Consultants > Andrea Herran
Andrea Herran
We work with companies with less than 100 employees to build rapid growth, a winning culture, and uncomplicate the people side of buisness.
We assist companies to build rapid growth, a winning culture, and uncomplicate the people-side of business.
What does this mean?
We help you with anything that is related to your employees both strategically and tactically. For the day-to-day tactics we handle questions, onboarding, creating training plans, benefits, compensation to performance issues. Our strategic approach is simple, create a workplace where people can do their best everyday in support of the business.
We work with our clients 4 ways:
1 - HR Helpline (get your questions answered)
2 - Projects (see list below)
3 - Outsourced (we are your HR department)
4 - We coach/mentor/train your HR person (usually new to the role)
Since we focus on businesses with less than 100 employees we tailor our projects and outsourced services to your needs.
Here's a list of what we can handle ( not inclusive):
* recruitment process
* onboarding
* job descriptions
* compensation
* performance management
* employee exits (voluntary and involuntary)
Areas of Expertise
HR
- Benefits
- Compensation and Incentive Plans
- Compliance
- Talent Management
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
- Business Coaching
- Leadership Coaching
- Construction & Engineering
- Distributors
- Health Care Providers & Services
- Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure
- IT Services
- Internet & Direct Marketing Retail
- Professional Services
My Content
The Benefits of Outsourcing HR Functions for Small Business
Small business owners are pulled in a thousand different directions, always with the goal of sustainability and growth. However, something has to give, and unfortunately, it is often human resources functions. The DIY approach to HR has too many pitfalls and...
The Benefits of Outsourcing HR Functions for Small Business
Small business owners are pulled in a thousand different directions, always with the goal of sustainability and growth. However, something has to give, and unfortunately, it is often human resources functions. The DIY approach to HR has too many pitfalls and can lead to lost time and money and non-compliance with the law, which puts your business at serious risk. When you outsource HR services, you free yourself of this burden while focusing on building your business.
It Saves You Time and Money
Many small businesses want to be lean and mean in order to maximize margins and be profitable. That’s understandable, but when business owners and their staff wear many hats, they wind up with makeshift HR operations that divert from business development. A survey from the Society of Human Resource Management found that it costs an average of $4,129 to hire an employee, and more than $1,200 to train her or him. As Forbes notes, “HR does not produce a product, yet it can eat up a lot of an organization’s time and energy. A great HR department demands resources and continual oversight and innovation. Many organizations would rather focus on their core strengths and/or moneymakers by outsourcing HR.”
Ensures Compliance
Falling asleep at the wheel when it comes to regulatory and compliance standards could land you in serious legal and financial trouble. Federal rules, state, county, and local regulations are fluid, and keeping up with them is paramount. HR professionals can guide you through the complexities of the Affordable Care Act, for example, along with FMLA, ERISA, PPACA, COBRA, and HIPAA. In addition, there are frequent updates and changes to employment and wage laws that are directly related to employee issues, including harassment claims, discipline and termination. Amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act is a recent example that <a href="http://focushr.biz/new-protections-against-sexual-harassment-what-you-need-to-know/"><strong>we recently covered</strong></a>. Meeting compliance standards is complex and must be addressed by dedicated HR experts.
Outsourced HR Strengthens Work Culture
Having a fresh set of eyes from an HR expert can work wonders for your company's work culture. If there’s a disconnect between owner and employee perception, an HR professional can bridge that gap. As we’ve previously written, <a href="http://focushr.biz/create-a-winning-work-culture-by-seeking-employee-feedback/"><strong>collecting employee feedback on work culture</strong></a> is critical for employee relations and engagement. A third party can streamline the process.
Conclusion
Managing employees is multi-faceted, and most small business owners don’t have the bandwidth or knowledge to ensure HR best practices. The risks are great and can be costly. Mistakes with payroll, inconsistent employee policies, and non-compliance can destroy your business and potentially send you to court. When you outsource your HR function, you relieve yourself of this burden while focusing on what you do best: running your company.
Client Success Story: Fixing Bugs in an IT Company’s HR Policies Leads to Retention and Growth
Situation The field of Information Technology (IT) has experienced rapid growth over the last few years, especially in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of our clients, a managed service provider of IT, was focused on delivering stellar computer...
Client Success Story: Fixing Bugs in an IT Company’s HR Policies Leads to Retention and Growth
Situation
The field of Information Technology (IT) has experienced rapid growth over the last few years, especially in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of our clients, a managed service provider of IT, was focused on delivering stellar computer service to their clients. While they were successful in fixing computer bugs, their HR processes weren’t as clear. The employee onboarding process was undefined, and management did not deliver consistent messaging to their team. In addition, employees were confused about company processes, as each member of management interpreted and communicated their policies differently.
Our client needed help to restructure their HR systems to maintain and increase employee retention while preparing for continued company growth.
Challenges
Since our client did not have a centralized office or location, they relied on email or messaging apps for communications to manage and share HR-related processes with their team. Our team spoke with their leadership team to understand their current processes, including, recruiting, salary, benefits, and conflict management policies. Management shared that, at times, they were unhappy with their employees’ work. Upon further review, we discovered that this was due to an employee-management communication barrier. We also noted that their HR methods were not consistently practiced, as they were inefficient and overly complex.
Focus HR’s main challenge was to help our client define and streamline their HR procedures. Once these policies were streamlined, we could tackle onboarding and company growth to help them achieve their goal to expand from 25 to 50 employees within five years.
Solutions
Holistically, this client needed a better way to organize their employee files. Focus HR took a systematic approach to this challenge and focused on communicating to management why HR processes are necessary and how their team could implement each process to ensure that management didn’t feel overwhelmed with these changes.
We started with simplifying our client’s onboarding process. One by one, we considered each process, ensuring that management could clearly articulate why the process existed and how to implement it. We then defined a process that could easily be followed, allowing their new employees to receive the right information at the right time.
From there, we collaborated to recreate their employee handbook, addressing potential issues that management may incur. Rather than focusing only on existing problems--such as employees asking for more vacation days than allotted--we trained our client to be forward-thinking to deal with challenges that could present in the future. This “talk about it before you need it” approach helped prepare our client for continued success
Outcomes
After implementing these updated HR processes, including the onboarding and employee handbook methods, our client teams operated with more purpose. The entire company now communicates more effectively, allowing them to continue providing stellar service to their customers. Management was happier with their team’s quality of work, and employees felt like they were set up for success.
Bringing things full circle, our client’s goal was to double their workforce from 25 to 50 employees in five year, and Focus HR helped them shatter that. In just nine months, their workforce has nearly tripled! Our work with this client is ongoing, and we are collaborating to further streamline their HR processes to help increase their team’s efficiency and agility.
Client Success Story: Rescuing A Family-Owned Business
Situation Our client is a family-owned food manufacturing business that experienced the sudden loss of their father. As a result, the mother and her daughter were thrust into running all aspects of the company. Because the mother is retiring after 10 years...
Client Success Story: Rescuing A Family-Owned Business
Situation
Our client is a family-owned food manufacturing business that experienced the sudden loss of their father. As a result, the mother and her daughter were thrust into running all aspects of the company. Because the mother is retiring after 10 years of helping her daughter; she was quickly trying to phase herself out, leaving her daughter to manage everything from production to quality control and running the day-to-day operations.
As the new management tried to balance running all departments, it was clear there was a shortage of staff, and the company needed HR help ASAP.
Challenges
Desperation to get new hires up to speed contributed to turnover because temp workers felt the training was too slow and didn't appreciate the fact the operation was simple, but it was complicated. However, a failure by staffing agencies to find suitable candidates was making things even worse. Their challenges included:
* Unsound employee retention practices that wasted money on short term employees
* No structure or disciplinary action to deal with HR issues such as time off, lateness, training, etc.
* Dependency on unskilled temp workers
* Poor management style that frustrated new hires during the training process
* A lack of accurate job descriptions to help staffing agencies recruit the right hard and soft skills for the job
* A new company culture that lacked effective employee communications, onboarding, and orientation.
Solutions
Finding people with the right skillset to suit the company’s production-focused culture was the only way for the company and its new leaders to succeed. Focus HR offered the following solutions to get the company back on track:
* Clearly defining job descriptions for effective recruitment
* Addressing the soft skills required to meet the needs of the owner
* Defining a six-month training program
* Improving communication to help manage employee expectations about their own progress during the training process
* Leadership coaching to improve the owner’s soft skills to reduce employee discouragement and reduce turnover
* HR tools to help employees understand their performance goals and how they will be measured
* Forward-looking training plans to use for all new hires
* A consistent onboarding process
* Implementing a scalable hiring strategy to gradually increase the team to manage growth and bring on team leads
Outcomes
Focus HR helped the owners determine the best strategy for measurable training to improve staff-development while coaching the mother and daughter owners to become better managers. We introduced training and onboarding processes to help improve the workplace experience to reduce turnover.
As a result, our client had time to make the right hire, and train and retain them, which allowed them to seek a second production worker. Now, they have a solid plan in place to add a team lead to manage production allowing the mother to phase herself out of the business. The daughter is taking on a smaller role in production and is focusing on client relationships, warehousing management, and more.