What impact can HR have?
Whether your business is using internal Human Resource professionals, or outsourced HR services, it’s important to recognise that HR can have a significant impact on both an organisation and its employees. HR plays a crucial role in attracting and selecting the right talent for an organisation, employee development and training, performance management, and fostering employee engagement through creating a positive work environment.
HR also ensures compliance with employment laws and regulations, by staying updated on labour laws, handling employee grievances and disciplinary actions, and maintaining employee records. While measuring the impact of HR in your business, you’ll want to look at the following key areas:
- Retention and talent acquisition
- Succession planning
- Performance and productivity
- Managing change and growth
Retention and talent acquisition: HR professionals are responsible for creating and implementing initiatives that enhance employee engagement. They develop strategies to foster a positive work environment, encourage open communication, and recognise employee contributions. By promoting a supportive culture and addressing employee concerns, HR helps improve job satisfaction and retention.
Succession planning: Succession planning is a strategic process that involves identifying and developing potential candidates to fill key leadership positions within an organisation. It is a proactive approach to ensure a smooth transition and continuity in leadership, minimising disruptions and maintaining organisational stability.
Performance and productivity: HR designs and implements performance management systems that establish clear performance expectations, set goals, and provide regular feedback. They work with managers to ensure that employees receive constructive feedback, coaching, and recognition for their achievements. Effective performance management motivates employees, improves their performance, and enhances overall productivity.
Managing change and growth: HR manages change and growth by developing change management strategies, facilitating organisational development initiatives, ensuring talent acquisition aligns with growth objectives, and implementing succession planning to prepare for future leadership needs.
Establish indicators of success & metrics
When your business is working to measure the impact of HR within the organisation, it is important to ensure that you are measuring what matters. This is based on your overall objective, business lifecycle, and your short-term and long-term priorities. It is important to establish indicators to highlight success, which can be used in conjunction with recorded metrics. Some common and important indicators to use as your benchmark come from:
- Turnover
- Employee happiness
- Time to hire
- Training effectiveness
- Absenteeism
You will want to compare these indicators to your industry standards, to get a clearer understanding of the baseline for success. If you are looking for support when managing these metrics, HR software can help gather data and determine success based on additional influences for more accurate measurement.
Collect and analyse data
Collecting and analysing data can increase your success when navigating your objective and priorities in HR. Once you have set realistic targets, you will want to ensure that you are gathering all relevant data and information so it can be compared, analysed, and reviewed. This helps you decide which objectives are realistic, helps keep you on track while working towards those objectives, and helps you decide what future action to take when reflecting on past data. Some benefits of collecting and analysing data include:
- Frequency and ease of reporting
- Clear trends over time that give greater context of fluctuations
- Clear forecasting to reasonably predict and understand key metrics (like turnover)
- Clear channels for communicating results
Continually improve
It’s important to always stay informed about the new trends, industry developments, and best practices in HR to ensure continuous growth. Where required, ensuring ongoing success can mean leveraging HR professionals, or a partner of services, both within your organisation and outside it. It also entails leveraging HR technology, which can effectively streamline processes and enhance productivity.
Through continually reassessing your HR strategies, policies, and practices, your business will naturally align with emerging trends and the needs of your organisation. Look for opportunities to be proactive in addressing HR challenges and identify areas for improvement. This means regularly taking time to reflect on your performance, identifying areas for growth, and setting personal development goals.
About Employment Innovations
Employment Innovations is one of Australia’s leading providers of employment services designed to increase productivity and ensure compliance. Its services and solutions include all the tools that every Australian small to medium sized employer needs – including workplace advice, workplace safety, legal services, payroll solutions, migration, human resource management and HR software.
Disclaimer
The information provided in these blog articles is general in nature and is not intended to substitute for professional advice. If you are unsure about how this information applies to your specific situation we recommend you contact Employment Innovations for advice.