RUNNING a business these days can be a real pain in the arse.

Three court cases later, we had paid out a total of £34,000 in legal fees, and over £10,000 in fines for not filling in the correct HR paperwork.

The biggest pain being that of the swinging pendulum of employee rights, which, today, is at the near opposite of 1893 when my in-laws were sending children under the spinning jennies of those satanic mills, the odd one losing a limb every now and then.

“A little collateral damage,” declared Squire Hague, “does none of the buggers any harm.”

A bit harsh, that. So the pendulum swung the other way and rightly so.

And then kept on swinging.

During the dark days of the recession, the operating companies for The Confidentials were going through turmoil. They had lost 60% of their advertising revenue, were stuck halfway through a site rebuild that wasn’t being delivered, and were struggling to support journalists, editors, tech and account staff.

We decided that we had to make brutal cutbacks and let three editors go, a couple of journalists and umpteen freelancers, along with eight full-time staff.

And then the problems started. For the previous six years, the companies never had a problem with HR and employee relations. We were, in the owner's mind (me) a family who had built the most successful local online magazines in the UK; we would all tough it out together.

Over the years we had been approached by several specialist out-sourced HR companies. They said they would guard us against employment legislation and the related problems. But we were proud of our employee relationships. We clearly didn’t need them in our business.

We came to regret that decision when we were taken to court by former employees three times.

Each time, the former employee lost. But it cost us. Three court cases later, we had paid out a total of £34,000 in legal fees, and over £10,000 in fines for not filling in the correct HR paperwork.

Add to that countless man-hours from our top-level executives, and you can see how expensive our decision to not invest in HR management had become.

The moral of the story?

DON’T BE STUPID. 

We aren’t big enough to have an in-house HR department. So we have now contracted to a specialist out-source company.

Would you like to know which company I can wholeheartedly recommend? Send me an email and I will happily put you in touch with the best team in the game; they will give you a no-frills proposition, at a price that is tailored to your company, whether you employ one person or 100 and above.

To find out more simply fill out your details and we will be in touch.