What is Human Resources?
Human Resources is the function that manages the people part of business. Some of the things Human Resource professionals do is hire, fire, coach, train, and manage performance.
So why do I need Human Resources?
- My job was just eliminated.
- I don’t have any employees.
- I am a small business.
- I don’t have the money to pay for a human resource professional or a human resource department.
True stories of people we know (the names have been changed to protect their identities).
Pete was a small business owner who was doing great. His business was making $1,000,000 a year. He hired an accountant because he needed help. When Pete found his accountant was embezzling from the company, he fired him. Pete’s former employee sued Pete. Pete lost his business over one former dishonest disgruntled employee. Pete wonders what alternative business solutions he could have used that may have prevented him from losing his business.
John has started his own electrical installation company. He is doing great. He was awarded a large contract. He can’t do all the work himself. He needs to hire additional staff. Now what?
Steve owns a hair salon. The receptionist was doing a poor job. Steve coached and counseled her. Her performance didn’t improve. Steve had to let her go. After paying her $5,000 in unemployment fees, Steve found out about Alternative Human Resource Solutions. Steve told us he wished he had learned about our services earlier.
Ann had been employed for 14 years without a break in service. She unexpectedly found herself out of work due to a Reduction in Force (RIF). She went to Department of Workforce services and filed a claim. Then she started her job search. It had been a long time since she had had to look for work. Unfortunately, Ann was not alone. The unemployment rate was high and she was competing for a limited number of jobs. Ann was applying for work and sending out a lot of resumes, but was not getting any interviews. She found a friend who was a Human Resource professional who helped her prepare a professional resume. To her surprise she started getting calls to interview. She was grateful to her job coach who helped her with her resume.
Alice was getting calls to interview for jobs she felt well qualified for. She also was receiving rejection letters. She couldn’t understand why she wasn’t getting work. She got a job coach who helped her understand what she was doing wrong in her interviews. She implemented the strategies. She had to do a lot of work and practice her interviewing techniques. Her coach kept her focused. When she got her next job, she was grateful she hadn’t had to go through
her job search alone. This is one of the reasons Alternative Human Resource Solutions was organized.