Supporting the Role of HR in Startups

Bottom Line: Keep Your Team Focused on Growth

As a startup or small business leader, you understand that every person on your team counts. From sales and product development to marketing and customer success, the work that each person and team does contributes to growing the company that much more every day.

So what does that mean for the role of HR at your startup?

Your HR team, perhaps supported by one or more recruiters, oversees your most important asset: your people. This is a significant responsibility — for a number of reasons. We’re talking about more than simply managing payroll, time and attendance, and other daily needs (though each contributes to your overall success).

As a startup, the role of HR in your organization runs far deeper. The value that each person makes in developing your product or solution, in managing client relationships, and in building an attractive company culture is crucial, and HR is the glue that holds it all together. A qualified HR team will streamline every aspect of your business, including:

  • Providing Support — Issues and questions arise. An employee has a question about PTO or their latest paycheck. They need clarity on a policy. Or they need to make some updates to their files based on life circumstances. If they have a person or team they can turn to, they feel protected, covered, and heard.

  • Shaping Culture — The policies and environment that HR creates directly influence the culture of your organization. That, and the people they hire, onboard, and support will reflect HR’s level of attention and care in their work, which also contributes to culture.

  • Defining Benefits — Benefits are a significant reason why talent decides to join your company over competing options. As a startup, benefits can be complex. Your HR team needs to be there to provide clarity and ensure efficient enrollment and service.

  • Advancing Careers — Employee development, coaching, and training are all part of the role of HR in startups. When your team is able to work with employees in these areas, they stay with the company longer, make more valuable contributions, and impact the long-term growth of the company.

This is just a sampling of the many ways that HR plays a meaningful part in the growth of a startup or small business. However, every startup is unique. Your company might only have one or two dedicated HR team members, or a company leader might be responsible for this function as part of their many other duties. When one person or a small team is heavily inundated with the countless administrative tasks of HR, they can’t support those other key areas needed for growth.

Go deeper: Learn about the challenges other startups have faced and how they solved them.

Professional Employer Organizations Support Startup Goals

First, what is a professional employer organization (PEO)? A PEO is a third party organization specializing in HR services. Rather than managing the administrative and strategic functions of HR entirely in-house (where a lack of experience or capacity can lead to significant problems, headaches, and even fines), you can entrust a PEO — as well as consulting services — with these tasks to free your HR team up to focus on higher-priority tasks like those outlined above.

The advantages of working with a PEO to support the role of HR in startups include:

  • Access to True Expertise — When you enter into partnership with a PEO, you receive a dedicated HR representative who can funnel your questions and requests throughout a highly specialized team of additional HR experts at the PEO company. Your team no longer has to have all of the answers and can lean on professionals that have decades of HR knowledge and experience that they can put to work for your team.

  • The Mundane Falls Off Your Plate — Like we mentioned earlier, there will always be daily needs from employees. And as your company continues to grow, those needs will increase — adding to the pile of administrative tasks that your HR team has to navigate on a daily basis. With a PEO, those tasks are offloaded to a contracted team, allowing your internal HR team to keep making progress on growth-focused goals.

  • The Complex is Addressed Accurately — In addition to the more mundane tasks of HR, there will occasionally arise much more complex issues. The rise of remote work is one such example. Regional laws and requirements must be observed to maintain compliance; if they’re not, your startup could be hit with serious fines that take away from your ability to invest in ongoing growth. Your PEO team has the knowledge to help you navigate these needs, maintain compliance, and avoid fines.

  • You Build an Attractive Benefits Program — One of the greatest benefits of working with a PEO to support HR in startups is the group buying power they provide. Because PEOs provide benefits services to other companies, you and those other organizations are grouped under the PEO when it comes to purchasing benefits from brokers as if you were all a single entity. This provides you with greater access to benefits programs and resources for your employees and those you wish to recruit into your business.

  • Multiple Technology Needs Are Consolidated — In today’s world, manually managing HR processes such as payroll, benefits, time and attendance, and more is virtually impossible (and inadvisable). While there are many tools available on the market, managing them is overwhelming for small teams. PEOs support the role of HR in startups by providing the technology tools needed to manage HR needs. Moreover, they assist with planning, implementation, training, and ongoing support.

  • You Gain a Scalable Partner for Growth — On top of assisting you with daily HR needs, PEOs partner with company leaders to advise on virtually any HR-related matter. As you continue to hit your growth goals, your PEO scales up with you — providing a reliable partner that will keep your existing HR team focused and supporting you with ongoing HR needs as well as advising you on matters needed to hit the next level.

Go deeper: Learn more about the benefits of PEOs for small and remote teams.

Equip Your Startup with the Support It Needs to Grow

While we’ve touched on a number of common headaches and issues that HR teams in startups face every day, we’ve truly only scratched the surface. HR is a vast and evolving field, and smaller companies often struggle to keep pace with changing needs. Cognos HR has been helping startups and other small businesses navigate these challenges seamlessly for years.

Whether you’re looking to extend the capabilities of your current HR team, are running into compliance challenges, or you’re ready to scale up for the next phase of growth, our team of experts is here to support your success.

Connect with us today to learn more about our PEO services.