Across all different organisations, human resources face challenges in the following areas: strategy, people, performance, continuous improvement and culture. Unfortunately, businesses will continue to have issues in these areas unless it has a dedicated HR strategy.
The HR framework is based on five key areas:
- Organisational measurement and planning
- Processes and systems
- Governance and compliance
- Performance management
- Workplace improvement
An HR strategy that addresses these five key areas will ensure your business proactively and continuously manages its workplace culture, people and performance.
Let’s break this down.
From an organisational measurement and planning perspective, your HR strategy should include employee benchmarks, an employee analysis, and an annual HR plan.
From a processes and systems perspective, you need policies and procedures, an attraction and recruitment strategy, a retention, reward and recognition program, position descriptions and reporting structures, effective payroll systems and performance-management procedures.
From a governance and compliance perspective, you should have an annual legislation audit, an internal review, a compliance policy, an orientation program and annual re-orientation program.
From a performance management perspective, it’s best practice to have regular performance reviews, training frameworks, individual development programs, and emotional intelligence coaching.
From a workplace improvement perspective, you must have workplace improvement programs, group development programs, workshops, and joint programs with clients and suppliers.
What about your organisation? Do you have an HR strategy that includes these critical elements?
Not having an HR strategy is like baking a cake without a recipe. You know you need eggs, butter, milk and flour. But in what quantity and what order? How long do you bake it for? And how do you get the best out of it, or will it be a flop?
It’s the same with running a business without an HR strategy. You’ve got staff, systems and processes, but what’s the plan? How can you ensure all elements work together, so your business is productive, performing and profitable?
All it takes is one day a week
One client we worked with had 50 staff but no human resources manager. We helped the business owner recruit a dedicated HR person for one day a week. During that time, they were able to benchmark the organisation from a staffing perspective, develop a 12-month plan, minimise risk for processes and compliance, and maximise staff performance and profitability through training and development. The result? An organised business with improved productivity and profitability.
Another client of ours had a high-performing recruiting officer who recruited 950 people each year. However, of those 950 people, 600 either didn’t start or terminated their employment within the first year. The problem was the business didn’t have an HR strategy. They had no way to address this high turnover. With our help, the business implemented an HR strategy that included appropriate training, policies and procedures. It also stipulated better hiring guidelines, so the recruiter hired more qualified, emotionally intelligent staff who were the right people for the right roles.
The result was a better workplace culture, greater employee engagement, and improved productivity and profitability.
Would you like to see these results, too? Talk to me about how you can develop and implement an HR strategy tailored to your business. Email corinne@tweakhr.com.au.