The Human Resource Department is often overshadowed by Sales, Marketing, and other departments. But remember that your employees are your most important assets. These are the people who will dictate where your business will be in a year, ten years, etc. Therefore, you need to take good care of them if you wish to grow your business.
Below, let’s look at ways Human Resources can lead to business growth.
1 What is HR?
Human Resources (HR) refer to the team in a company or organisation responsible for managing all employee-related matters. They help ensure that the organisation complies with all the laws and legislation on the recruitment of people, including health and safety, contracts, recruitment, and payroll onboarding. Essentially, the HR team is responsible for creating and maintaining the functions and processes that help the organisation run more effectively.
HR professionals are also responsible for ensuring that the employees have all they need to carry out their daily tasks. They are also responsible for creating and maintaining a healthy work environment to attract and retain highly qualified people. HR performs a plethora of tasks, but the most significant ones are recruiting new employees, managing employee relations, and coming up with company policies.
In small companies, the HR staff can be responsible for performing all relevant HR tasks. However, in bigger companies, HR professionals could specialise in specific areas, such as hiring and sourcing, HR operations, compensation, and benefits.
2 Helps With Efficiency
HR helps companies to be more efficient in various ways. This is why having a solid HR team is extremely important, regardless of the size of your business. While some companies would prefer to have an in-house HR team, you will find agencies that can carry out the function of an HR team on your behalf. These agencies can help manage some of your business tasks, which lightens the workload.
One way that Human Resources can help with efficiency is by encouraging open lines of communication. Workplaces that encourage open lines of communication between the management and employees tend to be more efficient and are more innovative, as seen by the success of big companies like Sainsbury’s and FedEx.
Employees should feel comfortable approaching their HR team anytime with any issues and concerns that they may have. By listening to employees’ feedback, the HR team can take the necessary steps to improve the company processes and procedures and eliminate those that are not effective and a waste of time. For instance, if an employee is not comfortable and satisfied with their overtime pay and will offer suggestions on how it should be computed, the HR staff should immediately look into it, acknowledge the suggestions, and take proper action.
3 Ensures You are Hiring the Right People
Attracting the best talents in your industry does not come easy, especially in a highly competitive market. It requires time, effort, and finances. According to studies, it could take up to 44 days for a company to hire the right candidate for the job. However, the best ones will be off the market in only ten days. The Human Resources team can help you find qualified candidates and conduct the necessary interviews and assessments to ensure that they are a perfect fit for the company.
Even if you have found the right candidates to work for your company, making them stay longer will also require some effort. The Human Resources team can be a big help when it comes to this. Remember, staff retention can greatly help your business grow.
Aside from hiring new employees, HR can help with the onboarding process, which is how you make a good first impression on the new hires. HR will be responsible for welcoming them into the company and preparing them for their roles. By having an efficient onboarding process in place, the new employees will be motivated to stay longer in the company.
4 Implement Staff Training
Bringing the right people into the company is not the only role that HR plays. They are also responsible for providing training and development to employees, especially in training areas like health and safety, which helps build a better-equipped team.
Upskilling is especially important in today’s competitive world. And as technology continues to change the way people work, it’s even more important that you equip your employees with the necessary skills to keep up with these changes. When people are trained, they will gain new abilities and competencies as business requirements continuously evolve.
A good HR team will provide proper training and development programs to employees as it comes with a host of benefits. They help improve employee performance, boost productivity, and improve employee retention.
5 Builds Better Work Culture
Another way Human Resources can lead to business growth is by helping to build a better work culture. First, they will encourage open communication between them and the employees, encouraging a healthy trend throughout the workplace.
Another way they can improve work culture is by welcoming and recognising all manners of concerns. HR is no stranger to trivial complaints. While it’s tempting to dismiss these claims, that will only put a distance between them and the employee. By recognising every complaint, feedback, or suggestion, HR is helping to build a positive work culture, which is beneficial for the employees and the organisation as a whole.
Another role that HR plays is to organise incentives and rewards to make employees feel appreciated for their efforts and improve work culture. There will be top workers in every company who often receive the most recognition. While these employees deserve these praises, forgetting about the other employees will only divide the workplace. The success of other employees could make some feel jealous.
In this case, HR can come up with group goals and rewards. Instead of merely rewarding the top performers, they should reward the team for their overall performance. This can prevent workers from competing against each other, which establishes a healthy work environment.