How effective people management can increase the success of your business
Written by Jo Kangurs and Caroline Carter, KeystoneHR
In an increasingly competitive marketplace, attracting and retaining top talent is vital to business success. Whilst interesting clients and cases are important, culture, career development opportunities and reward & recognition are key to setting you apart from your competitors. It is in these areas that HR can add value both operationally and strategically, helping you to achieve your business aims and objectives.
Every business has experts to oversee its activities whether that be Finance, Marketing or IT. HR is no different. HR’s key role is to focus on the business’ greatest assets – its people – ensuring effective strategies, policies, procedures, standards and systems are implemented to support managers to get the best from their teams.
Below, we have identified some of the key functions carried out by HR and how they can contribute to business success.
Enable you to focus on what you do best
As you will be aware there is a lot of employment legislation and best practice governing how you can and can’t treat your employees. Wading through all of this can be both time consuming and daunting. HR is there to support, advise and coach you through the myriad of regulations allowing you to focus on what you do best.
Help you recruit well
Recruitment represents a significant financial investment so it is important that you get it right. Recruiting the right people means less turnover, increased retention and less management time spent on managing problem employees. As well as providing support throughout the recruitment process HR offers a level of credibility, ensuring future candidates know that people management and development is taken seriously.
Help you on board successfully
Once you have recruited the best people, you need to keep them. It is crucial not to underestimate the importance of those first few days and weeks. New employees make judgements about the business, their manager and the culture during these early times, which will ultimately determine whether they stay or go. So, it is vital that your induction and on boarding processes are up to scratch. HR can set up appropriate systems to ensure that new employees are integrated in to the culture, are well supported and have a clear understanding of what is expected of them by the business and what they can expect in return.
Develop your managers in people management
There is a well-known saying that employees don’t leave a bad business, they leave a bad manager. Managers who are well trained in people management are much more likely to have high performing individuals working for them; people who are motivated and engaged to deliver the best job possible. The role of HR is to support, develop and coach managers to effectively manage their people and, when required, deal with difficult situations. If managers are equipped with the right skills and tools, the problems which often distract them from their primary role are less likely to arise.
Whilst HR’s key role is to support the business, it is also an advocate for employees. HR ensures that employees are treated fairly and that the needs of the business are balanced against the needs of the employees.
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Blog post written by: KeystoneHR