When HR feels overworked – and how to fix it

I'm the HR manager of a small factory with about 100 workers. We are busy handling many people management tasks despite the help of my two assistants. What's wrong with us? — Candy Girl.

- REY ELBO

Ordinarily, HR work can be performed by one person, regardless of their job title in an organization with approximately 100 workers. That’s on the condition that you are using an appropriate technology and payroll is done by the Finance department. This ratio is supported by the Society for Human Resource Management. HR-to-employee ratios could range from 1:50 in small companies to 1:150-200 in large organizations.

However, there are many conditions that must be met in order to do so. For one, your line executives must take full responsibility for their workers, including coaching for high performance and instilling discipline. While HR, even if it’s only a one-man department, focuses on high-impact policies and culture-building, it is not tied to clerical tasks.

This makes HR more strategic, less transactional —and positions HR as a “value multiplier” rather than a paper pusher.

DIFFERENT SOLUTIONS

Many small factories find themselves in the same trap. HR ends up doing too much under many conflicting systems.

That means the root cause of the problem isn’t the competence or incompetence of the HR person, but the way HR is set up and maintained. Let’s break down why you're overwhelmed, and what you can do to regain control:

One, too much manual work. In many small businesses, HR is still run on spreadsheets, logbooks, and paper forms. Attendance is checked manually, overtime slips get misplaced, and payroll preparation takes days instead of hours. Add government compliance filings, and suddenly, HR is swimming in clerical tasks.