Not every company has an HR department–or even an HR person. While I think you should definitely have a dedicated, knowledgeable HR person on board before you hit 50 employees, not everyone agrees with me.
If you find yourself at a company that doesn’t have HR, here’s what you can do. 4 Tips about Dealing with Problems when There’s No HR
I just wanted to share a personal story to show that not all HR people are evil!
Years ago I worked in the IT department of a company (2000+ employees) that was all about the butt-in-the-seat time. “Oh, you were up from midnight to 4:00 AM working on production issues? Too bad! You still have to be here 8:00 to 5:00!”
One winter I slipped and fell on ice in the parking lot and needed several trips to a chiropractor. I scheduled them as late in the day as possible and had to leave at 4:30, twice a week, for two weeks. When it came time to leave for my second appointment, a co-worker was in my manager’s office so I just looked and waved to let him know I was leaving. My co-worker told me what happened next: my manager called HR.
Mgr: Can I make her work extra to make up this time?
HR: Is she exempt?
Mgr: Yes.
HR: Is she getting her work done?
Mgr: Yes.
HR: Then leave her alone.
Manager’s face? Priceless (according to co-worker)!
Yay! Awesome story.
I’d argue you need good HR sooner rather than later. It keeps bad practices from getting ingrained in the company culture. Once the bad practices are ingrained it is hard to get rid of them. Even a good HR person will have a rough time getting rid of bad practices. It’s also much more likely that the company will hire a bad HR person to go with the nasty culture and starts a downward spiral.