Ensuring that your company runs effectively and remains productive is just as important as generating revenue. In fact, providing the tools necessary for you and your team to stay productive can directly influence how well your business performs and grows.
While you may jump to providing better equipment or introducing time management systems, one area that is often overlooked is your human resources department. How you handle employee benefits, recruiting and general interdepartmental relations can directly impact productivity and employee satisfaction. This is true whether you’re a sole proprietor or you have a whole human resource department.
It can be difficult to know where to start in reviewing and introducing effective resource management to your business. To start, let’s consider a few trends that can help increase the productivity of your human resource department.
Why invest in effective human resource management?
If your human resource management department is organized and structured things will run more smoothly. With a clear system, there will be fewer barriers between departments and employees, allowing for clearer discussions and collaboration. With everyone on the same page, you have the opportunity to boost employee morale, potentially leading to less absenteeism and employee turnover.
Along with maintaining current employees, an effective system will also save you time and money when recruiting. With an up-to-date system and onboarding processes, you create a streamlined experience for new and potential employees. And with those same systems giving current employees a greater voice, you’re aware of any issues and able to showcase how much you value them.
Now like anything in your business, developing and implementing a system like this will take some upfront investment. But if implemented correctly, the long-term benefits will easily outweigh the initial cost. You’ll create a better work environment, keep and recruit excellent employees and be able to identify issues and opportunities early on.
5 methods for effective human resource management
Before diving in, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself that will help guide what you focus on with human resource management.
- Will you need to employ a new person soon?
- Will your employees need to undergo upskilling or training?
- Are there any licenses that you need to renew to stay compliant with the law?
Answering these, and associated, questions will help you become more profitable while keeping your customers, employees and the law satisfied. Now, let’s explore 5 current trends that will help you improve your human resources management.
1. Invest in a human resource information system
For too long we have been dependent on a paper trail, but we are in the twenty-first century and technology has increased to the point that we can throw those stacks of paper away.
The HRIS is a computerized system that has everything a human resources department needs. You can keep records of your employee’s leave and absenteeism, tax information, mail merging lists, and much more. HRIS works impeccably and offers many useful features.
A good example would be the new HR payroll systems offerings, helping you to correlate employee information with payroll. This can be very useful when you decide to give your best employee a pay raise, or if you want to make sure employees are putting in all the hours required for their pay, as well as assisting with scheduling.
2. Remote training and development
So far, one thing that this pandemic has shown us is that learning and working remotely can be highly productive. This is great since so many companies have to pay an enormous amount to hold workshops. They either have to outsource someone to come to their company or they need a big enough space and the correct equipment—the list can grow longer.
If you invest in your employees by providing them training and education, then they will feel valued and they will stay longer at your company. This will also make your employees motivated to work since they know they are learning from the company, which in turn will enhance customer satisfaction and the reputation of your company.
You should always remember that your employees are the biggest asset your company holds. Investing in employee training and education has become easy with online working spaces. Each individual can receive extra training at their own pace. The development keeps employees satisfied and the overall objective is to improve employee productivity.
3. Employee wellness
Employee wellness programs can work great for certain objectives. Obesity, depression, and pre-diabetes are raking up the costs for health insurance and are in turn only making employees less productive.
The Winning with Wellness report said that your employees can spend up to 50% less on healthcare if they follow the right diet (this includes drinking less alcohol and stop smoking) and exercise regularly. The reason a lot of people have mental conditions or suffer from substance abuse is that they live an unhealthy lifestyle and they’re over-stressed at work.
If this alone doesn’t work then it’s because employees are burnt out. They are struggling with a work-life balance. Employee wellness programs might work for a lot of employees, but for the few that it doesn’t work for, there’s a great solution, working remotely.
Employees can choose their own time to complete tasks and they get paid for tasks completed instead of hours worked. You can also get web-based wellbeing services that would help with their mental health.
Incentivized healthcare like paying their gym membership, and free access to healthier food will also be great to keep employees’ healthy. Additionally, there are a lot of different forms of burnout and this needs to be addressed by programs, systems, and services.
A good system would be to build an organizational culture that focuses on health and applying strategic communications. This will improve employees’ mental and physical health.
Employees will feel that they have colleagues and supervisors that they can come and talk to if there’s a problem which will make the whole atmosphere pleasant to work in. All the while employee health is incorporated into the company by healthy food options at work or break times to stretch your legs etc.
4. Recruitment
Recruitment after a crisis can be a cautious initiative. Depending on your business and industry, you could still be recovering or looking for growth opportunities that require new employees. For those that are recruiting, remote work and a larger pool of candidates provide a greater opportunity to find the right people for your business.
It’s easier now to interview anyone from anywhere. Yes, that’s right the geographical component won’t limit you anymore. Your talent range has just widened significantly, which is perfect because you want to find a candidate with like-minded values and standards.
That being said, recruiters are also using different platforms to conduct interviews and demos like Zoom. There is also an abundance of apps to source employees—most HR recruiters use LinkedIn HRForecast, Honeypot, PathMotion, and MindMatch.
5. Taking a stand on social injustices
When businesses show that they’re not just corporate numbers, but that they care— consumers and employees gain respect for these businesses. Businesses can use their websites and social media to take a stand on inequalities in the workplace.
For example, the KFC franchise has different initiatives in different geographical areas. In South Africa, a small donation is asked with every meal to help feed the poor. KFC China has been standing behind the Grassland Restoration Initiative that started in 2019. They also replaced all their plastic straws with paper straws and their plastic cutlery will be replaced by wooden cutlery to maintain sustainability and raise environmental awareness.
Companies can also look to conduct internal surveys to ensure that the company culture is positive and inclusive. These events can also help raise awareness and possibly aid people in need while providing employees with the opportunity to support initiatives they feel strongly about. Tie this into your employee wellness initiatives to stay up-to-date and reinforce that employees can and should be able to approach their managers and HR about anything.
Human resource management supports your employees and your business
Supporting your employees should be your primary focus when developing human resource management systems. By investing in them and listening to them, you create an environment that encourages employees to pursue greatness.
This is one of the best ways to grow and bolster your business internally. You’ll not only create a positive work environment but turn your employees into advocates for your brand and what you stand for. Look for the right initiatives to start with and if at all possible tie these systems to your business goals and planning to better gauge their effectiveness.
Ashley Lipman is an award-winning writer who discovered her passion for providing knowledge to readers worldwide on topics closest to her heart - all things digital. Since her first high school award in Creative Writing, she continues to deliver awesome content through various niches touching the digital sphere.
