What's essential to any business is having the right people in the right roles, and nowhere is this more important than human resources. However, making sure that you've got the right people in place and that they're performing to the best of their abilities can be a difficult task. The HR department is the backbone of any growing company, but its often overlooked in a lot of organisations, as mentioned in this HR Management article by Harvard Business Review.
Businesses need to manage their people effectively and efficiently to achieve their strategic goals. Human resource management strategies and techniques can help ensure your employees are productive and happy in their roles and the corporate culture is growing. But before we look at types of human resource strategies, let's first understand what human resources management is.
What is Human Resource Management?
Human resource management (HRM) is managing people in an organisation. It encompasses various activities, including human resources planning, recruiting, hiring, training, appraising and compensating employees. HRM also involves dealing with employee complaints and resolving conflicts and in some organisations it may also incorporate payroll.
There are many different HRM techniques that you can use in your business. The most effective HRM techniques vary from business to business and depend on the type of organisation, the size of the company, and the industry in which it operates. Just like businesses focus on customer satisfaction, effective human resource management strategies should ultimately focus on employee satisfaction.
How can I improve my Human Resource Management Strategies?
Today, more and more businesses realise the importance of effective human resource management and are making efforts to improve their HR strategies, policies and procedures. Some tips to implement strategic human resource management include:
Recruitment and selection
An important human resource management strategy is to have a good recruitment and selection process. You need to find the right people for the right job. This involves developing a job description and posting it on job boards or LinkedIn. You can also use specialist recruiters to find the best candidates. The selection process includes reviewing the candidates' CVs, interviewing them and testing their skills. The goal is to find the most qualified candidates and make the best possible hiring decisions.
Many businesses use an online application system to streamline the recruitment process. This system allows candidates to apply for jobs online and upload their CVs. It also enables employers to review applications and CVs online and filter candidates based on their qualifications.
Some businesses also use psychometric testing to assess candidates' personality traits and skills. This type of testing can help identify the best talent for specific roles. It helps in talent management as well as retaining employees as it can identify employees who are a good fit for the company culture.
How can I improve recruitment and selection?
Before improving your recruitment and selection process, you need to understand what the process entails. You also need to identify the areas where you can make improvements. Some ways in which the recruitment and selection process can be improved include:
• Reviewing the types of vacant positions and identifying the skills and qualifications required for these jobs
• Updating job descriptions to reflect the skills and qualifications required for the jobs accurately
• Developing a recruitment strategy that focuses on attracting the best candidates
• Evaluating the selection process and making changes to improve the accuracy of your hiring decisions
Use software to help with effective human resource management
Several software applications help businesses recruit and select the best employees. These applications allow businesses to post jobs online, receive applications and review CVs. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) can help manage the recruitment process by tracking candidates' progress through the system. ATS software can also help identify the best candidates for a certain role. It can compare the candidates' qualifications with the role requirements and identify the most qualified candidates.
Many businesses also use competency-based interviewing techniques to assess candidates' skills and abilities. The interviewer asks how the candidate has behaved in past situations in a competency-based interview. This helps to assess the candidate's skills and abilities.
The final step in the recruitment process is to decide who to hire. This involves assessing the candidates' qualifications and choosing the best candidate. Once the best candidates have been identified, the next step is to conduct interviews. The goal of the interview is to assess candidates' qualifications and see if they are a good fit for the organisation.
Provide training and development opportunities
Once you've hired the right candidate and identified the skills and knowledge required for a job, the next part of your human resource management strategy is to design a training and development program. Helping employees learn skills needed for their role is a core part of strategic HR management and helps employees stay current with the techniques and trends in their industry.
Organisations that offer training and development opportunities are more likely to retain their employees. Employees who receive regular training and development are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs and less likely to leave the organisation. When designing a training and development program, businesses should consider the following factors:
• The skills and knowledge required for the job
• The competencies required for the job
• The experience and training the employees have
• The industry trends and changes
Employee performance management
Once the employees have been trained, the next step is to manage their performance. This involves setting expectations for employee performance, monitoring their progress and providing feedback. Performance management involves two key activities: goal setting and performance appraisal.
Goal setting involves setting specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) goals for employees. These goals help ensure that employees are working towards something and that their work is aligned with the organisation's goals.
Performance appraisal is the process of assessing employee performance and providing feedback. This helps to ensure that employees are meeting the expectations of the job and they're aware of their progress.
Today, companies can use many performance management software tools to help with goal setting and performance appraisal. When using these tools, it's important to ensure that the goals are aligned with the organisation's goals and that the feedback is accurate and timely. Some of the most common performance management tools include:
- Performance appraisal forms: Used to assess employee performance these forms typically include a list of competencies or skills to assess the employee against
- Goal setting templates: Goal setting templates help ensure that employees work towards specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goals
- Feedback forms: Feedback forms are used to provide employees with feedback about their performance. This feedback can help them to improve their skills and abilities
- Employee development plans: Employee development plans help employees develop their skills and abilities. These plans typically include a list of goals that the employee is working towards and a timeline for achieving these goals
- Developing employee retention strategy: Employee retention is the process of keeping employees in their current roles. This involves ensuring they're satisfied with their job and see a future with the organisation
With the job sector being more volatile, companies need to focus on effective HR strategies that improve employee retention. Some key strategies for employee retention are:
- Establish a clear career path: When employees know what the future holds for them, they're more likely to stay with the organisation. This involves establishing a clear career path for employees and ensuring they know the available opportunities
- Communicate the company values: When employees feel they align with their values, they're more likely to stay with the company. This involves communicating the company values to employees and ensuring they understand them
- Offer competitive salaries and benefits: Employees are more likely to stay with an organisation when offered competitive salaries and benefits. Bench-marking should take place against other organisations in the industry to ensure the salaries and benefits being offered are competitive
- Promote a positive work culture: A positive work culture helps improve employee retention. This involves creating a work environment where employees feel comfortable, supported, valued and able to communicate with their peers and management
- Support financial wellbeing: Offering tools and support for employees to increase their financial wellbeing, including options like online payslips, payment splitting, pensions and savings pots
Provide feedback
Employees need feedback to improve their performance. This feedback can be provided in performance appraisals, goal setting and feedback forms.
When providing feedback, it's important to ensure that the feedback is:
• Accurate: The feedback should be accurate and reflect the employee's actual performance
• Timely: The feedback should be given promptly so that the employee has time to improve their performance
• Constructive: The feedback should be constructive and help employees improve their skills and abilities
Recognise and reward employee achievements
An important part of an effective HR management strategy is recognising and rewarding employees' achievements. This involves celebrating the accomplishments of employees and providing them with appropriate rewards. A company's future success depends on it's ability to manage human resources effectively.
When recognising and rewarding employee achievements, it is important to ensure that the following criteria are met:
- The achievement is genuine: This is crucial as employees feel that their efforts are genuinely rewarded, not just randomly given. When an employee feels that their achievement is not genuine and it's just to make them happy, it can demotivate them
- The reward is appropriate: The reward should be appropriate to the achievement made
- The recognition is timely: The recognition should be given as soon as possible after the achievement has been made. This helps to ensure that the employee feels that their efforts are appreciated
HR Data and the Employee Lifecycle
Human Resources (HR) data is collected and used by HR management to manage the workforce. This data can be collected in employee files, performance reviews and exit interviews. The employee lifecycle is the process that employees go through from the time they are hired until they leave the organisation. This process includes the following stages:
• Recruitment: The recruitment stage is when the organisation identifies and hires potential employees
• Onboarding: The onboarding stage is when the new employee is introduced to the organisation and their new job
• Training: The training stage is when the employee is given the necessary training to do their job
• Performance management: This stage of the human resource performance management is where the employee's performance is monitored
• Termination: The termination stage is when the employee leaves the organisation
When managing the employee lifecycle, management use HR data to make decisions about the workforce. This data can determine how many employees are needed in each stage of the employee lifecycle. It can also be used to identify any potential problems with the workforce.
Virtual Team Building Activities
Covid-19 completely transformed the way we work and has given a competitive advantage to many companies. Suddenly, people were working from home, sometimes even from different countries. This posed many challenges for companies, but it also created an opportunity for virtual team-building activities.
Virtual team building has become an important human resource management strategy. It helps to build trust and cooperation among team members working remotely. It allows team members to get to know each other better and understand how they work. Its now become part of human resource management to use virtual team building to develop their employees. There are different types of virtual team-building activities that can be used, depending on the needs of the company and the team.
Following are some of the best virtual team building activities that can be used for strategic human resource management:
1. Virtual tour:
This is a great activity for getting to know each other. Each team member takes turns giving a tour of their home country or city. It helps team members learn more about each other and their cultures.
2. Virtual scavenger hunt:
This is a fun activity that will help team members learn more about each other's work. Each team member is given a list of items to find, and they have to find the items by collaborating with other team members.
3. Quiz:
Quizzes are a crucial part of strategic human resource management. This is a great way to test team members' knowledge of each other. The quiz can be about anything, such as the team member's hometown, job, or favorite movie.
4. Collaborative writing:
This is a great activity for building trust and cooperation among team members. Team members are given a topic to write about, and they have to write it collaboratively.
These are just a few of the many virtual team-building activities that can be implemented in to different types of HR strategies... the point is that HR specialists have to be nimble. The use of HR data is critical to making informed decisions about the workforce. Several companies manage the employee lifecycle more effectively by using different management techniques.
Payroll & Human Resources
Many people look at payroll and human resources as two very different things. However, they're more connected than most people realise. With financial wellness being such a fundamental part of an employees overall mental health and performance, it’s important to see the payroll and HR processes holistically.
That’s why at PayCaptain, our HMRC-recognised cloud payroll solution has been built from the ground-up with financial wellbeing in mind.PayCaptain's AI-powered payroll offers HR and payroll managers a suite of tools to create a better payroll experience for employees.
Employees access their payroll through a mobile payroll app which gives them access to tools like payroll savings, salary advances and flexible payments so they can better manage their money.
If you’d like to learn more about how payroll can become a part of your strategic human resources management process, be sure to book a demo with one of our team.
