Do I need a HR Manager?

[minghis]

I'm a bit lost and could do with some advice. We have a company that now has grown over the years from having none to 30 staff. Of those half are full time, the others are part time and all have fixed, contracted hours with proper contracts, of course.

I got a HR Lawyer to help initially with setting up our Contract of Employment and Staff Handbook and we subscribe to a company that provides us with other policies and procedures that covers virtually everything - holidays, discipline, recruitment the whole lot.

Problem is we have all the policies but are finding it difficult to get one person to apply them. One of us does recruitment, one does updating records, another does payroll, another does this and that and so on. We have Department Managers with average of 4/5 staff each but none of them are skilled or have any knowledge of HR which is just the way we have evolved. We struggle with the basics such as supervisions, timekeeping, discipline, holidays and so on because the Department Heads are not able to do these things and we have the age old problem of them all being really friendly with the staff and being too emotionally attached to do things by the book. We have a General Manager who really doesn't know about HR (as we are now finding out) and tends to devolve this to us as the owners of the company and just adds to the problem rather than sorts it.

My opinion is that we need a HR manager who is completely new to the company who will see things in black and white and set up systems, procedures and policies to get everything back on track and give what I would call a flat line approach (treat everyone the same irrespective of personal attachments or emotion) and manage everyone including the General Manager.

Does what I say make sense? If I get a HR manager what would I expect to pay a decent one, and is it reasonable to expect having not had one before that they would fit into the organisation at a higher level than everyone except us the owners? Does HR usually do payroll, pensions and sick pay and so on?

Lots of questions but really at a crossroads on this one and could do with some direction.

 

[Newchodge]

For 30 people a full time HR manager would be a little excessive.

You need to train your managers and make dealing with the HR function for their team an absolute requirement. You would not accept them failing to do their 'real' job, why do you accept them failing to undertake a basic requirment of being a manager.

You need to put the responsibility for ensuring this gets done firmly where it belongs - with the Genral Manager. Same argument - fundamental part of their job and if they cannot do it .....

If you bring in an HR manager who takes all responsibility for all HR roles you are compounding the problem by re-inforcing that HR is nothing to do with management. Expecting that person to be senior to the Genral Manager while also doing, for example, sickness absence is not sensible.

 

[Paul Norman]

It sounds like you do. But....

You need to do the sums. A decent HR Manager is not going to be cheap. A cheap HR Manager could leave you with more headaches than you have now!

But there are choices.

1. Appoint a very decent HR Administrator to coordinate stuff.
2. Outsource to an HR agency. Some of these will give you access to a very competent HR Manager person but you will not be paying for them all the time - if you really only need them to do, say, 8 hours a week.
3. Appoint an HR Manager part time.

Other options will present as you think it through.

 

[Displaycentreuk]

@Newchodge is correct. The OP's General Manager and Department Managers need to be able to make decisions about the people for whom they are responsible.

The OP says 'We struggle with the basics such as supervisions, timekeeping, discipline, holidays and so on'. In my mind there are 3 elements to this:
a) Basic admin - it may be that the managers need some admin help to keep track of holidays etc but that doesn't require an HR Manager.
b) Decision making (eg deciding whether someone can be take time off, making sure people are doing what they are paid to do) belongs to the General/Department Managers and cannot be delegated (or abdicated!) to anyone else.
c) HR Expertise - Every manger needs to have a basic understanding of employment law in order to be effective. Most issues which occur are the 'same old, same old' and only require a basic knowledge. Occasionally things get more complicated and then you need to turn to an expert (eg Newchodge or FSB) but this is, by no means, a fulltime requirement.

Even a fulltime HR Manager is nor going to solve your 'basics such as supervisions, timekeeping, discipline, holidays and so on'. I would spend the money on training your managers in HR and maybe an administrator to help record the details.

 

[Mr D]

So an admin person to take certain admin tasks - and do that for all the managers. An admin person will be cheaper than HR manager in costs. And may even be part time.

Would recommend the managers are given some training in what they are unsure of - and make it part of their job to act as managers. They can be friends too - but they are either managers or they are not. Timekeeping, discipline, holidays - those are simple elements of management.

 

[The Byre]

HR manager? As Cyndy says, that is OTT for a 30-man company. I would follow her advice to the letter about getting a general manager to understand his/her role in HR.

Payroll, pensions, sick pay and holiday pay? That is books and bookkeeping.

 

[Newchodge]

Can I suggest you also need to have a look at your HR processes: Sickness reporting and recording, holiday requests and records keeping and so on. Having a simple process for these things makes it easier for managers to deal with. Something like Breathe HR may be useful for this side of things, and an HR professional to come in for a couple of days to assess what you have, what you need and the best way to get between the two.

 

[minghis]

Thanks everyone for your replies, the reality is of course as has been said we simply have the wrong skill sets in the wrong jobs so we'll have some training and see if we can get the admin side of HR done properly, that'll set the ball rolling.