Hey, Startup Founder – Your First HR Hire is a Virtual Assistant

Hey, Startup Founder! This blog post is just for you!

One of the things we’re most proud of when it comes to our product is its flexibility. We always tell our customers, when they ask if PurelyHR is a product that will work for them and their team, that it doesn’t matter if you have a team of 5 or 500, we can help!

But for those companies that are still in the early growth stages and may only have 5-10 (or maybe even less) employees to manage HR can sometimes fall into the background. Or more commonly, get split up into responsibilities assigned to other roles like a co-founder or a community manager.

At PurelyHR, we have a different approach we often recommend to these types of teams. Rather than keeping HR tasks in murky water or buried with a mountain of other tasks and responsibilities, hire a Virtual Assistant!

Remote work can be unfamiliar territory for some but is actually a growing trend among many popular startups and other companies like WordPress, Buffer and Basecamp. In fact, remote work even has shown to decrease turnover by 25% and boost overall employee morale.

With such a small team, although important – HR doesn’t necessarily have to be a full time/in-office role.

We recently had the chance to connect with one of our customers, Close.io and their “Queen of Culture” (who might just have the greatest HR job title of all time) and she chatted with us a bit about her 100% remote based team (more on that coming soon!). So we know that it’s possible!

Of course, the # of team members necessary before HR becomes a full-time role might differ depending on the company and its culture. Asif Upadhye, Director of Never Grow Up has stated “… in a start-up with a team size of less than 30 individuals, an HR team isn’t really necessary. Since it is the founder who drives the culture and values of the place, s/he would prefer to invest in hiring individuals who have the same passion as s/he does.”

But, it all depends on your team. We’ll let you be the judge of that part ?!

So, you Think You’re Ready for an HR?

To make this work, you need to prioritize which HR processes you want to automate. With PurelyHR, time off is pretty important to us and we know how time-consuming managing it can be with any number of team members.

Here’s how PurelyHR can help!

Step one, centralize your employee data. Out with your old filing cabinets and in with your own digital employee directory, capable of housing all your important employee and relevant HR data and documents.

Step two, customize your suite to suit your office! Because our clientele is diverse, we know that every company is completely unique. From the departments you manage, to the locations of your multiple offices, to the hierarchies of your employee’s time off request approval. PurelyHR can handle it all!

Step three, streamline your time off policies. With our Time-Off™ Manager module, it’s easy to set up your company’s time off policies including things like accruals, banked time, and you can even set up time off policies to kick in when employees reach certain milestones like the end of their probation or the one year mark!

Small Team Best Practices

Don’t worry, we know that it all can sound like daunting work that maybe your early/growth stage startup doesn’t have the time for… which is where the next step in our process comes into play.

Hire a VA to do it for you!

The process is actually fairly simple to execute. We always recommend UpWork when looking to hire talent online. In fact, they even have this resource available for you when you start your hunt! ?

11 Best Virtual Assistants For Hire In May 2018 – Upwork™

Cool, right?

Now that you’re ready and looking to hire that VA to operate your automated HR systems, what should you be looking for? We also have a few ideas about that.

Responsiveness – Because you’re communicating digitally, how quickly your VA is able to respond to you is crucial to how quickly they’ll be able to handle your employee’s requests.

Discretion – Even if you don’t require an NDA for your startup idea, this is a good quality to have in your potential VA as they will be dealing with a very intimate part of your team’s employment experience: their personal time.  

Attention to Detail – Time off policies can be intricate if there’s anyone that knows this – it’s us! A VA with the ability to differentiate easily between departments and their restrictions and regulations for different states and even countries will be a powerful tool for you and your team.

Now, What?

You’ve successfully off-boarded your HR delegations, that’s what!

Our goal with these smaller teams is to show them that it doesn’t matter if you have a team of thousands or a team in the single digits, HR is important, especially when in reference to your teams time to rest and should never be lost in the shuffle of executive delegation. Your team will be proud to see benefits at the forefront of their founders thought.

And just because you do have a small team and maybe a small amount of funding, does not mean that HR needs to break the bank! Hopefully, in this post, you’ve found an affordable solution to start automating your time off policies without filling out a full-time role, at least not yet.