Small businesses should strategically invest in HR strategies that focus on training and development as a key differentiator to attract stronger talent, improve engagement, strengthen employee retention and, ultimately, drive company growth.
Asure Software said its first Small Business Human Resources Benchmark Report found a strong correlation between HR and company growth. The report analyzes how SMBs are using HR best practices and how they’re impacting growth.
“This survey exposes the significant role HR can play in driving or hindering growth, spotlighting the need for small businesses to engage in HR best practices,” said Asure Chairman and CEO Pat Goepel.
Among the report’s major findings:
- SMBs that prioritize HR best practices are more likely to experience rapid crowth. Fast Growth businesses consistently implement more than 80% of the HR best practices outlined in the report.
- Prioritizing people trumps paperwork. Some 84% of so-called “Fast Growth” companies implemented an employee recognition program to ensure that workers feel valued.
- More than two-thirds, or 67%, of “Down Year” companies see HR as an administrative function, as opposed to Fast Growth companies, which look on it as a tool for growth as well as recruiting and retaining top talent
- Three-quarters, 75%, of Fast Growth companies frequently assign stretch assignments to employees. That compares to 34% of Down Year companies.
- About 70% of Down Year companies don’t conduct stay interviews, which results in blind spots to the actual health of the organization and its employees.
- Compliance remains a challenge. Nearly 20% of respondents said they’re uncertain whether they’re compliant with Fair Labor Standards Act requirements.
- About 38% of all respondents do not conduct sexual harassment training.
- One quarter of all businesses are either at risk and not certain if their job postings are compliant with federal, state and local laws.
Last week, Asure said it had joined Amazon Web Services’ Application Modernization Lab, a group of Amazon customers with “a clear focus on modernization strategy.” Through the program, Asure said it’s working directly with AWS to define a distinct development framework to enhance its SaaS offerings with features such as cloud optimization and AI.
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