An attorney friend who works in the HR consulting space reached out to me, with three very specific questions, as he’s being interviewed to help grow his business.
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What do YOU feel are the most significant employee issues that your clients face?
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What do they struggle with the most?
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What do they NEED the most (either additional internal resources or external/vendor resources, whether they realize it or not)?”
It made me realize that, although every HR issue is unique in a given space or given set of circumstances that are unique to the specific organization, they really do face a common set of issues. FullStack clients are primarily in the emerging business space, so it’s the “what do we need to have” from a minimal perspective as they are starting up. Whether it’s hiring their first employee or their fourth employee, there are initial things needed – employment posters, basic handbook, core set-ups with the state (which we handle), payroll set-up, benefits elections, etc.
Then, once we put that in place, they ultimately will face their first employee issue and face the “what precedent are we setting with what action we take”. I had an interesting situation in the last few weeks where a new manager had an employee with an attitude – They were able to talk it through, the employee didn’t realize his/her actions were being perceived as an attitude, and both parties could use it to learn and grow in their roles to help themselves, and ultimately, the company. Sometimes it has that positive outcome – but not always – so we are there to coach them through best practices and follow-up.
As they grow, it’s the age old HR issue of “Do we create an HR policy for the few, or do we manage for the many?”. They also face common issues like, “At what point do I need a formal PTO policy, and how should it be constructed? How do I balance offering a generous policy to my employees but also making sure I have the resources I need to accomplish the work? How do I construct the policy to be advantageous and a perk to employees, while also not financially accruing a ton of time and facing a shortfall later?” . Then they also have the run of the mill HR items, including attire situations, attendance and performance situations, etc.
For FullStack, while there are patterns in the life cycle of the company, these patterns also indicate what HR problems will arise and when. However, we aren’t complacent about them in the slightest, because every organization’s own unique set of variables will alter the best practice recommendations to those problems. We love working with our clients through these issues and coming up with what’s best for the organizations and their people!