In a nutshell, doing HR right can be simplified down to 2 key practices:

• Attracting and hiring the best employees
• Keeping your best employees

Many small business owners believe that HR is complicated because it requires a psych degree to understand human behaviour or expensive HR professionals to help them manage their people. While the right HR professionals can be very effective in providing guidance to a business owner, it is not a prerequisite to successful employee practices. After all, business owners and management are ultimately responsible and accountable for managing their people.

Take comfort in knowing that very few companies do HR well. This is true for the largest of organizations with fully-stocked HR departments, and often is a lack of clear people strategy from company leaders. So pay attention to this part of your business – this could be your competitive edge!

At the root, HR is simply about common sense, decency and doing the right thing. Here are 6 HR practices that any small business owner can implement right away for attracting and retaining top talent.

1. Always be on the hunt for top talent characteristics.

Small business owners may have limited recruiting budgets, so build your own database. Regardless of what technical skills you need, when you meet someone who impresses you with service, smarts or resourcefulness ask them for their contact information for any future positions you may have available. Keep top talent leads in a database. You’ll be amazed how quickly you will have a database of talented individuals that have already been significantly pre-screened by you since you have already seen them in action.

2. Learn to interview effectively.

You can’t “wing” interviewing. This is one area that requires some training or reading to conduct effectively. Statistically, an unstructured 1 on 1 interview has a 20 percent correlation with predicting success on the job:

• Read or take a course on behavioural interviewing or at a minimum, obtain and use an interviewing questionnaire that includes behavioural interviewing questions.
• For the small crème de la crème interviewing book, read: “Topgrading” by Bradford T. Smart.

3. Get creative and nimble when competing with larger employers for top talent.

Even if you can’t compete monetarily with top employers in your industry to attract “A” players, you CAN get creative. Small companies have an advantage over larger companies because they can quickly and inexpensively become flexible with perks. Think low/no-cost, creative and non-taxable for the employee.

Some real life examples:

• Set up a “snooze” room for employees to boost afternoon productivity. Before calling this insanity, consider that numerous studies suggest that a short 20 minute nap does wonders for productivity. There are napping centers popping up all over the continent for executives. Think “early adopter.”
• Feed them – regularly!
• Paid Fridays off in the summer.
• Work from home one day a week.
• Paid days off for immediate family members’ birthdays.
• Target older workers or single parents and provide a work environment that is conducive to their needs.
• Provide a menu of low cost or free perks to choose from. Everyone is different and is motivated by different perks.

4. Create a People Section on your website.

Even if you are a small company and are not hiring, a People Section or a Career Section on your website is a must.

• People sections are one of the most visited pages for many companies. A People Section on your website is very effective at communicating that potential and current employees are as important to you, and what it is like to work in your company. Include pictures.
• Consider structuring your management page so visitors get a sincere sense of what management is all about. Include pictures of individuals. Visitors to your website want to know who is behind the company and want to read about and see the human side.

5. Take steps to becoming a better boss.

Did you know? The number 1 reason people join and leave a company is their relationship with their boss?

• Read all you can on becoming a great leader and manager. Get inspired by the small changes you could make to significantly improve the working relationship with your subordinate(s).
• Treat your best employees like customers.
• Get feedback and be open to receiving it. Ask your employees “Let’s assume you are extremely happy with me as a boss. Even so, what one change could I make to be a better boss? What do I do really well as a boss?”
• Conduct performance reviews at least annually. Consider it one sure way to provide and receive feedback from employees about their performance and future plans.

6. Be Clear.

Organizational clarity is essential to retaining top talent. “A” players want to work for clear and well-run companies – regardless of size.

• If you have more than 7 employees, make sure you have policies and procedures in place – even if in the form of a basic employee handbook. 
• Don’t underestimate the power of a new staff member’s orientation period – the first month on board. A solid orientation period reduces street, anxiety and confusion when learning the ropes about all facets of your business – including the rules and available resources so they can hit the ground running and do their jobs well.
• Be clear about the company business goals, philosophies, rules, language, culture and expectations.
• Don’t assume people just know. Without clarity, people will guess and do their own thing – their way.

As a business owner, take steps now to get clear about all aspects of your business. Communicate it. Put it in writing and make is accessible so people know what you mean and how you want things done and what is important to you. One day, you will no longer be interviewing every individual who comes on board. Avoid the scenario where in 3 years from now you find yourself walking into your business one morning screaming, “Who are these people? Who hired them? What are they doing here and why don’t they get it?!!”

Finally, here’s a great quote to sum up the objectives of the HR function:

 “For those who build great companies understand that the ultimate throttle on growth for any great company is not markets, or technology, or competition, or products. It is the one thing above all others, the ability to get and keep enough of the right people.” – Jim Collins