As an advocate and evangelist for HR, I often ask myself, “Why don’t businesses take simple precautions (like having HR policies) that will help them and their employees stay out of trouble in the long run?”

The answer has long evaded me.  Until now.  I recently attended a workshop on managing risk for your small business, and –not only did I not doze off—I had an AHA moment:  I concluded that NOT having HR policies is akin to smoking.

Stay with me, let me explain.

One of the (many) ways risk professionals categorize a given risk is whether it’s short-term or long-term risk.

For example, speeding is a short-term risk.  You do it now, and you’ll pay the consequences now if get stopped and ticketed. 

Smoking, on the other hand, is long-term risk.  You do it now, and the undesirable consequences (cancer) may not be experienced for years.  Ever hopeful with long-term risk, we tell ourselves  we might beat the odds, things may change, “there may be a cure”.  Plus there’s uncle Felix who smoked 40 years and lived to be 100.

In other words, people are more willing to take long-term risks because they don’t seem as real.  But sooner or later the odds catch up with you.

If it were up to me, everyone who starts a business and hires people would have HR policies.  I understand it seems complicated or even unnecessary.  Ever hopeful with long-term risk, we tell ourselves, “We don’t mistreat our employees,” “No one would ever sue us, or complain to Wage & Hour about us, or claim they were harassed at work”.  We are all friends, right?  We are like family.

But of course that’s wishful thinking.  These things do happen, I get the phone calls.

By the way, sound HR policies (consistent practices, workplace rules, behavior guidelines) are not only for the benefit of the businesses, they also protect the employee.  Everyone feels safer when they know there’s a “rule book”, when there are clear expectations and things are written down.

So by not having HR policies, businesses (like smokers) may not see any immediate detriment, but they are in fact taking a long-term risk. See what I mean?

© Copyright Eva Del Rio

Eva Del Rio is creator of HR Box™ – tools for small businesses and startups. Send questions to Eva@evadelrio.com