The matter of organization is probably a determining factor when it comes to the issue of corporate efficiency. While a lot of people believe leadership to be nothing more than inspiring others to give it their best through charisma and charismatic actions, the truth is that your organizational abilities matter even more. Fortunately, this is never left to a single person to determine and the majority of these organizational issues fall under the jurisdiction of your HR department. This means that they’re in charge of not only arranging a viable hierarchical structure of your business but also in overseeing the personal performance of your staff members. With that in mind, here are the five most important reasons why HR department is of the crucial value of an organization.
Training and development
As a small enterprise or a startup, chances are that you won’t be able to hire top talent straight away. This is mostly due to the fact that they require a paycheck that you can’t afford to give them, as well as due to the fact that their ambitions usually go beyond working for a small enterprise. This is why you need to hire people who have potential, even if they don’t have a stellar portfolio or much work experience and groom them into experts that you need. This is a long and arduous process but when done properly, it’s something that can return its value many times over.
The problem with this idea lies in the fact that not everyone who looks promising is, indeed, as promising. Moreover, your didactic methods may be more or less effective and it’s the job of your HR to recognize any of these warning signs by monitoring their progress. This way you’ll get a chance to pivot in time and avoid wasting time, energy or resources on factors that are counter-productive. In other words, your HR department is there to be your safety net.
Employee satisfaction and protection
The next job of your HR department is to make an estimate of employee satisfaction and determine whether people are likely to leave your employ, anytime soon. Remember what we’ve talked about in the previous segment, about grooming people to take certain positions? Now, try to imagine what would happen if you pour all your time, effort and resources to groom an expert only for them to leave your business as soon as their training is finished. This wouldn’t just be a problem from the standpoint of a resource loss, but also a major issue when it comes to finding a suitable person to replace them. A good HR department can give you all the necessary warning signs.
Mobbing and bullying in the workplace are always a major issue and there are two scenarios that you want to avoid. The first one is a scenario where people are aware of the bullying that’s taking place but have decided to stay silent about the topic out of the fear that there’s no one to complain to. The second one is a scenario where people decide to take matters into their own hands and escalate the conflict (sometimes even using physical violence). Your HR department is there to resolve both of these issues.
Making your organization more efficient
Previously, we’ve mentioned the importance of your HR for the overall employee satisfaction and there are four factors that are impacted by this satisfaction and motivation. We’re, of course, talking about commitment, passion, reliability and integrity. Put together, these four traits will make every single one of your employees into a person that you can completely trust and lean on. This will increase your corporate efficiency, boost your talent retention efforts and even minimize the likelihood of employee theft.
One of the biggest problems that an average HR department is facing, is the one of biases. You see, an in-house HR department will usually be well-acquainted with every single member of your staff and will probably have some bias towards various members of your team, whether they’re aware of this or not. This is why it might be worth consulting master HR solutions while developing your own HR. By getting some pointers, you may help make your own department much more effective and avoid getting set back by unnecessary bias.
Employee evaluation
Another thing you need to understand is the fact that productivity is a massive issue for the enterprise of any size. According to Price’s law of productivity, competence grows linearly while incompetence grows exponentially. Even more importantly, just because someone is productive at the moment, doesn’t mean that this will remain true in the future, as well. This is why an evaluation needs to be a continuous process. Even more importantly, it needs to have reliable metrics and criteria of evaluation. This is the job of your HR.
One of the most important jobs of your HR, if not the single most important job of your HR is to determine the future of the employees in your company. Some of them need to receive promotions and raises in the near future because they’ve more than earned them, as well as because they might leave you otherwise. Others, need to be given negative feedback or, in some scenarios, even laid off. Keep in mind that the future of every single one of your employees might be up to your HR to determine.
Salaries and strategic management
The last but definitely not the least important issue that your HR will have to deal with is the issue of salaries. Ensuring that there are different pay grades and that every one of them matches the position and the ambition of a person occupying this place is not an easy task. This is why you need to tackle this issue with a great level of seriousness and efficiency. Keep in mind that salaries in your company affect your budget, your talent attraction and retention and the overall satisfaction of your employees. This alone makes it one of the most important aspects of running a business.
Also, keep in mind that your HR has a crucial role, not just in your hiring process but also in predicting when you’ll be in need of fresh talent in the future. Depending on the demands of your business, you may need to bring in some extra assistance in the nearest future. The important thing about this, in the 21st-century workplace, is whether to hire temporary workers or go for full-time employees. This issue may sound like something simple to answer but you would be surprised at just how much impact it will have on your company’s logistics. Therefore, you need to make sure that your HR is up to the task.
In conclusion
As you can see, there’s seldom an aspect of your business without the involvement of your HR at least to some degree. This means that regardless of the area of your company’s organization or business model that you want to improve, the first step should always be the development of your HR department. There are many ways to do so, ranging from hiring HR experts, consulting professional HR agencies and even outsourcing your HR. The choice, however, is all yours.
