Business Description
Top management today faces multiple business challenges, on a smaller as well as the higher level and one of the solutions to these is hiring and retaining the right talent to tackle them. Besides making the correct hiring decisions, HR today is also given an important role that includes being a part of the processes that lead towards achieving the overall targets for the organization. This has helped HR is moving beyond a traditional role to a more strategic one.
Let’s look at a structure that will help the HR in adding value to the organization: -
Define your Customers –
Every business serves its own set of customers including the HR. The customers that the HR needs to cater to are the top management, employees, potential employees, and everyone else who falls under the corporate umbrella. The HR team needs to set a definition for every customer depending on their individual needs to deliver a good experience. These definitions will help the HR department in creating the processes which are in-line with the expectations of the respective customers. This would be the first step towards helping the business at large.
Understand and Optimize –
Once you have defined your target segment, work on the value that you can provide them. Corporate culture, employee engagement, performance evaluation system and operational efficiency are a few amongst the many areas where you can make an impact. HR also plays a critical role in defining the goals of the organization and cascading it down to the employees, hence HR needs to understand the goals & objectives of the organization and should effectively be able to communicate it to the defined customers. Also, to work in an optimum manner, HR needs to follow a proactive approach, speak to the top management, understand the gaps & try finding the right solutions for them. Say, HR can take an initiative & speak to the Managing Director with respect to his biggest area of concern and then work backwards, for e.g. if his top priority is recruitment, then focus on that first. This will help you not only solve important issues but also show the value add-on that the HR department gives to the organization.
Measure the Value –
It’s very important to know your market value, especially when you are selling the same to your own organization. And the best way to understand that is to measure the progress of your initiatives and benchmark them with respect to the industry standards. The right approach to that would be beginning with one or two value objectives, you can then measure the change by looking at the progress and also taking the feedback from the respective target segment. You have to make sure that your initiative is developed keeping in mind the ability to measure and report the impact. This will help with both, understanding the HR value and justifying the efforts taken to do the same.
Resources and Budget –
Once the HR department has understood how to measure the impact of the initiatives, focus on expanding the actions to earn a bigger return. In order to do that you will need proper budget & resource allocation. Begin with the target customer, understand his requirements and issues, work out a solution, demonstrate the actions you will be taking to implement the solution, explain the value you will be generating through these actions, identify the resources and then allocate a budget. Optimum utilization of resources will help in achieving the results at a faster pace.
Strategy and Connect –
Every HR strategy begins with a very important element – a connect with people. A personal connect creates loyalty, employee engagement, motivation leading to strong company culture. Values that are acknowledged and measured also help align behavior. A strategic plan increases the success percentage of the organization and helps with the focus. Every initiative that is undertaken should have a strategy with a guideline along with the intended results.
It is time for HR to take a giant leap and evolve in order to serve the organization and all its customers better. Understanding the value and then capitalizing on it will help with better hiring, increase in productivity and overall success of the organization, hence, explaining the quantum of the worth that an HR department adds to the organization.
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