by Raghu Nandhan | Dec 11, 2018 | Blog, Offshore Recruitment
Is outsourcing HR the best solution for your business, or should you move HR in-house? Do you have an answer to the above question if Yes then thumbs up, if No then continue reading to find out more about the two options.
HR workers manage a wide level of responsibility based on the needs of the organisation. They manage the hiring processes of recruiting and interviewing potential employees, as well as orientation and training of workers. They also manage the relationship between employee and employer, as well as completing payroll and managing benefits. HR professionals work with the leadership team to implement policy changes and to best coordinate the wider administrative functions and duties of a business. Hiring and training new employees is one of the most expensive parts of the business cycle.
One of the best ways to determine whether your business should outsource the HR department or keep it in-house starts with taking a look at the size of your company. This will give you an idea of the services and manpower needed to run HR. Next, review the pros and cons of both options by taking a deeper look into what you may gain or lose through the process. Last, research the stories of other businesses similar in size to your own and find out how outsourcing or in-house HR has worked for them.
When you first start your business, your priority is to hire people who are integral to building the product and growing the company to fill the roles that move the bottom line and grow the business. At some point, a business grows big enough that it needs people to take care of the back office operations of the company. You need someone responsible for coordinating interviews, sending offer letters, managing benefits administration, and much more.
Figure out what stage of growth your business is in:
10-50 Employees
If you’re running a new business it can be easy to believe you can do it all yourself. There are only a few people in your company. Between managing benefits, equity, salaries, time off, writing employee documents, hiring, firing, onboarding, and everything else that is going on, where will the time come to talk to investors, build the product, or do significant business development? At this stage, you should outsource most of your human resources function. Your focus should be on the people who are coming in and out, not whether they are getting their pay check on time.
50-500 Employees
You’ve raised a much larger round and you are going to be scaling your business much faster, maybe growing from 50 employees all the way up to 100-500 employees. Recruiting is probably a massive priority as you grow and you might be running into new issues when it comes to expansion and compliance.
At this point, you need a back office time. For starters, you need to have someone on board who is able to handle strategic HR projects that are meant to make the company better. These include initiatives to keep employees healthy, to ensure that they are acquiring new skills that make them more useful. These requirements are better filled in-house, since they are so specific to your company.
But there’s still a role for outsourcing. While you might feel an itch to bring everything in-house, payroll experts are costly and normally unnecessary. There’s also no need to bring basic compliance in-house. Outsourcing this or getting software to do it will save you money and time that will allow your busy HR department to focus on hiring and strategic projects.
500-1000+ Employees
Top of Form
Bottom of Form
These types of companies are not too dissimilar to medium-stage companies. The difference here is that many larger companies bring many HR functions back in-house because they consider it a competitive advantage. But even for large companies, many of the administrative HR tasks can remain outsourced. Why bog down your in-house HR team?
Keep your HR department focused on finding quality talent, tackling strategic projects, and being the liaison to the rest of your team. Allow outsourced HR and payroll providers to handle the rest.
Apart from these few other factors can also be considered before coming to a conclusion:
- What level of HR expertise/skills do you need?
When hiring a in house HR person you are getting only the skill set they bring. When using an HR firm with multiple consultants, you have access to all of the skill sets employed at the firm.
This is a key question. If you determine that you would like to hire a HR Manager with 5-10 years of experience, this is where the cost of outsourcing to an HR firm makes more sense because the cost will be a fraction of hiring an internal HR Manager.
- What are the employee-related goals for your business?
Do you want to become an “employer of choice” with a goal of attracting top talent? Do you want to create career paths for employees? Focus on employee retention? Using an outsourced HR firm with the experience of doing this type of work regularly, can help you achieve these goals more quickly. Additionally, it will provide you with some ideas you may not have thought about due to the consultants varied experiences.
- Do you need your HR person onsite every day?
With 100 plus employees, having HR onsite every day makes sense.
- How much time do you have to supervise an HR person?
Entrepreneurs rarely have time to effectively supervise. And supervising a skill set like HR, that they often know nothing about, makes it even more difficult. Working with an outside HR firm gives Leadership peace of mind knowing that skilled professionals are in place who will work proactively, advice and collaborate, versus look for frequent direction. With an outside HR firm true supervision is minimal.
- Do you want an HR professional who can provide objective advice and guidance?
When hiring someone in-house, they may not be as forthcoming with feedback that does not agree with “the boss”. The internal HR person wants to remain employed and because of this may be reluctant to share feedback that could be perceived as “not being a team-player.” An experienced HR consultant understands that one of the roles they play is to be a trusted advisor and look at situations objectively while sharing ideas and feedback that will improve the client’s workplace, support their goals and culture while also mitigating risk.
HR is an important department. But many businesses sometimes forget this. Or they forget that the people doing it are qualified to do more than monotonous tasks. Outsourcing human resources and introducing new changes within the company can be both eventful and fruitful and worth the risk taken. Finding the right consultant not only gives you a sense of satisfaction but also will reward you and your company in the long term and will provide you with long lasting benefits. Try to hire a professional that truly understand the sentiments of the company and its motives and values.
I hope this article inspired you to investigate what works best for you, your organisation and most importantly, your employees – because they are your business’s most important resources.
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What business functions have you considered outsourcing? Tell us in the comments section below.
Pragna provides a wide range of Recruiting and HR solutions for businesses of all sizes. Click here to discuss your HR/Recruiting needs with us.
by Raghu Nandhan | Nov 14, 2018 | Blog, Industry Trends, Talent Acquisition
A start-up is a company working to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed. There’s something incredibly adventurous to work in start-up companies. Maybe it’s the lack of bureaucracy and office politics or the freedom to create ideas and make decisions. Either way, many job candidates are attracted to the start-up environment. But this doesn’t mean that start-up companies are right for everyone.
Are you considering a jump into the start-up industry, than there is a series of questions you must answer to yourself to find out “Do you actually fit in a Start-up?”
- How Can You Solve the Company’s Problems?
Start-ups have too much work to do and not enough people. So if you are capable of solving the specific problems a company faces and get results, many other concerns goes the side way. The main one left is cost and your interest in the job shouldn’t be about money, but rather fulfilling specific personal goals or mere learning.
- Does your Passion connect to the Company’s Mission?
Convictions and motivation are way more important in a candidate than experience. Wanting to work at a start-up is a terrible motivation for applying. A good motivation is finding a company whose mission resonates with you, whose values align with yours, and whose goals work perfectly with your skill set.
- Are you a Multitasker?
Since most start-ups financially aren’t able to fill all of the positions they need. They expect to do significant savings by combining two or many staff positions into one. That way, the cost of benefits can drop significantly. So if you are capable of wearing multiple hats without taking a toll on your focus and productivity then you are the right fit.
- What are your Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations?
It’s important to figure out your motivations before you start working in a start-up. Inevitably your start-up career will go through extreme challenges, and this understanding will be called upon. Extrinsic motivations could be salary and benefits and intrinsic motivations could be purpose, mission and learning. But it’s important for you to articulate your motivations and have clarity on what it really means.
- Do you tend to push the Boundaries?
If you are a person who likes to be in your own comfort zone then think twice before joining a start- up. Start- up environment seeks candidates who put continuous efforts to achieve a task and tend to experiment new, pushing their boundaries every time.
- Do you have the Entrepreneurial Spirit?
The best start-up employees think like entrepreneurs and are prepared for the challenges. They have Creating something from nothing attitude. Working at start-up involves working with different types of personalities, keeping an open mind, always staying true to yourself and speaking up when you have an opinion.
- Are you Accountable or Do you have sense of Responsibility?
Successful start-ups have no place for sycophants. You have to show that you are willing and able to not only come up with ideas, but also defend those ideas and implement them. You can adapt and think on your feet.
So analyse yourself before thinking to start you career in a start- up. If you have a “YES” for all the above questions then you are right fit. If not kindly drop down the idea and focus on improving your Entrepreneurial skills which could help you in many other ways.
If you’re looking for top tech talent to power your start-up and strengthen your culture, try Pragna Solutions today.
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by Raghu Nandhan | Oct 25, 2018 | Blog, Industry Trends, Sales and Marketing
We often come across a statement “The hiring manager doesn’t have to sell the job to candidates. It’s the candidate’s job to sell him- or herself to the hiring manager”.
In 21st Century if you go by this statement then that means your hiring engine is designed to attract people with enough low self-esteem that they don’t need to be sold. They’re desperate. They’ll take anything. You’ve got an open position? Great. I want the job. I don’t need to know anything about your company. I just want to get hired!
But if you wish to recruit top candidates you have to be on top of your game too. Just imagine you are sitting in interview room with the job description in front of you, and your usual line of questioning. Then a smart, well-presented candidate walks in, and hits you with a question: “What happened to the last person in the role? What’s a typical day in this office?”
Good candidates know that hiring is a two-way process. Particularly in this market, with unemployment rates near historic lows, it’s tougher than ever to win a candidate’s attention and get them to apply to your positions as they have a lot of options. Interviewers have to be prepared to sell the role and the company just as much as candidates have to sell themselves.
Below are the best ways to make your company attractive to exceptional candidates and selling your employment opportunity to them during the interview:
- Social Media Tricks– It is important to post jobs on social media platforms but this doesn’t mean you do it in the most boring way. Instead of uploading a dull and boring list of job description, post a video or photo of someone actually doing the work. When a candidate sees the work being performed, it’s easy for him to imagine himself in the role.
- Make each Job Irresistible– When you post jobs, promote the upsides of your opportunity. Think like a candidate, in addition to earning a competitive wage, what else would attract you towards this job? Few things which are just as important as money:
- Exceptional benefits
- Challenging work
- Opportunities for learning and advancement
- Convenient location
- Flexible work options
- Early or frequent performance / salary reviews
- Mentoring opportunities
- Improve Communication- Take great care of candidates and be proactive at every step of sourcing and recruiting process. Ensure it’s convenient and quick for candidates to submit an inquiry or apply to a job – especially from mobile devices. Keep them informed about timelines and next steps, from the moment they upload a resume or respond to the job posting. If you tend to remove a candidate from consideration, inform them as soon as possible. Being “left hanging” is a chief complaint among job seekers – and may drive them to post negative reviews on sites like Glassdoor.
- Be Friendly, Organised and Prepared- Hiring Manager is the only link between the company and the candidate, everything they know about the job they know from you, so put on your best smile and sell the job. An excited interviewer will transfer their passion to the candidate. Make sure you have studied the candidate’s resume and cover letter in detail to understand their motivations for putting themselves forward for the role. Try to show that just as they have been researching your company, you have spent as much time researching them, and the companies they have worked for.
- The Position- This makes the most sense but talking just about the job description can be monotonous and boring. If this is a top candidate, he/she already meets the criteria. Instead, make it compelling.
- The Company’s Potential for Growth- Take them through the company’s journey from incubation and share the vision of company’s potential for achieving growth within the marketplace. Top candidates want to be part of an achiever, so show them how your company already is a winner and will continue to be in the future.
- The Company’s Culture- Every company has its own work culture and not every candidate fits or feels comfortable working in the same. This point is often overlooked, but doing so can be a serious mistake. The candidate wants to know how they fit into the company’s culture. You must be able to communicate that to them
- The Position’s Potential for Growth- Top level candidates are always curious to know more so go beyond the position in its current form and discusses what growth potential the position offers and explain how the position ties into the company’s plans for the future.
- The Candidate’s Potential for Growth- The whole process is about the candidate, they want to know how making the leap to a new company is going to benefit them, especially in regards to the growth and overall well-being of their career. A-level candidates thrive on vision, so share that vision with them.
So pull up your socks and get inspired with the tips discussed above, sell your jobs and get the best candidates on boarded.
Pragna Solutions is always been in fore front of technological development. Helped several clients about our innovative methods of Recruiting using AI and scalable models. Contact usContact usContact us to learn more.
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by Raghu Nandhan | Aug 27, 2018 | Blog, Company Insights, Talent Acquisition
“When building the perfect team, the single most important thing is to bring the right people”
Finding the right people startups will inevitably reach the point where they need outside help to keep growing. Retaining the talent to help grow the business is a problem.
The initial problem which most startups face is finding the people suitable for the job.
Budgets are usually low for open positions in startups. Where the startup organization pays very well, there is a risk of offering too high salaries to candidates as well. As a result, they either quit sooner or their performance goes down due to stress.
- Lack of Brand Recognition
This is quite obvious because the organization is newly set up and applicants may neither be aware of the upcoming brand. To solve this problem, startups can try to build a larger brand image using free platforms, such as on social media, print media and more.
- Not knowing what you want
Being unclear about any part of the job can lead to a potentially bad hire.
With a clear idea of what you need, it will be easier to see those skills in the candidate.
- Having an unclear hiring policy
One of the most critical mistakes a company can make is failing to define its hiring policies before beginning an employee search. An unclear policy can confuse the hiring managers and candidates at best
Starting it out as a small company, most often they have a lot to compete against; big branded companies, startups, other small businesses.
The less number of resources available at hand can prevent better hiring.
The true art of recruiting is combining knowledge of the company’s unique culture so that both parties succeed and grow together.
- Challenge of Finding qualified candidates
Finding qualified candidates as dozens of applications from unqualified candidates waste a lot of time.
- Not Conducting Market Research
Most startup recruiters fail to focus on the huge talent pool of passive candidates and lose out in the process.
Candidates always look for the reputation of the company in the business. Reputation is earned with years of quality services. It’s not something to achieve overnight.
Marketing battle matters a lot in successful startup business. It’s hard for a new firm to access specialised recruiter for marketing specialists for advertising.
by Raghu Nandhan | Aug 10, 2018 | Blog, Offshore Recruitment, Talent Acquisition
As you probably are aware, Outsourcing is a regularly developing industry.
Outsourcing has witnessed a massive boom over the past decades. Outsourcing has revolutionized the way business is done in almost all sectors.
Outsourcing has significant importance to not only businesses that choose to engage in said activities, but also to the citizens of any country with involvement in outsourcing. Businesses now face a growing array of factors influencing outsourcing and it is imperative that they understand the nuances of outsourcing so that they may readily adapt to a rapidly changing global economy.
While there has been a constant growth in this sector, there have also been several new trends, which have emerged and stayed for the betterment of outsourcing.
Emerging of New Technologies
Emerging technologies such as cloud computing, social media, software and automation are being used by BPOs to reduce costs and accelerate growth.
Process Automation
New technologies that have emerged over the past few years including robotic process automation (RPA). RPA with its cost savings, speed and efficiency is slowly making its way into all industries and all types of business processes. Bring on the new era of AI which has taken over RPO (Recruiting process outsourcing). This will have a major impact on how BPOs operate and lead to jobs losses.
Focus on Social Media
Companies now realize that social media is a game changer. It provides an unprecedented wealth of consumer data and feedback that can enhance a company’s ability to analyze upcoming trends and to innovate. Instead of call centers, companies now want to invest in real-time customer engagement that will allow them to gain first-hand product insights and turn issues into new products or solutions that will address future problems.
Use of Cloud Technology
The cloud technology is likely to become the path for the outsourcing. With more usage of cloud technology businesses are working efficiently. Also, it will give further impetus to these firms to deliver innovative products and services to customers depending on the latest market trends.
Higher Efficiency and Competence
The outsourcing industry is now edging towards automating process utilizing the latest software and other computer programs in the process. These technical tools will shorten the tech support to enable services and also resolve consumers’ problems on time.
Digital Transformation
Companies are adopting online services, social media marketing, email promotion, and mobile marketing greatly.
by Raghu Nandhan | Jul 27, 2018 | Blog, Employee Engagement
Employee commitment depends on trust, uprightness, two way duty and correspondence between an association and its individuals. It is an approach that builds the odds of business achievement, adding to hierarchical and singular execution, profitability and prosperity. It can be estimated. It shifts from poor to incredible. It can be sustained and significantly expanded; it can be lost and discarded. Design is the establishment of commitment – it’s the crucial component that makes a connected with association conceivable and the initial step to making a drew in culture.
Worker Relations offers counsel, help and determination methodologies for work environment issues. Representative Relations aids correspondences amongst workers and managers, remedial activity and arranging, disciplinary activities, and clarification and elucidation of University approaches and strategies.
WHY EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IS REQUIRED?
- Employee Engagement Can Help Your Cause Marketing: – Employees who are engaged at work will be more than willing to help out when the company they work for pursues a noble cause.
- Better engagement means better productivity:- When employees are engaged at work, they feel a connection with the company. They believe that the work they’re doing is important and therefore work harder.
- Engaged employees are less likely to quit:- If employees feel needed and wanted when they go into work each day, the connections they form with the company and their other coworkers are not easily eroded. By cultivating and maintaining these relationships, you reduce the risk that your employees will quit.
- Engaged employees are positive:- Workers who feel disconnected and disengaged are more likely to have negative things to say about your company. If a disengaged employee leaves or is fired, they are able to vent their frustrations on any number of social forums and sites.
- Employees feel satisfied when they’re engaged:- Employee engagement isn’t just beneficial for your company, however. Employees who are engaged at work feel satisfied with their careers and are generally happier individuals than employees who aren’t engaged.
- Engaged employees are better communicators:- Employees who care about their jobs are more effective communicators with their coworkers, leaders, and customers alike. Disengaged workers may mindlessly go through their day without remembering any of the conversations that they had.
- Engaged employees are more creative:- By creating an atmosphere of employee engagement, you can not only boost productivity and profits, but you can also help your employees reach their full potential and look forward to coming to work each day. Your workers will feel more satisfied and content with their careers, and your company will benefit from higher productivity and profits.
- Employee engagement strategies:- Have been proven to reduce staff turnover, improve productivity and efficiency, retain customers at a higher rate, and make more profits. Most importantly, engaged employees are happier, both at work and in their lives.
Pragna model of employee engagement
Pragna Solutions, an American owned and managed Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) company
- We connect our staff to an Engaged Purpose that is written for them. An Engaged Purpose is a written statement that clearly communicates to your team what your company does, who for, and why.
- Many purposes, missions or vision statements are written for everyone but the employees – they’re written for the customers, or the shareholders.
- Measure engagement regularly. Too often, we as a company send out an employee engagement survey report once a year, which means their employee feedback is likely to only capture the mood of the moment
- Show that engagement is a permanent focus, not just a passing trend.
- Owners and leaders are clear and intentional about commitment to improving engagement and supporting the well-being of our employees.
- If our employees believe the new engagement program is just the fad of the moment, we run the risk of disengaging them further.
- Listen to our team on their terms. Provide them with a safe environment and mechanism that enables them to provide insights and feedback confidentially and anonymously.
- Take action on quick wins. Once our team has given us feedback, we use that employee engagement survey report to identify some simple actions we can take to show that participation does
WHY EMPLOYEE RELATION IS REQUIRED?
- Work becomes easy if it is shared among all:- A healthy relation with your fellow workers would ease the work load on you and in turn increases your productivity. One cannot do everything on his own. Responsibilities must be divided among team members to accomplish the assigned tasks within the stipulated time frame.
- Work becomes easy if it is shared among all:- A healthy relation with your fellow workers would ease the work load on you and in turn increases your productivity. One cannot do everything on his own. Responsibilities must be divided among team members to accomplish the assigned tasks within the stipulated time frame.
- An individual feels motivated in the company of others whom he can trust and fall back on whenever needed:-. One feels secure and confident and thus delivers his best. It is okay if you share your secrets with your colleagues but you should know where to draw the line. A sense of trust is important.
- Healthy employee relations also discourage conflicts and fights among individuals:- People tend to adjust more and stop finding faults in each other. Individuals don’t waste their time in meaningless conflicts and disputes, rather concentrate on their work and strive hard to perform better.
- A healthy employee relation reduces the problem of absenteeism at the work place:- Individuals are more serious towards their work and feel like coming to office daily. They do not take frequent leaves and start enjoying their work. Employees stop complaining against each other and give their best
- It is wise to share a warm relation with your fellow workers, because you never know when you need them:- You may need them any time. They would come to your help only when you are nice to them. You might need leaves for some personal reasons; you must have a trusted colleague who can handle the work on your behalf. Moreover healthy employee relations also spread positivity around.
What are the Ways of Improving Employee Relations?
- Employee has expectation of fair and just treatment by the management. Thus, management must treat all employees as individuals and must treat them in a fair manner. Employee favoritism should be avoided.
- Do not make the employees’ job monotonous. Keep it interesting. Make it more challenging. This can be done by assigning employees greater responsibilities or indulging them in training programs.
- Maintain a continuous interaction with the employees. Keep them updated about company’s policies, procedures and decisions. Keep the employees well-informed. Informed employees will make sound decisions and will remain motivated and productive. Also, they will feel as a member of organizational family in this manner.
- Employees must be rewarded and appreciated for a well-done job or for achieving/over-meeting their targets. This will boost them and they will work together as a team.
- Encourage employee feedback. This feedback will make the employers aware of the concerns of employees, and their views about “you” as an employer.
- Give the employees competitive salary. They should be fairly paid for their talents, skills and competencies.
- Be friendly but not over-friendly with the employees. Build a good rapport with the employee. The employee should feel comfortable with the manager/supervisor rather than feeling scared.
