibility a top priority in your compensation plans.

* Adopt a more proactive compliance strategy.

Taking the time to assess your internal approach to these areas in the new year is a good decision because it provides you with a roadmap of any potential roadblocks. Taking actions to begin addressing those hurdles now, whether through minor process improvements or complete strategy upgrades, is preferable. These pointers can assist you in laying the foundation for a more successful small business in 2020. Let's get this party started!

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1. Make use of specialist platforms and services that are outsourced.

Technology and outsourced assistance may save your company a lot of time and money, and there are solutions to manage almost any aspect of your internal operations. Many small firms already use this tactic to some level, but it's worth looking to see if there are any ways to improve or expand it.

Because the market for these products and services is always changing and expanding, the ideal new alternative for your company could be waiting for you to discover it. Because this is such a vast category, we'll divide it into two groups:

- To meet your needs, you can use web-based management tools or SaaS solutions.

- Outsourced services to take care of a specific aspect of your internal operations

Both of these options provide long-term assistance for whatever gap in your company's operations needs to be filled (or wants to take off its plate). One type of solution may be the better choice depending on your specific needs, but the essential notion is that there's no reason to feel obligated to manage everything manually or in-house today. Small organizations, in particular, stand to gain a lot by allowing their employees to work on more outward-facing or strategic projects.

Here are a few of the most frequent types of solutions that can benefit any form of organization:

* Accounting and payroll management software. - Online platforms (e.g., payroll software) and outsourced services can substantially reduce the time and effort required to execute these critical financial operations, which are common pain spots for smaller businesses.

* Human resources. - HR is a large part of operations, and many smaller organizations overlook investing in it while their resources are diverted elsewhere. You can automate a wide range of HR chores that take up a lot of time with specialist platforms like talent management software (or that you might otherwise ignore). Strong human resource frameworks are a business's secret weapon for long-term growth, so it's worth looking into your alternatives.

* Other internal and administrative tasks. - When it comes to freeing up your team's time, smaller internal activities are likely to be your first priority. Recruiting is an excellent example of a strategically important area of operations with a lot of time-consuming manual chores. Working with a recruiting agency or streamlining key parts, such as conducting small company background checks, can free up time for you to focus on managing your team instead of continually recruiting new people.

Of course, the best moment to implement new products or services will be determined by your company's unique circumstances and requirements. However, the essential concept is to consider them as long-term investments. Reducing your company's internal workload now, when it's still tiny, can give your team a competitive advantage in your industry.

2. Give your HR practices more strategic thinking.

We discussed how strong human resources practices can assist small businesses to achieve more sustainable growth in the preceding point. This is due to a number of factors. A robust HR framework provides your company with the following benefits:

- Internal culture and purpose have been strengthened.

- A more appealing employer brand that supports your hiring objectives

- Employee retention and engagement are likely to improve, potentially saving you a lot of time and money in the long term.

Developing realistic HR practices is a crucial investment for small firms, but it can be a difficult task. The term "human resources" refers to a wide range of internal activities and obligations.

One alternative for full-service strategy development is to hire a human resources consultant or agency. Talent management software is a fantastic approach for expanding firms to streamline the process of hiring new employees and establish the framework for more strategic HR decision-making. This is because it provides you with a centralized record of your HR data as well as opportunities to automate or streamline HR tasks in the future. Consider the following scenario:

* HR data in its whole provides you with extensive insights into your employee engagement. - What is your rate of employee retention? How does your revenue compare to that of similar companies? How long does it usually take to fill specific positions? What is the average cost of training per person at your company? These measurements and insights can help you improve your recruiting strategies and make more accurate forecasts in the future.

* Streamlined hiring, onboarding, and performance management capabilities are all available with comprehensive talent management software. -Because these jobs are often time and resource expensive, digitizing them and implementing more self-service processes can be a far more cost-effective strategy in the long term.

* The emergence of the "employer brand" as a major selling point for prospective employees - Consequently, you must be more conscious than ever of employee engagement and the quality of your internal culture. Strengthened, centralized HR processes backed by data enable you to make more strategic decisions across the board, allowing you to build your culture in positive ways.

It's critical to keep the larger picture in mind as many organizations attempt to downsize or outsource their human resources functions. HR can help small firms achieve development and stability, but with the appropriate strategy, it may also serve more urgent strategic goals.

3. Make flexibility a top priority in your compensation plans.

Adopting a more flexible and open approach to remuneration can be a game-changer for organizations, particularly those that are still in the early stages of development.

Specifically, rather than focusing just on salary and bonuses, we typically advise our own clients to adopt a Total Rewards compensation strategy. Of course, direct compensation is a significant part of an employee's entire compensation package, but broadening your perspective on compensation can be quite beneficial. It enables you to make more strategic decisions and have a deeper understanding of how a range of factors interact to make people feel compensated and engaged.

This idea considers the following factors in addition to direct compensation:

- Benefits, PTO, savings programs, and other forms of indirect remuneration

- Your approach to performance management

- Achievements and contributions are recognized.

- The quality of your internal culture and the work-life balance you encourage are both important factors.

- You give additional training and development possibilities.

Nonprofits, like many small businesses, have a hard time portraying themselves as desirable employers. Despite their inability to pay exceptionally competitive compensation, the Total Rewards method is extremely effective at countering this reputation for firms.

The key concept is that by considering these more indirect and intangible components as compensation in and of themselves, you can develop more adaptable and flexible compensation packages for your staff. Of course, this does not imply that you should pay staff less simply because you believe your company culture is a reward in and of itself. It does include comprehending the deeper reasons why employees stay with your company, which sometimes have less to do with direct pay than you might think.

Implementing a learning management system with additional training and certification options for employees, for example, is a very straightforward method to deliver scalable, high-value perks that go far beyond one-time bonuses in terms of keeping people engaged. These strategies are frequently used by associations to increase member retention.

It's also vital to keep in mind that generational preferences are shifting. More constant, direct, and casual feedback is preferred by younger millennials and Gen Z employees than exhaustive quarterly or biannual reviews. As the face of the American worker continues to change, adjusting your performance management frameworks to accommodate these preferences is definitely worth considering.

4. Adopt a more proactive compliance strategy.

Taking a more proactive approach to staying on top of things when it comes to compliance is critical. Allowing things to slip can be extremely damaging to a small business since the consequences can be felt much more quickly.

A continually changing legislative landscape has made it critical to anticipate and prepare for changes as they occur. You'll need to cover all of your bases in terms of payroll and compensation compliance, and then consider:

- Regulations that are state-specific (as well as city- and local-specific). Take some time to familiarize yourself with the labor laws in your state. They may have altered, or one that you hadn't considered before may become important for your company in the following year. If your startup loses its first employee, for example, you'll need to evaluate your state's PTO compensation requirements.

- At the federal level, there have been several changes. Don't be caught off guard by any fresh developments! The planned adjustments to the FLSA salary threshold for overtime pay are one example. Because the new policy takes effect in January 2020, you must determine (and ideally already have) whether any workers' exemption status has changed.

- There are new alternatives available. As new guidelines are implemented, weighing your alternatives might help you streamline your organization and make the best decisions for your unique situation. Another change coming in January 2020, for example, concerns insurance coverage. The Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) provides employers with new choices for providing health insurance to their employees.

Make sure to broaden your perspective beyond these types of wage, payroll, and benefits requirements.

It's vital to remember that pay discrimination is unlawful, even if it's unintentional because it puts your company at risk. Understanding pays discrimination and making structural and cultural changes as appropriate will help you build more compliant compensation infrastructures and secure your growth.

It's never simple to run a business of any size. The problems appear to come from all directions and never seem to stop, but that doesn't mean your company has to stick to the methods and techniques that have worked in the past! Review your internal procedures at the beginning of the year to discover areas for improvement. Even simple improvements, especially in HR, can have far-reaching consequences, saving you time, money, and anxiety as your company grows.

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