Improving HR Processes
Running a business requires you to wear different hats at the same time. Aside from making sure that you offer innovative products and services to your customers, you also must keep track of your finances, choose reputable suppliers, and check your competitors. But most importantly, you must ensure that you have robust HR strategies in place.
Human Resources is one of the most important facets of your business. How your business implements different HR functions can affect employee morale, customer satisfaction, and public image. The administrative responsibilities, industrial relations, and performance management are also dependent on how your business executes HR functions.
To ensure that all these HR functions are managed properly in your business, take note of the tips below:
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Being Organized Should Be Second Nature to You
The HR department of your business is responsible for a lot of things. Aside from those mentioned, HR is also responsible for making sure that your business is operating legally and doesn’t have any legal repercussions presently and, in the years to come.
For you to easily manage all the HR functions of your business, practice being organized, and strive to make this habit become second nature to you. The HR department will handle many documents and employees, so it’s best if you invest in HRMS software to automate everything. This will minimize repetitive tasks and errors and ensure that important information is accessible anytime.
Relying on technology when it comes to organization is a must for all businesses, especially if you plan on growing or expanding soon. Using traditional folders and other stationaries might work, but these can immediately pile up as your business welcomes new employees and reaches out to new customers.
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Practice Clarity
One of the most important HR functions in businesses includes making policies. For your business to operate effectively, policies that concern the employees, management, suppliers, and customers should be put in place. However, there are some cases wherein these policies only bring chaos to the business instead of improvement. Policies that were meant to improve the business’s employee retention strategies, for example, can become the reason why employees will have feuds and disagreements.
You can prevent these happening by practicing clarity in all your HR functions. When creating policies against sexual harassment, indicate which situations are considered as sexual harassment, how the victim can report the incident, and what the consequences are for the violator. The clearer the terms of your policies are, the lesser loopholes you will have to encounter in the long run.
It’s also important to practice clarity when managing conflicts. As a business owner, you are expected to mediate disagreements to ensure that both parties are heard, and the issue doesn’t progress into a legal battle. State all the reasons why you came up with a specific decision and let the parties understand the factors that you considered for this decision. These situations are critical HR functions, so don’t hesitate to ask for help from colleagues or managers, as well.
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Be Discreet and Ethical
The HR department of your business serves as a bridge between the employees and the management. This department should be able to hear the concerns of both parties and ensure that all the policies implemented suit the demands and needs of everyone in the business. As someone who will have to carry out the different HR functions, expect that this responsibility is a balancing act.
It’ll be easy for you to manage the HR functions of your business if you remain discrete and ethical. You need to create a persona that will listen to all the rants or issues of the employees and managers and give them the assurance that the information they shared with you remains confidential. When making any decisions, you should think logically and do not solely rely on emotions.
Regardless of how tight your relationship is with an employee in the business, if this employee violated company policies repeatedly, this employee should face the consequences of their actions. Letting this kind of problem slip will surely create a negative impression about the credibility of your business’s HR.
Practice Makes Perfect
The longevity of your business depends on how well you manage HR functions. It’ll be very challenging for your business to thrive if you fail to hire credible employees or work with affordable suppliers in the industry.
Make sure that your business operates for the longest time possible by implementing all the tips presented in this article. These techniques might be challenging at first but if you have the patience and dedication, it won’t be long before these will become innate to you!
About the Author
As an HR consultant, Wade Gilliam now helps startup business owners establish and improve their HR policies. Wade has decades of experience working in the different facets of HR – from recruitment, talent management, employee retention, and even business litigations.
Wade regularly produces content online to educate more and more people about the importance of HR professionals in a business and how a company can suffer without clear HR policies.