These days, HR is no longer a mere administrative department,
but an innovative and strategic hub that plays a vital role in ensuring business success.
This is demonstrated by how HR has impacted businesses during the pandemic.
According to Sages People's Research, 87% of C-suite executives credit their
HR departments with having accelerated change throughout their organizations during COVID-19.
However, the same research also reveals that only 52%
of the C-suite believes that HR’s new strategic position will last.
So how can you keep the momentum going for your HR department? Among many things,
you’ll need to implement HR best practices that will boost efficiency
and lead to increased business performance.
In this Learning Bite, we’ll talk about 7 human resources best practices
that are crucial to effective human resource management.
Before that, remember to subscribe to our channel, hit the notification button, and like this video!
*MUSIC*
Hi there, I’m Neelie Verlinden and welcome to another episode of Learning Bites.
Today, we’ll talk about 7 HR best practices. First thing first, what exactly are HR best practices?
Essentially, they are a set of Human Resources Management processes and
actions that work universally - so it doesn't matter which industry you’re in.
Jeffrey Pfeffer has written two books on this topic: Competitive Advantage Through People and
The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First. In these books, he proposes that
a set of HR best practices can increase a company's profit. Let's take a closer look.
Providing security to employees
Life is unpredictable and work can be a very important stable factor. In fact,
in 2020, a survey found that job security is the third most important factor for employees,
second only to salary and location.
Job security is essential and underpins almost everything HR does. In practice,
there will be two contracts between the employee and the employer: a formal contract (labor for
money) and an informal contract (you put in some extra effort, we take good care of you).
But employment security doesn't just benefit employees.For organizations, it ensures good
retention, thus lowering the cost of turnover that the organization will have to endure.
Selective hiring
An organization’s greatest asset is its people. Hiring employees who
add value is one of the most important responsibilities of HR.
Research shows that the difference in performance between an average
performer and a high performer can be as high as 400%! It's clear:
Bringing in the right people is crucial for building a competitive advantage.
In today’s digital world, there are a lot of different recruitment tools we can use
to make the right selection. Think of personality assessments, work test and reference checks
The goal of these pre-employment assessments is to uncover three key candidate characteristics:
Ability. Does the candidate have the right technical and soft skills to do the job?
And are they smart enough to do the job well? Trainability. Can we train this candidate to
improve their skills? Do they have the aptitude to learn and keep developing?
Commitment. Will this candidate commit to their work and the organization? And will
we be able to retain them once they are up to speed and fully productive?
Self-managed and effective teams High-performance teams are crucial
for any organization when it comes to achieving success. Creating
and teams like this is one of HR's key responsibilities.
According to an article published in the Harvard Business Review, the best problem-solving teams
are characterized by two traits: cognitive diversity and psychological safety.
Thanks to the cognitive diversity, the teams are able to generate more and different ideas. And
thanks to the psychological safety, they feel comfortable sharing these ideas with the team.
Effective HRM includes directly supporting teamwork by getting
involved in how teams are organized. This can be done in several ways, including:
Measuring team performance Rewarding team excellence
Advising management on techniques and tools to facilitate teamwork
HR also needs to encourage different teams to work together within the organization.
A team is usually part of a larger entity,
such as another team or department. These larger entities also need to work together.
Facilitating this collaboration helps to build an efficient and effective organization.
Fair and performance-based compensation
If you hire the right people, you want to provide above-average compensation. These are the people
that will add the most value to your company, so you’ll want to retain them and pay them fairly.
Your compensation package can take the form of financial pay and employee benefits.
You should keep up with market trends across your field and adjacent fields to understand
the average rate of pay and where your company ranks in the compensation offer.
And competitive pay is more important than ever: according to a survey from Manpower Group,
69% employers are reporting difficulty filling vacancies. Offering fair and performance-based
compensation will help you build a good employer brand and give you an edge in the war for talent.
Training in relevant skills
After recruiting the best people, you need to ensure that they remain the frontrunners in the
field. This has become even more relevant today thanks to the exponential growth of technology.
Not to mention, the COVID-19 pandemic has also highlighted the need
for more training in soft skills like adaptability and learning agility.
L&D is your key to develop an organization
in which the rate of learning matches the pace of change.
When it comes to training format, you have several options: in-person
instructor-led training, online lessons, or on-the-job training. Keep in mind that
training is something that should happen continuously, with constant
updates and improvement, rather than remaining a one-off exercise.
Creating flexible work opportunities
The pandemic has changed employees’ expectations when it comes to work - in particular,
the where and the how.
Bloomberg reveals that 39%
of workers would consider quitting if their employers weren’t flexible about remote work.
At the same time, there are also many employees that would much prefer returning to the office.
This new situation requires companies to have policies in place to facilitate both kinds of
work while also ensuring effective collaboration and good performance.
The Adecco Group recommends employers to: Address inequalities to allow a greater section of
your workforce more flexibility by redesign jobs Invest in IT infrastructure to make remote work
a safe option by investing in cybersecurity Reskill and upskill by identifying the digital
skills gap of your workforce and arrange training to help your employees navigate remote working
Promote management based on the principles of empathy, agility, and creativity
Making information easily accessible
Information sharing is essential. Open communication about strategy, financials,
and operations creates a culture of trust. It truly involves employees in the business.
Furthermore, if you want your people to share their ideas,
they need to have an informed understanding of what’s going on in the business.
HR activities that can contribute to communication across the workforce include:
Creating sub-groups for people from diverse backgrounds
Producing internal newsletters and updates
Facilitating information sharing sessions between different departments
There you have it - 7 HR best practices that touch upon different areas of HR,
from talent acquisition to learning and development.
Do you have other best practices that you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments and don’t
forget to like the video and subscribe to our channel.
Bye for now!