How investing in HR saves you money and helps grow your business

When it comes to growing your business and boosting your bottom line, marketing and sales are usually the first areas you focus on, and HR is often the last thing on your mind. But is overlooking your HR function a mistake? We might be a little bias in this area, but we sure think so!

Here’s how investing in HR as a function can help you save money and support your business growth…

Having proper HR support reduces supplier cost

Most businesses have more than one, if not several, different providers to operate smoothly. From employee document and HR policy creation to software for payroll, staff holidays, rotas, and time-keeping management—it can quickly add up if you’re using separate providers to handle all these areas.

Finding one good HR solution to manage all your people management needs from one place will save you essential time and money. You can cut costs down even further if you can find a provider that offers additional features like a learning and development platform, employee wellbeing support, and employee recognition tools as part of their core HR offering.

Having HR helps you overcome hidden costs

One thing’s for sure running a company comes with lots of hidden costs…

When we say hidden costs, we mean any business expense you wouldn’t automatically associate with running a company.

One good example of hidden costs is cloud computing costs like document storage and document management. It might sound minor but based on data from BrightHR’s Payback Calculator, document storage can cost businesses as much as £3,077.18 a year—yikes.

Another example of a hidden cost is regulatory penalties and legal fees and fines for employment law and health & safety breaches. These are hopefully far and few between for small businesses. But as tribunal claims for breaches like unfair dismissal can be as high as £12,000 and the average cost of accidents at work is £7,500—having solid HR and safety support means you’re safe, not sorry.

Having a solid HR strategy helps keep staff engaged and reduces turnover rates

According to CIPD, 3 in 10 UK employees leave to join another organisation each year leaving businesses with hefty hiring, training, and administrative costs.

When it comes to keeping your employees onboard and happy, making sure they know their employment rights and have clear HR policies they can follow is a must.

But a solid HR strategy does not automatically result in higher staff engagement alone. Employee engagement needs to stem from a combination of good leadership, a focus on employee wellbeing, a culture of learning and development, and company values that reflect the culture. Only when all these areas align with solid people management practices can companies benefit from higher staff engagement and lower attrition rates.

Improving your employee benefit package can reduce overall expenses

It’s no secret inflation is on the rise and tools to support the financial wellbeing of staff are in high demand, meaning they cost a pretty penny. But they shouldn’t have to if you combine them with your HR package! By closely examining your current benefits packages, companies can find switching to an employee perks platform can actually help them reduce their overall expenses.

HR news reports 1 in 4 UK employees can’t focus on work due to money stress. Therefore, offering your employees financial support like discounts and additional benefits through an HR platform can help reduce turnover costs and even improve productivity and output.

As well as supporting your staff, digital marketing and advertising costs can be hefty for small businesses in this financial climate. Not many HR providers offer the chance to promote your business as well as manage your people. But as effective HR is a critical driver of business growth and brand awareness,finding a solution that offers advertising or marketing services can give you a competitive advantage.

Need more support on this topic?

Find out how much HR and health & safety software could save you based on your business size with BrightHR’s Payback Calculator.