Janet Schmidlkofer
K&N Electric Motors, Inc.
You may have heard the old saying: “Management is easy except for the people part.”
It seems that just about every day in the business world, we have a growing number of requirements related to our work force. Whether it’s healthcare, unemployment, extended leaves, harassment policies or simply new hires, we need to stay on top of ever-changing rules. That’s in addition to ensuring customer satisfaction, reasonable margins, and staying current with all the city, county, state and federal regulations.
Our company has more than 50 employees and thus we fall under a number of federal guidelines. Not all of you have this requirement. But no matter how many employees you have, there is necessary work that takes away from what we all try to do best: Provide the best possible service to our customers. If you’re like me, you can use some help!
Looking “outside” for help
Several years ago we realized that we are not experts in the Human Resource (HR) area. So we decided to hire an expert, or experts. We “outsourced” our HR department to a local company called Red & Associates. We pay a monthly fee based on our company size and the services we require. We could have hired a HR person, but hiring Red & Associates gives us an entire department of experts. Their duties cover the entire breadth of HR. They assist in advertising for job positions that need to be filled, interviewing, hiring, counseling, terminations, unemployment meetings, Cobra (a U.S. insurance issue), family medical leave, job descriptions and more.
They also stay current and assist in the implementation of all required healthcare mandates. They coordinate our annual benefits review and decisions, maintain the OSHA log and assist with our safety program.
The firm conducts an annual market salary survey, teaches management courses and helps with compensation program ideas. A representative from the firm sits in on our monthly management meetings and reports on their department’s annual goals. Red & Associates is an integral part of our K&N Electric Motors team.
How hiring process works
Let me explain how Red & Associates typically assists in the hiring process. First, they advertise a job position after we notify them to do so. Once resumes start coming in, the firm reviews them for basic requirements. In these times of high unemployment, it doesn’t take much time to get hundreds of resumes for one position. The firm then sorts through them with our requirements in mind and then forwards them to the appropriate manager.
The firm then schedules interviews with potential candidates, performs background checks, writes and sends the offer letter in addition to setting up pre-employment drug testing. On the new hire’s first day of work, a representative of the firm meets with the employee at the beginning of the shift and helps him or her complete all the necessary paperwork.
Saves time, keeps us compliant
I could go on with example after example of how our outsourced HR department saves us time and keeps us compliant. Yes, we could do much of this ourselves. But I’m reminded of another old saying: “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
With that in mind, I encourage you to look into outsourcing your HR needs as we’ve done. Feel free to contact me at jans@knelectric.com and I can provide you with contact information for the firm we work with and maybe they can help you find an expert in your area.
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