By Daniella Pye, Senior Manager at Sellick Partnership
By its nature, HR is responsible for the people that work for a business and the resources that are available to employees to help complete their work. HR professionals are expected to deal with a huge range of matters within the business.
Their day-to-day responsibilities can vary from relationship management and providing resources relating to employee progression, to analysing remuneration packages and reviewing performance management, all within a single shift.
The wide-ranging role of the HR department means that it can have a huge impact on the company as a whole, setting the tone for how the company operates. Therefore, ensuring that a HR department works in partnership with the ethos of a company is essential for a business to work effectively.
Positive impacts of a skilled HR department
Team morale
A proficient HR department has a huge role to play in improving team morale. Increasing connections between employees and generating an environment for team members to thrive in. A HR department should strive to improve employee engagement, building a productive and positive workplace from which the business can flourish.
This will create a better employer brand and increase your business’s desirability among high-level candidates. In turn, this paves the way towards a skilled team and generates a culture of employee retention throughout the business.
Delivering on the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategies
HR departments have a vital role to play when it comes to hiring the right team members for a business. Effective teams should aim to bring together employees with a diverse range of ages, ethnicities, religious and political beliefs, genders, physical abilities and sexual identities – known as protected characteristics.
Diversity within a business has a number of benefits, including at senior or board level. It can result in reduced employee turnover and improved problem-solving, as well as greater innovation and creativity due to the variety of perspectives and lived experiences within a team.
Hiring from all backgrounds and making sure that job advertisements are written in an inclusive way means that more people are empowered to apply for the role. This, in turn, widens the talent pool and leads to a better calibre of candidates, and therefore employees.
Driving productivity and improving motivation
In today’s competitive business environment, an effective HR department is vital for driving productivity. HR’s role in talent acquisition and retention ensures companies have a skilled and motivated workforce. Continuous professional development, facilitated by HR, keeps employees updated and efficient, whilst feeling valued by their employer.
Employee engagement, another HR responsibility, has a direct correlation to productivity. By mediating conflicts and offering structured feedback through performance management, HR maintains a harmonious and goal-oriented work environment.
Improvements in employee engagement and morale, combined with the problem-solving and efficiency of a high-calibre, diverse workforce, means that an effective HR department will improve the productivity of a business. Introducing initiatives, such as implementing employee targets and managing the development of employees will work to further enhance this. HR therefore is an essential part of not only the internal-facing elements of a business, but also improves the organisation’s ability to deliver on its core goals.
Enhanced customer service and loyalty
By enhancing customer service, customer loyalty can improve as a by-product, helping the business to retain customers and increase revenue.
A better standard of customer service will also lead to more recommendations of the business’ products and services improving sales and generating further revenue streams. This word-of-mouth marketing, stemming from loyalty, can be one of the most effective and cost-efficient forms of promotion for a business.
When employees are well-suited to their positions, trained effectively, and motivated, they are more likely to be productive and deliver exceptional service. This results in an efficiently-run business that can respond to customer needs more swiftly and effectively. This promptness not only resolves issues faster but also conveys to the customer that the business values their time and patronage.
Employee retention ensures that experienced and skilled staff remain with the company. Customers often appreciate familiar faces and voices, and having seasoned employees who understand the company’s products and ethos can significantly enhance the customer experience.
Workplace culture
Looking at the focused benefits of HR-led actions within a business clarifies the wider benefits of a functioning HR department. HR professionals have a huge influence on the culture within a company, which in turn has a major impact on the ability of a company to operate within its market. A strong culture of employee engagement, problem-solving and customer service makes a company stronger, more agile and also more resilient to changes in the market.
Building your team
Given the benefits a well-functioning HR department can bring to all aspects of your business, the question now is: how can you create a HR department that improves the company in these key areas? The answer to that is making sure that the recruitment process is getting the top HR talent into your business.
It is important to ensure that you are building a team with your business values and commitments in mind and that you are hiring people that are aligned and on board with your company’s goals and missions. It might also be equally important to find candidates that challenge your businesses commitments, or lack thereof.
To do this, you must ensure that your recruitment processes are optimised to find the right candidates for your business. This means utilising the right recruitment channels to get the best candidates that have a passion for the market in which they operate, and move with the world around them.
Working with specialist recruitment services also means that you will have the dual benefit of a wide talent pool by utilising the contacts to choose from, and also the specialist expertise of the recruiter. They will liaise with you to work out exactly what your business needs and find the best candidates for your company.
Building the right team is essential for any business, across all departments, but especially one that has the ability to deeply impact your company from every angle. Getting the recruitment right allows you to reap the multifaceted rewards of a skilled HR department and working closely with a specialist recruiter could be crucial to maximising your business performance.
