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HUMAN RESOURCE – A KEY PILLAR OF ORGANISATION
One key conversation theme that we have with our clients is about the values that HR can bring to their organisations. Many have shared that HR departments are too occupied handling administrative duties and are seldom given the opportunity to take on a more strategic role that truly impacts the organisation’s business outcomes.
In our opinion, HR departments play a crucial role in maximising the effectiveness of your greatest assets: your people!
Below are 3 key things that HR departments should focus on:
1) Talent Management
Talent management is a function that should be centralised, not distributed, to the business. It’s definitely one of the most important things a company can do to strengthen a team. While talent management may be challenging, we should place great emphasis on the process just as much as we focus on our sales generation efforts. The relationship between a HR personnel and other departments in the organisation is akin to that of a business partnership. They should collaborate closely and work towards a common goal of keeping and developing their most valuable asset: the high performers.
2) New Hires
During one of my recent chats with a client, we talked about how an on-boarding strategy can make-or-break the career of a new hire. We both agree that many companies “onboard” employees by getting them to complete multiple pages of paperwork, explaining to them the company policies, etc. However, there is often no mention of the company’s culture and values which are important to a new hire.
Formulating (and executing) an on-boarding strategy is as important as hiring the right people. We are recently tasked by a client to design an orientation programme that can lower the barrier for the new hires to assimilate into their company’s culture and values. The objectives are to enable the new hires to get to know each other better, as well as to discover the company’s philosophy through fun and play.
3) Employee Engagement
This function is arguably the most important in HR departments but are often neglected. We have worked with a variety of companies looking to deepen their employees’ engagement. Through observation, we conclude that companies that invested in employee engagement initiatives, such as team building reaped significantly more benefits than those that ignored or under-invested in them.
Even the most “fun” businesses have roles or responsibilities that aren’t very exciting (or even downright tedious). While these tasks need to get done, watch out for employee’s pulse. Employee dis-engagement kills morale, lowers productivity and increases the odds of workers leaving your business for employment elsewhere.
Remember, people work for people – they do not work for the businesses. Likewise, regular customers are usually loyal to the employee, not the company.
