I was helping a business owner last week with a formal employee complaint which has ended up costing her a lot of time and money. Frustratingly, the issue and complaint could have been easily prevented with the right advice at the time. BUT the business owner didn't think she needed HR support because she only employed 3 people and thought she could handle it by herself.



What's the lesson from this? Whether you employ 1 or 100 people, you need HR support.

Reason 1: Legal protection To employ 1 or 100 people, you need to have all the compliance basics in place.

Reason 2: You can't afford costly employment issues Whether you're employing 1 or 100 people, you're at risk of costly employment disputes. Like the garden center owner who made a casual arrangement about flexible hours that ended in a costly dispute. Or the tech startup whose verbal warning (with zero documentation) led to a wrongful termination claim. Or the café that missed a right-to-work check and faced penalties from the Department of Homeland Security.

Reason 3: Grow faster I worked with a marketing agency that grew from 3 to 15 people in 18 months. Because we'd set up proper HR from the start, they could onboard new team members efficiently and maintain consistent management practices without the usual growing pains. Getting it right from day 1 means that you won't need to rebuild your HR foundations and procedures from scratch later, often at a greater expense and disruption when you're busy with other priorities.

If you employ people and don't have HR support, you need to take action now: Independent HR consultants, like me, offer flexible, scalable support tailored to businesses of all sizes. 

This might include: 

• Creating legally compliant contracts and handbooks that protect your business
• Setting up efficient onboarding processes that get new people up to speed quickly
• Providing advice on those tricky employee situations (we all have them!)
• Conducting an HR audit to spot and fix risk areas before they become problems
• Guiding you through performance or conduct issues when things get sticky

Want to chat about getting your HR foundations right? Reach out for a no-obligation conversation about how I can support your business.