The Global Human Resources Outsourcing (GHRO) team is sharing some hard-won business insights directly from the source.

 ”A Practical Guide to Human Resources Management” is a 266-page guidebook to the intricacies of the world of employment from Jeff Stinson, founder and president of Global Human Resources Outsourcing (GHRO).

Chapter 3: How to Measure a New Employee’s Performance

At this point, we are pretty sure we have hired the “right” person, have made sure the new employee was properly oriented and made to feel at home, and have seen some early work.  Now, the process of performance management really begins.

While most managers look at the “performance review form” as the performance management system, it is simply one of several tools available to provide employees with the feedback they require to improve and sustain their performance.

There are leaders who believe that the “performance review” is all that is required of the performance management system.  After all, they fill out forms, spend time discussing the review with the employee, and establish goals for the following year.  Isn’t that it?

It very well may be, if your system has no desire to tie the employee’s goals to the overall goals of the organization.  If the goal is to simply measure an employee’s performance vs. a series of pre-determined goals, then yes, you are done.  If, on the other hand, you want to tie everyone in the organization to the goals of the organization, more work will need to be done.

Designing Smart Goals

The first step in any employee review process should be the development of clear and achievable organizational goals. Whatever organizational goals you decide are important, they must be communicated throughout the organization, even down to the lowest level.

From here you can start to establish employee goals that art “SMART.”  Here is what I mean by SMART goals:

Specific

Measurable

Action Oriented

Realistic

Time Frame

Once you have established your employees’ individual goals based on organizational goals, written the review and sat down for that difficult discussion, you proceed to a discussion of how to pay them.

Next: Chapter 4 – How to Make Sure You Pay them Correctly

Brandon Carl, our Business Development Manager, chatting about Human Resources outsourcing and GHRO with Ciaran Foley on LookSee.TV!

2010-08-10 Brandon Carl and GHRO Discuss Outsourced HR from Ciaran Foley on Vimeo.

It is not Wall Street, the large multi-national corporations or even the vast banking institutions that are the driving force behind the American economy. Small businesses remain the dominating factor that figure into the continuing success of the U.S. Economy. Small businesses with less than 500 employees support more than half of the private sector American workforce. By hiring a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) to help stay profitable in turbulent financial times, small businesses are able to reduce their operating costs, raise the efficiency of their management and stay competitive in the marketplace, thus keeping them playing a successful role in U.S. economy.

Small businesses do the following:

• Employ over half of America’s private sector workforce.
• Are responsible for hiring at least 40 percent of workers in the technological fields such as science, engineering and computer programming.
• Include over 50 percent of home-based businesses.
• Make up nearly all of the firms dedicated to employment.
• Generate the majority of new inventions and innovative breakthroughs in science and technology.

Despite the fact that banks and other lending institutions are currently creating more barriers than providing assistance to small businesses relying on loans to establish credit lines for commercial mortgages, vehicles, equipment and leases; as well as the fact that government regulations are making it increasingly difficult and more expensive per employee to stay in compliance, it has never been more crucial for small businesses to survive in the down economy.

Your PEO to the Rescue

For the reasons above, Professional Employer Organizations are coming to the aid of small business and providing hope for the future to many small business owners.

Why use a PEO? To help small businesses survive in a down economy,­­ a PEO will offer the following solutions:

• Establish an employer relationship by contractually assuming many employer risks by becoming the employer of record for government compliance, safety and worker’s compensation and employee/labor relations.
• Incorporate optional health benefits, 401k administration, general liability coverage, background checks, recruitment services and payroll services.
• Provide relief from the burden of HR management, employee benefits, employee leasing and HR audits.
• Improve employment practices, compliance and risk management in order to reduce a business’s liabilities.
• Allow access to a comprehensive administrative service, employee benefits and HR Consulting.

With advancing technologies currently dominating the marketplace, companies are seeking the help of Professional Employee Organizations (PEO’s) to find the qualified employees they need in order for to stay competitive.

Searching for talent can be a big ticket item and many businesses are finding they are coming up empty handed without enlisting the help of human resources specialists whose sole focus is to find, train and retain skilled employees.

The Benson Strategy Group released a 2009 study indicating that as high as 62% of employers reported difficulty finding employees that met the criteria of the positions they needed to fill. Based on the online surveys and telephone polls of 1,000 workers and over 600 employers, findings indicated that the shortage of qualified employees has had, and continues to have, a negative impact on businesses.

As a significant percentage of the jobs that are opening up are in fields such as advancing technologies, medicine, clean energy research, biotech and engineering, many companies are struggling to gain access to a job pool with the required skill set.

The biggest problem seems to be a discrepancy between the supply of qualified applicants and the demand for them. Most of the higher paying jobs with attractive benefits packages once drew plenty experienced candidates, but the tasks of filling these positions has become more time consuming and expensive than many businesses can afford in a down economy.

This is why many small and mid-sized businesses are adapting to the times and hiring PEO’s to do what they can’t: fill open positions for skilled labor. A professional employer organization offers recruitment services and HR management that includes human resources outsourcing, benefits outsourcing, employee/labor relations, employee leasing, HR consulting, payroll services, safety and worker’s compensation and many other HR services.

A full service PEO provides solutions for businesses staffing shortages and specializes in matching the most qualifies employees with the right employers. A PEO’s goal is not only to recruit the best candidates for their clients but also to increase job satisfaction and retention rate.

Utilizing the Hr services of a PEO is the ideal solution for businesses that are experiencing staffing shortages. Many companies are realizing they are not only cost effective, but are an advantage in regards to their production rate as well as to their bottom line.

To help reduce costly mistakes, an increasing numbers of companies are turning to a professional employer organization (PEO) to have better access to experienced HR consultants who can help with many time-consuming HR functions.

A Professional Employment Organization is a single source provider of HR outsourcing that will serve as a human resources department for client companies who want to utilize their services to reduce costs and raise efficiency.

PEO’s provide experienced human resources specialists who perform the duties of a staffing agency while also extending HR consulting and management of payroll services, risk management, employee benefits and other human resources functions.

The reason PEO’s work so well for small and mid-sized companies is because they assume the responsibilities and risks of employee maintenance.

When hiring a PEO, client companies enter into a practice referred to as co-employment. They take on the burdens of procuring and retaining employees as well as the tasks of assuring government compliance and the requirements of safety and workers compensation by becoming their employer of record for tax and insurance purposes.

A  PEO supplies companies with administrative services, reduced liabilities, benefits outsourcing, employee benefits, employee handbook, employee/labor relations, employee leasing, HR consulting and HR management.

A full service PEO will provide the following:

• Payroll Services
• Recruitment  services
• Risk Management
• Employee Benefits
• Human Resource Services

Hiring a PEO means a company can focus on their core business and cost-effectively outsource the expense and often complex employee relations that can strain a company’s budget as well as deflect from achieving their overall goals.

A professional employer organization will enable business owners to enter into a co-employment relationship knowing that the successful management of employees is in the experienced hands of human resources administrators whose number one priority is to save their client company time, money and effort.

Keeping up with all of the technological advances is a major reason businesses are choosing human resources outsourcing as a viable solution to meet the growing demands of a sophisticated and unparalleled techno-savvy marketplace.

With all the innovations in communications as well as the increasing world-wide thirst for technology-driven company intelligence, it is required that businesses who want to compete in earnest must supply a workforce which has a clear understanding of all the multi-layered tech advances that are redefining today’s marketplace.

HR outsourcing provides the management companies are coming to rely on to supply the intelligence commodity that would otherwise not be available to them. Employees who are highly qualified in IT are an invaluable HR tool and allow businesses to enhance their output and productivity, ultimately raising their profit margins.

Having an integrated HR outsourcing system is the most efficient way to create and manage a qualified employee pool of IT experts without the worry and expense of an in-house infrastructure that not only drains a business’ resources but also may limit a company’s options and their ability to compete.

This is why current business strategies have evolved to include HR outsourcing. A Professional Employer Organization or (PEO) will provide a company with well-managed human resources services that will competently execute all the required HR functions from hiring and benefits programs to legal issues and termination.

With over 100 years of experience, Global Human Resources Outsourcing is an administrative service organization that will provide management to lower cost and raise profits by mitigating employee/labor relations, HR management, HR consulting, employee benefits, government compliance, employees leasing, payroll services, recruitment services, safety and worker’s compensation and much more.

Staying ahead of the game is important for any company to effectively compete in a techno-savvy marketplace and HR outsourcing is the #1 business solution to meet the demands for the critical skills needed to keep up with today’s advancing technologies.

Risk. You can’t eliminate it, but you can reduce it. And GHRO can help by working with you to create a Risk Management program that works for you. Through our strategic partnership with AON, GHRO offers coverage such as:

• General Liability
• Auto
• Employment Practices
• Property
• Pollution
• Professional Liability
• Executive Risk
• Defense Base Act
• Umbrella Coverage

Unlike brokers, however, GHRO goes beyond the sale and includes the following services:

• Claims Investigation to resolve issues and mitigate risk
• Bills Administration to ensure you’re compensated correctly
• Claims Management to eliminate your need to work with insurance companies
• Attorney and nurse case management support as required when dealing with claims