How the Smartest Companies Save Money and Create Synergies by Outsourcing HR

Ever wonder how the smartest and most successful companies got where they are? This week in HR, we write about outsourcing as a strategic imperative for your business’ success.

Keeping the main thing the main thing is difficult for anyone, but as a business leader, you know it’s darn-near impossible to manage your business, grow your business, sell your product, manage the books, taxes, payroll, hire new employees, manage and retain existing employees, innovate new products—the list is endless. Why would any competent person take on leading a small- to medium- sized business? Or perhaps the more useful question is HOW would a competent person lead a small- to medium-sized business? The answer is simple, focus on what you know and do best, outsource the rest.

Maybe it isn’t so simple in practice. No one can say for sure when a business needs to allocate money to HR, but it’s usually before the first hire is made. To their detriment, most businesses start thinking about HR after a critical incident that hurts or challenges the business, such as conflict, a bad hire, loss of business due to poor employee conduct, or a harassment / discrimination charge is filed with the EEOC against the employer. This is decidedly too late in most cases to prevent the exposure that has precipitated from the incident. Instead of preventing the risk with routine health check-ins with your primary care doc, reacting to the critical symptom can look more like an ER operating room, and with similar results in bills and outcomes.

We always say at empact, “Hoping is not planning. Reacting is not risk management.”

The point is this, no one has the experience nor the skills required to manage the full gamut of HR functions that will be needed at your growing business.

Here are some of the reasons we provide Fractional HR through empact hr:

First, consider what it would cost you to hire a seasoned HR Manager. Conversely, fractional HR is a relatively nominal fee, paid monthly, over a year engagement. empact hr Advisors are here to save you money, by providing first-rate HR support, tools, and resources that you couldn’t otherwise afford. We will cost you less than a 10^th of what you would compensate an internal HR Manager in today’s market. 

HR Departments of one rarely manage to reduce risk for businesses – no single HR person can know everything they need to know about HR to serve your business fully. Sharing resources with other employers not only ups the quality of HR support, but also increases the HR experience you get from the outsourced provider—an amalgamation of many different experiences to create a better-informed HR program with just what you need.

Second, we are focused on providing a sustainable solution for your business. And that necessitates an internal point of contact – at any level, whom we train, cultivate into a knowledgeable and empowered go-to in your business, who understands your business best. For purposes of risk mitigation and the preservation of your unique culture, we do not employee-face. 

We want your employees and your business executive stakeholders to view you, the point of contact as the subject matter expert, the go-to for all things HR. We give you the backbone with tools and resources.  

To build a sustainable HR structure, you need an internal person trained and always accessible to your employees. We focus on providing that training so your employees can build rapport with your designated internal contact. 

Third, we have a step-by-step, proven process that begins with an audit and discovery meetings, from there we move into strategic HR initiatives, addressing many of the compliance challenges we are sure to uncover in the audit phase. Inevitably, your business will need updates to your employee handbook and policies and procedures and Job Descriptions – these are addressed within the first 2 quarters. Finally, we help you leverage the system that you’re already using. We can put you in contact with any of our clients, who would attest to the HR structure, practices, and ongoing support that we provide clients  

Most businesses need very similar things at a basic level, so where we can quickly customize a template for your business, we do. Other matters require hands-on custom solutions, which we also do. 

Small business owners and finance executives shouldn’t spend time toiling over HR minutiae, they should focus on what makes their business grow and leave the HR to the experts. In a close collaboration with Crescent, you’ll see ROI in the form of preventative planning or pro-action, which means you don’t wind up in costly skirmishes with your employees. 

Leveraging the system is a primary way to achieve efficiencies. At Crescent, unlike other HR outsourced groups, we provide the end-to-end technology for you HCM needs and we synergize our HR support and your system utilization to achieve best practices.

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Philip Carrillo leads Crescent's HR Advisory division, empact hr. He worked in legal and tech startups for 10 years and transitioned to consulting in the non-profit, O&G, and Construction industries for 2 years before joining Crescent to build and support empact hr.