Six key tips to help your human resources department

Your human resources department (HR) is the hub of your organisation and success in this area should filter down to all teams in the business. From organising processes to people management, your HR team deal with a wide range of crucial things. Getting your HR team right is important to ensuring best practices for your business, so here are a few key tips to help your HR department.

Ensure your HR strategy is suitable for your business, making sure that your HR department is able to fulfil your business needs is one of the core fundamentals of your organisation. Creating and maintaining a clear strategy provides direction and allows the business to develop. Having an effective HR strategy that is used correctly, will build a solid framework from which you can plan your long-term business goals.

With the introduction of GDPR earlier this year, it is crucial to get your data systems up to scratch. The legislation requires compliance from companies regarding all personal data they hold, any companies who do not comply with these regulations will be charged a significant fine. Working with systems such as SAP SuccessFactors will help you to manage the data you hold, within your HR department. 

When you are looking to recruit for your company, make sure you work through a pre-arranged set process. Rushing recruitment, even to get the top candidate, can cause hiccups later down the line if you’ve missed something in their application. When you are hosting an interview, be sure to go in with a colleague who can help you assess the candidate. Be it someone at a managerial or director level, it is always good to get a second opinion and even run a second interview stage if you are stuck between two or more candidates. 

The importance of training and development within your HR team is paramount. Researching the latest training methods can help you and your team to get the skills necessary to improve the team and wider organisation. Video-based technology, new and improved HR systems, and new technology including chat-bots, will create a need for upskilled staff in human resources. Look at your existing training content to determine is effectiveness within the team and analyse whether or not the methods still work. 

Consult your team on this, ask them what systems and training they believe may be useful to them to get some informed ideas from industry professionals. That way, you are looking after your team’s wellbeing and developing their career goals.

Create an up-to-date employee handbook that all staff across the business have easy access to. The employee handbook is a place for your business to house policies that employees will have to adhere to and those policies should be clearly detailed in the book. Your handbook should include but not be limited to:

Aim to keep your handbook clear and concise. Regularly update your handbook, and store old versions in a safe place in case they need to be referred back to.

Often people see new technology, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, as things that will threaten their employment status. However, it is likely that these new technologies will simply change the way we work and free-up time for more innovative thinking whilst at work, rather than the everyday tasks and data inputting that can be time consuming. Working alongside new technologies can develop your skill-set ready for a future where these inclusions will dominate.

If you would like any more information or to discuss how we can help with your recruitment needs, please get in touch with one of our specialist HR consultants today.