When envisioning your business, it’s unlikely that HR-related tasks were top-of-mind. Dealing with hiring, compliance, employee paperwork, and overall people-processes is not exactly an enticing prospect, right? As a business owner or leader, your primary focus is on driving growth and maximizing profitability. However, as your business expands and you hire more employees, you soon realize the significance of efficient people-management processes, not only from a compliance standpoint but also for nurturing internal talent and enhancing business performance. Let’s be honest, as strategic leaders of a company, there comes a time when there are not enough hours in the day to do HR correctly without a dedicated HR strategist.   

It’s time to confront the truth: HR is likely consuming more of your time than you’d care to admit. Here, we delve into the top three areas that demand significant HR time investments. Do any resonate with you?  
 
Attracting, Interviewing, and Hiring Talent: 
 
Let's start with the first substantial portion of time-consuming HR work: the process of attracting, interviewing, and hiring talent. It's not just a matter of finding the right candidates in today's competitive job market, the entire process necessitates a significant investment of your time and effort. Moreover, as we discussed in an earlier article, the costs associated with turnover from a bad hire can be staggering.  And if you're not careful, you might unintentionally break some hiring laws – an outcome we strive to avoid! But don't worry, we've got some tips on how to avoid any illegal missteps in our article "Recruiting: Avoid Doing Something Illegal." 
 
Sourcing, interviewing, and hiring a candidate can take anywhere from one month to about eight months depending on the role. According to a LinkedIn report, this is the breakdown of the top five most time-consuming hiring tasks:  
·       Conducting candidate interviews - 7 hours per week. 
·       Searching for suitable candidates - 6 hours per week. 
·       Contacting potential candidates - 6 hours per week. 
·       Evaluating and vetting candidates - 6 hours per week. 
·       Researching and implementing best practices – 5 hours per week. 
 
Let’s face it, finding and hiring the right fit is time-consuming and requires knowledge of the best recruiting practices for today’s market. The process is a journey, and, as we say at Leath HR Group, “the employee’s experience starts when they are a candidate,” so let’s do this right. Leath HR Group recruiting experts take over, minimizing the amount of time you spend on the prospecting and initial vetting, while inserting you in the process appropriately. 
 
People Problems and Paperwork:  
 
In a recent survey by Paychex, 78% of small business owners with 5-99 employees spend an average of 10 hours per week dealing with people issues and 36% of companies with 100-249 employees are likely to spend more than 20 hours a week on people administration issues and tasks. We’ve heard it many times before, "If only I could get rid of all these people problems, I could actually get things done!" In all seriousness, this is the single most taxing area for leaders, it affects sleep, personal time, and sanity. We are empathetic, business-minded employee relations experts who handle your sticky people situations skillfully.  

Compliance:  
 
Dealing with compliance can be a real-time drain for small business owners. According to a Voices of Small Business Report by Goldman Sachs, small business owners spend an average of 300 hours per year managing compliance issues. And if that wasn't enough, around 25% of owners lose more than 10 hours of productivity dealing with regulatory compliance. With laws and regulations constantly evolving, it is crucial to stay up to date on all compliance regulations to avoid costly HR nightmares.  Leath HR Group consultants are Senior Certified through the Society of Human Resource Management which means we have to stay up to date on new regulations through continuing education, ensuring our clients stay out of trouble! 
 
Get back hours in your week with Outsourced HR 
 
Partnering with Leath HR Group allows you access to high-level HR industry expertise at a fraction of the cost. Each of our consultants have 15+ years of running HR operations, ranging from Fortune 200’s to boutique organizations, each of our Senior Certified HR Consultants have “seen the movie and know the plot.” Are you ready to hand off your HR Nightmares? Are you ready to enjoy leisurely lunches and blissful weekends without drowning in the depths of HR admin, compliance conundrums and the never-ending quest for the perfect hire? Get these hours back and feel good about focusing on the parts of your business you love. Reach out for a free consultation at [email protected].  
 
And check out our recent articles on the benefits of “Outsourcing HR” and “The CFO’s HR Rollercoaster”!