4 ms·
Ask HN: What are some good HR resources for technical founders?
Does anyone have any recommendations for good resources on HR?
It’s a classic function that doesn’t really seem important until all of a sudden it is.
As a founder you often need to learn a new skill before you hire someone to do it.
Any advice or experiences from anyone who had to learn how to do HR, whilst not really being a people person would also be greatly appreciated!
- hunglee2 5y agoBrainfood Larder - searchable archive of recruiting related postshttps://larder.recruitingbrainfood.com/ https://larder.recruitingbrainfood.com/
- eatonphil 5y agoWhat aspect of HR are you thinking of? Recruiting? (Probably shouldn't be considered an HR function in an SMB.) Benefits? (Probably taken care of by your HR platform like Justworks, at least at a small enough company.) State compliance training? (Like the yearly required sexual harrasment training required by NY state. Hopefully covered by Justworks or similar platforms.) Diversity and inclusion? (Better addressed by all hiring managers/top down rather than just left to HR.) HR can be a broad category of "things managers don't feel like doing" and some things you are legally required to do. Since you didn't mention any examples it's hard to know which parts you're thinking of.
- jfukcgknd 5y agoThanks for the response. Specific functions I would ideally like to read about: - Organisational psychology - Basic tennents of employment law - Conflict resolution - hiring (specifically post hiring evaluation as it's not always possible to get it right from just an interview)
- eatonphil 5y agoBasically all of those (except law) sound like things managers deal with and books on people management cover. You could start with Peopleware for one kind of perspective. And then keep looking for lists of books on people management. With most of those: organization psychology, performance reviews, conflict resolution; you get better at them over time as you fail or see other people fail. Or you fail less by hiring experienced managers (or HR professionals) to help you out.
- hicycivicz 5y agoThanks again for the response. > you get better at them over time as you fail or see other people fail Yeah thought this might be the case. I’ll give peopleware a try as well.
- smackeyacky 5y agoAs a small company, HR is a very different beast from a big company. Big companies have HR run interference so the company doesn't get sued. That is its only real function. In a small company, if you are struggling with interpersonal conflicts you don't need HR skills, you need people skills. Empathy is the biggest one. It can be temporarily outsourced to people who do conflict resolution.
- splatzone 5y agoWhat do you mean by interference?
- hicycivicz 5y ago> Empathy is the biggest one. I would almost say that empathy is the issue, I can empathise with both sides of the conflict! I guess it’s more to do with how do you get people to empathise with each other.
- telesilla 5y agoIf you are US based, you have Gusto, an excellent HR as a service. http://gusto.com/hr-pros-and-services/ http://gusto.com/hr-pros-and-services/
- gashmol 5y agoHigh Output Management covers alot of it and then some.