What can HR Help With?

If you are running a business, you will need to ensure that you efficiently manage your employees.  Your employees can be the important factor that sets you apart from your competition or the factor that lets your business down and generates a bad reputation.  They can be super self-efficient and never cause you an issue or they can suck up your time with managing problems and negativity.  Ultimately most business owners would avoid employing people if they didn’t have to however the reality is, if you want to expand and develop your business, they are critical. 

How your employees perform can be down to several factors.  Obviously if you are a great boss this helps however if you are too lenient it can be counterproductive.  If you are too hard, ditto.  However, being a great boss is just one factor.

Great Human Resources support can join the dots and help to maintain a healthy balance and here are some examples as to how it can be achieved.

Effective and relevant policies and procedures.

Often overlooked, policies and procedures that are specific and highly relevant to the organisation are essential to ensure that the foundations are in place for a productive employer / employee relationship.  Template docs may be ok in some instances however for most business this is a mistake and quite often don’t provide the base explicit terms that are really required.

Recruitment

Ensuring you have recruited the right person is a bit of a lottery and to a degree always will be however there are ways to reduce the risk and improve your selection so that you don’t take on a potential internal “terrorist” or somebody who is unqualified for the job.  Increasing your chances of success saves you considerable time, money and stress!

Managing Performance

Proactively managing performance means that you get on the front foot to ensure that your employees are performing to a required standard.  It should be a corrective process and not punitive.  Nobody wants to dismiss an individual as this means that again time and money are wasted as well as the potential for poor customer experiences etc…. A good HR team will keep ahead of the game and ensure that disciplinaries are a last resort.  This approach also ensures that employees are less likely to fall into bad habits.

Dismissing employees

Despite all efforts sometimes employees place themselves in unsolvable situations.  When dismissing an employee it is critical to ensure that the correct process has been followed.  This can be a minefield and a basic error in not following a statutory or contractual process can result in the Company paying compensation even if the reason for dismissal was fair.  Not dismissing problem employees can also start to effective your star performers! “why should I bother if the Company can’t be bothered to manage that guy?”

Training and Development

It is essential that you continue to train and develop your employees.  This is not only important in order to retain your top employees, it is also critical for ensuring the company stays up to date and relevant to its customers and future employees.  

Data Management

HR data is covered by GDPR regulation, and it is imperative that this is fully understood and complied with.

Pay and Benefits

Paying appropriate salaries and having effective compensation plans can transform a Company’s performance.  Quite often, if designed and implemented correctly they are self-funding and only ever result in improved business performance.  Applied poorly and you can destroy your profit margins!  

How Does HR Support Employees?

In terms of being there as a support for the employees themselves, HR achieve this in a number of valuable ways, including:

• Providing and encouraging career growth.
• Offering the right education, where and when necessary.
• Training managers and supporting them in what they do.
• Supporting the health and wellness of all employees.
• Helping to support and build the culture and values of the organisation, for the benefit of the employees.

See our video for more information on what HR can help with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogigvJ86ALI

If you need HR support from a company that understands the needs of your business, contact us today. At Harwood HR we can support your business, help you to grow and promote your employees’ talents. Our UK-based team offers a range of HR support services and advice for SME businesses, including outsourced HR support.