The Four Essential Practices for HR
There are many articles and research forums dedicated to identifying the best practices of Human Resources (HR), but many of these best practices are contextual and industry dependent. Thereby, making it difficult for HR leaders to be able to distinguish between the practices that they should implement within their own department.
However, by performing in-depth research focused on the most effective practices within the most successful HR departments across multiple industries and contexts, researchers were able to identify the four most essential best practices.
In this article, we will review these four essential best practices in detail and learn how they can be implemented across all HR departments.
1. Diversity and Inclusion
A recent Forbes article by Adam Hartung points out the importance of diversity and the need for HR to make a concerted effort to recruit outside the company—if only to gain a new and different perspective of the usual order of business.
Innovation only comes as a result of change, and change is not possible without somebody being willing to rock the proverbial boat. In other words, we need to be willing to take a risk and hire someone from outside the inner sanctum, so to speak, to have the chance to gain knowledge and insight from someone with a different perspective.
Also, it is important to never underestimate the value of empathy and emotional intelligence, in relating to colleagues, job candidates, and new employees. We will need to base our hiring decisions on more than just qualifications, culture-fit, and experience.
As Gabrielle Garon emphasizes in a recent TalentCulture article, our expertise as HR professionals should include the ability to relate to employees as people, rather than merely team members or experts in their field. This requires the capacity to look beyond what’s on paper and initial impressions, and to ask the right questions.
2. HR, IT, & Data Analytics
The merge of HR and analytics are increasing in their popularity and ability to proved us with vital information regarding HR decisions. However, HR analytics can taken outside the HR department and used to drive key decision making processes.
HR analytics projects need to address and predict business outcomes, not HR simply outcomes.” Hence a focus on the big picture and efficiency, as opposed to abstract factors.
For example, rather than trying to determine the best employee traits at our company based on the current workforce, first it’s important to determine what it is we need to accomplish with each upcoming business objective, as well as what traits are required in the people chosen to carry out these tasks.
From there, we can more quickly determine the best ideal candidates for a given project. In this way, we’re now focusing on the business at hand, rather than abstract predictors of success.
Also, it’s good to make sure we to pay attention to the potential for turnover, retention, risk, and talent when looking for viable candidates.
3. Training, Research & Development
The best HR practices include keeping an eye on how to train existing employees internally and dedicate a substantial part of the company budget to research and development. This means hiring workers who can act as skill trainers and instructional leaders.
Moreover, finding the best people to utilize as trainers means being able to identify desirable traits and talents desired in company trainers, and then to successfully recognize those qualities in both internal and external candidates for the position.
It is crucial to focus on individual talents during the search for company training candidates, so as to match skilled leaders with an interest in and a talent for teaching to the position. Making sure that the trainers picked are born teachers, rather than experienced project managers or product developers, can help avoid future frustration and lack of productivity.
Moreover, as a hiring manager, one can help ensure job satisfaction by using a talent assessment tool as part of the interview process, as well as making sure to focus on employee strengths and incorporate them into their duties.
4. Quality Recruitment
An effective method for quality recruitment involves recruiting talent that isn’t necessarily looking for a new job. This is also known as finding ‘passive’ job candidates, and it involves strategies such as networking, focusing on growth and satisfaction in job descriptions, and communicate with recruits as people, rather than potential job candidates.
Nearly 80% of job seekers utilize social media in their job searches—and, furthermore, younger generations are estimated to use social media 90% of the time!
Advertising job positions on a platform like Twitter, for example, will open up the field of applicants even further by making it accessible to a much wider, public audience. Moreover, social media recruitment can be extremely profitable.
Overall, what’s the bottom line, then? Emotional intelligence and holistic, long-term thinking practices rule the day. It’s important to not be afraid of data, but at the same time, don’t allow facts and figures to be the sole determining factors in the decision-making process. In other words, think with your heart as well as your head in the utilization of these 4 essential practices.
Source: https://talentculture.com/four-essential-best-practices-for-hr-in-2016/
