Your Human Resources (HR) department is an extremely important cog in the “wheel” of your organization. Without it, employees would likely have nowhere to turn when it came to insurance and other benefits and the company itself could face liability issues due to not following the required labor laws.

Who in upper management has time to learn every aspect of the labor and wage laws?

In order to run the department effectively, you have to have a strategy in place that lays out how to reach specific HR requirements. This strategy is critical in determining the department’s role and course of action over a specific time period and sets specific goals as a measurement of success.

Those measurements should include employee recruitment and retention, motivation, training, engagement, knowledge of current wage and labor laws, etc. That is exactly why we put this quick tip list to help you understand a few things that you need to know about running an HR department.

1. A Note to Upper Management

While it’s the HR department’s responsibility to hire those employees with the necessary skills for the given position, it’s your job to hire those that will staff the HR department. In order to protect the company properly, you need a staff that is extremely knowledgeable, uses a tax guide to ensure proper compliance at all times and is experienced in hiring those with the “right stuff.”

2. An Effect Mission Statement

Your HR strategy should begin with a mission statement that is concise and clearly articulates the company’s mission. There should also be a detailed HR mission statement that clearly defines how the department will support the mission statement of the company as a whole. Whereas the company’s version may address how the organization will provide the best “widgets” possible, the HR’s version lays out exactly how the department will hire the right people and train them correctly in order to meet the main mission.

Whether the company is in the mid-stages of startup or has been around a while, review the mission statement to ensure that it does indeed clearly articulate the main goal(s) of the organization. You should consider recruitment process outsourcing benefits to make the recruitment process more efficient.

3. Plan of “Attack”

The next step for HR is to develop a clear strategy for meeting the goals of the mission statement. How will the company get from point A to point B? In other words, how will this department help the company get from where it is now to where it needs to be?

Generally, this means developing policies and procedures that address the company’s shortcomings, weaknesses, and threats while leveraging the organization’s expertise and strengths.

4. Don’t Forget to Smile

Never forget that in almost every case, you’re the first face of the organization that is welcoming them to the company. Their first impressions about the company come from their experience with HR and one that runs efficiently and is friendly and welcoming goes a long way toward inspiring confidence in new hires.

Smile, be assertive and clear about the company’s mission and what is expected of them and show that the HR department is an integral part of a fantastic company.

5. Implementation

This one is common sense. Once you have the HR strategy in place as described in tip 3, you have to implement it. Ensure that managers and supervisors receive proper education on any new policies and that employees are trained accordingly.

Furthermore, the HR department needs to monitor, measure, and evaluate the implementation of the mission, its success, and adjust training etcetera as necessary.

All-in-all, the HR department needs a strong strategy in order to properly support the company and the mission and the tips above should help your small business with that very thing.