You're overwhelmed by conflicting priorities in HR processes. How can you streamline for improved efficiency?

If the problem is you're overwhelmed, you won't have a lot of time to do a full assessment of needs. So a shortcut to determining what conflicting priorities to do first, draw out an Eisenhower Matrix. Draw a box with four quadrants: 1. Do - those things you need done now, high urgency, high priority 2. Schedule - possibly urgent, possibly high priority, but doesn't have to be asap 3. Delegate - not urgent, possible priority, you may be responsible for, but someone else can do it 4. Delete - not urgent, not priority, in fact, is not even something that you should consume your limited time with

é importante a comunica??o com a lideran?a para garantir que as minhas prioridades estejam alinhadas com as expectativas da organiza??o. Isso ajuda a evitar conflitos de prioridade e a garantir que meu foco esteja nas tarefas mais críticas.

It is really tricky to carry out a full assessment when you're already at overwhelm but, if you can manage it, it is worth the effort. As an alternative, pick those one or two tasks that take up the most time or are recurring the most frequently, and start with those. But always go back to a fuller assessment when you can.

Which of your tasks have an SLA or KPI associated with them? Which can you move on easily? Which have the most risk if not completed? All of these would take priority. But, don't forget, that some tasks that don't seem urgent or priority can actually prevent a greater workload in the medium to long term. For example, taking time to provide detailed manager guidance and/or training on supporting employees off sick can prevent a higher workload for an HR team in managing long term sickness caseload.

In addition to some tech being able to help reduce workload and overwhelm, remember that some can add to the problem. In particular, it is useful to turn off notifications on your devices, at least for part of the day where you can. Every time you're interrupted, it can take longer to get back to the original task, meaning complex work never seems to be completed as you just don't have the focus time. If your team is expected to be available to respond to email / Teams notifications, can you take it in turns to have, say, one day per week of focus work and not having to respond?

This links with also embracing tech - what can be automated, are you having to enter employee information or changes in more than one system, can you make better use of your HRIS in your processes?

Are there ways to share answers to regularly occurring queries with your organisation eg an FAQs on your intranet? Is it easy for employees to find HR policies for themselves? Within your team, does everyone have full visibility of processes or are there some aspects that can only be completed by one or two individuals, potentially causing a bottleneck? Do you have process guidance for the team so everyone is working to the same standards?