Why HR Matters Before Your Business Feels "Big Enough"

Zoie Newman • August 3, 2026

Last month we did a podcast with the Lake Oswego Business Chamber on why small business should consider HR sooner than they think (Listen here.) One of the main themes throughout our discussion was on HR as cultural creators for your business, and how to support the environment you envision for yourself and your dream at the very start. This month we wanted to dive a little bit deeper into how HR can function as a partner and business developer for you.


1.    Setting your values early and frequently – One area that I find business frequently neglect is the area of what a team and a company wants to value. They discuss what to value in their output and with their clients, how their external position is being perceived but never what their internal culture should feel like to the people that work in the business. If you don’t talk about this, it creates itself and is therefore less controllable and harder to fix if it goes in the wrong direction. Early in our business, I insisted that we as a business partnership sit down and talk about what was important to us. How it should feel to work with us and be around us. What our behaviors and actions would speak to. HR early in a business can mediate this discussion for you and help you create a code of conduct that reflects these values. Having this structure helps later call people back when abusive behavior occurs, helping elevate larger problems in the future. Values work can be a living aspect of your business and should be reviewed frequently. Changes don’t mean you have failed, but help you recognize your progress


2.    Holding the leaders responsible – Most small businesses do HR in house, and even though that is cost effective, often, the person running HR does not have the training, education and experience to do so effectively, opening the company to a lot of risk. This is where HR can step in and start holding business owners accountable for ensuring legal and ethical practices are taking place. That those values, mean more than a statement. Business owners need this check and balance and a way to stay compliant. It is what helps maintain trust through the long-term.


3.    Labor & Recruitment – One of the more practical ways business owners can use HR at the beginning is helping with retaining and keeping labor. Recruitment is hard and often made harder when a business owner is too busy to give it the full attention that it needs. This can also affect your output and cost you clients, as well as damage culture. If you are constantly churning through employees, unable to hire quality labor, and seeing high turnover, then that constant state of change can lead to a lot of burnout for business owners and those who stay. HR can help stabilize this and create a structure around recruitment for the future.


Oprah Winfrey recently said, “HR is the custodians of culture.” I believe that when HR is introduced early and done well, it helps create the kind of workplace where values are not just written down but actively practiced. Culture does not wait until a business is larger, more profitable, or less busy; it begins forming from the first hire, the first conflict, the first leadership decision, and the first time someone’s needs are either heard or dismissed. Small business owners have a unique opportunity to shape that culture intentionally before harmful patterns become embedded. By clarifying values, holding leadership accountable, and building strong labor and recruitment practices, HR becomes more than an administrative function—it becomes a partner in protecting the dream you are building. When we treat culture as something worth tending to from the beginning, we create businesses where people can stay, grow, and contribute.


Share

The Sage Source: Insights in HR & Development

When Workplace Trust Breaks: How to Rebuild After Conflict

By Zoie Newman • July 6, 2026
Recently in an online course I was teaching around conflict resolution the question came up, “what happens when the other person refuses to let the conflict go?” We talk a lot about resolving conflict, but less about what happens afterward. Even when the conversation is over, the impact may remain. Trust does not automatically return because someone apologized, a meeting was held, or HR closed a case, and the other party might be unable to let go of their anger until real action is being taken. Rebuilding trust requires accountability, consistency, and a willingness to repair what was damaged. What breaks trust? Inconsistency, micromanaging, and gossip are all the obvious answers, but the mishandling of conflict with either avoidance, being overly direct and aggressive or the simple fact that resolution didn’t land very well with one party, can all have its impact. But if it’s the later reason, and you feel you have done everything you can to create a meaningful space to resolve conflict, be empathetic and listen to someone’s needs and trust has still not returned then it’s possible we are trying to move on to quickly. The best action one can take after conflict can sometimes allow for pause. We often talk about pause before responding or engaging in conflict, but it can also be a great tool to use after conflict as well to allow people to process and emotions to cool. One of the greatest gifts we can give others is to show respect and showing respect to someone’s emotions by not rushing past them but acknowledging them and letting them be without fixing it. When repair is possible, we can rebuild trust with this simple model I like from “The Trust Advisor” by Maister, Green & Galford Trust = Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy Self-Orientation We can have accuracy, dependability, empathy and discernment, while also thinking about their needs versus our own. All these steps over time can help you slowly rebuild trust and show goodwill in sticking with the resolution of conflict. When trust is not possible to rebuild, we have our values to guide us. This is where turning values affirmation exercise onto a particular circumstance or conflict can be beneficial to help guide you on your own behaviors. For instance, if kindness is a strong core value for you, then what behaviors can you create and reflect on that continue to show the other person kindness? What actions help you be kind through a difficult or awkward dynamic? Being self-guided in your own actions and forward movement after conflict will be the cornerstone for meaningful resolution when the other party has disengaged from resolution or the relationship. Ultimately, rebuilding trust after conflict is not about forcing closure or convincing someone to move on before they are ready. It is about showing, over time, that repair matters through consistent behavior, thoughtful accountability, and respect for the impact the conflict created. Sometimes trust can be rebuilt into something stronger, and sometimes the healthiest outcome is learning how to move forward with integrity, even when the relationship does not fully recover. Either way, conflict gives us an opportunity to practice who we want to be, steady, honest, empathetic, and guided by our values. When we stop treating resolution as the end of the process and begin seeing repair as part of the work, we create workplaces where trust has a real chance to return.

How HR Can Do Better

By Zoie Newman • June 1, 2026
Most people have a story about HR, and often that story includes disappointment. Through layoffs, FMLA requests, harassment, difficult managers, and other workplace challenges, HR is meant to support employees. It should be a resource for people during some of the hardest moments, because we do not leave our personal experiences at the door when we come to work. But in many modern workplaces, that role has changed. HR is often feared, avoided, and burdened by a negative reputation. So how did we get here, and how can we do better? HR emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when organizations began to recognize that employee well-being was closely connected to productivity during the industrial revolution. Over time, the field gained momentum through labor strikes in the early 1900s, and ideas influenced by the Hawthorne Studies which changed our understanding of management theory. By the 1950s and 1960s, HR had become more established. Given its roots in improving working conditions, the question is: how do we return HR to that purpose? Recently, I’ve been reading Get It in Writing by Ryan Stygar, known online as Attorney Ryan. As someone starting a new HR business, I felt it was essential to add this perspective to my knowledge base and deepen my understanding of labor law. In the book, Stygar explains in detail what employees need to know about their rights at work. But after reading case study after case study—and seeing HR repeatedly framed as a form of “risk management” for companies—I began to question whether that description is accurate. I’ve had my own painful experiences with HR. In some cases, HR failed to protect me from harassment, bullying, and a hostile work environment until I eventually quit. I was often told that dealing with unacceptable behavior was simply part of my job. What stands out most to me is that, in trying to protect themselves, HR departments often do the opposite of effective risk management. Too often, they break the law instead, exposing their organizations to lawsuits, investigations, and damage to their own professional credibility. The truth is that a people-centered approach to HR is risk management. When organizations put the human experience at the center of how they lead and employ people, they reduce risk by addressing needs early and building healthier workplaces. Prioritizing people over short-term business interests is not a liability—it is one of the strongest protections an organization can have. So how can HR do better? It starts with returning to its original purpose: protecting people by creating safer, fairer, and more accountable workplaces. That means addressing harm early, responding to employee concerns with integrity, and recognizing that compliance alone is not enough. HR must be willing to challenge ineffective leadership, confront patterns of mistreatment, and advocate for systems that support both dignity and trust. Also, actively know the boundaries of the law, so you don’t go outside of it. If the field wants to rebuild credibility, it must stop asking employees to fear it and start giving them a reason to believe in it. For HR professionals, leaders, and organizations alike, the call is clear: build systems that protect people, listen before harm escalates, and treat trust as a responsibility—not a talking point.