Human resource management relates to all matters in connection with your staff; from recruitment to grievances and termination of employment.

How often have you heard business people say that their greatest assets are their employees? This is generally true, but how do you nurture these assets so they continue to contribute value to your business?

These are the most important areas:

• The salaries and wages you pay staff need to be competitive. You need to know what your business can afford and what industry standards are. If you can't pay as much as your competitors do, you should offer your employees some form of bonus based on the how profitable the business is.
• Working conditions must be in line with the health and safety standards of the law.
• You must have a written employment contract with every employee, and you must ensure that they understand the rules of their employment. This is especially important with matters connected to:
• absenteeism
• sick pay
• under-performance
• grievance procedures.

Consider what would happen if a key person in your business suddenly could not work for an extended period of time. If this would be disastrous, you need to insure the business against lost earnings, so that you can stay afloat until the person returns or you can train up a new person in their place.

Human resources is a very specialised field, the more complex your business gets, the more sophisticated your human resource needs will also become. It is important to know when it is time to get formal Human Resource support for your business. Once a business reaches a specific size, you may find it necessary to employ a Human Resources Manager.