Overview:
What are human resources best practices?
HR best practices are human resources techniques and strategies that can be applied to any business, no matter the industry or size. Pay attention to those that align with your business and will lead to your success.
Here are a few of the HR best practices and techniques you can use:
- Eliminate bias in the recruitment process
- Prioritize talent and performance management
- Invest heavily in learning and development
- Proactively address HR compliance issues
- Compensate your workers fairly and transparently
- Conduct offboarding with care
HR practices vs. HR activities: What is the difference?
While they may sound like they describe the same thing, HR practices and HR activities are different. HR practices refer to strategic human resources processes, such as creating a staffing plan ongoing performance evaluations, and implementing workforce analytics HR activities refer to day-to-day HR functions, such as payroll, time and attendance, and shift planning.
Here are some HR Best Practices that can help you streamline your processes, focus on what’s important, and boost company performance.
1. Eliminate bias in the recruitment process
It’s impossible to eliminate bias, but aim to stamp this out as much as possible during a talent acquisition process, so you can reap the many benefits of having a diverse workforce. Bias can creep into every stage of the full-cycle recruiting process, whether it’s creating a job ad, screening candidates, or coming up with questions for assessments.
Tips for eliminating bias in the recruitment process
Assessing whether someone is the right fit for your company is difficult. Here are ways you can run a more fair and inclusive hiring process.
- Put together a diverse hiring team: Include people from different departments with different skill sets and different backgrounds. They can give extra insight into candidates and the process in general.
- Automate the process: Modern applicant tracking systems have features that can help you reduce bias. These systems provide editable templates to help you create more inclusive job ads to find candidates based solely on skills and requirements and no other factors.
2. Prioritize talent and performance management
Implement a performance and talent management program that promotes development rather than undermines it. You and your employees should get together to collaboratively set goals. These should be attainable and align with your company’s overall goal. Encourage your employees to meet these objectives.
Tips for prioritizing talent and performance management
Talent and performance management helps you retain your best employees, and it also delivers better company performance. These tips can help you implement the best processes.
- Understand motivation: Employees need incentives to perform at their best This could include a hybrid/remote working relationship, providing a better employee benefits program, providing a match to the employees retirement contribution, and/or giving employees a day off each year to volunteer for the non-profit organization of their choice. Do an employee survey so you can find out about what incentives your staff would want
- Give continuous feedback: Don’t hold performance management meetings once a year. Give regular feedback. It doesn’t have to be time-consuming, especially if you use an HR software tool that can help you manage the process.
3. Invest heavily in learning and development
Many companies still see training as a cost center and don’t recognize the value it adds to their business. Your workers want to learn new things and develop their skills so they can move forward in their careers.
Tips for investing heavily in learning and development
It’s much less expensive to train current employees than it is the go through recruiting a new worker, especially for in-demand skills. Here’s what you need to do to make that happen.
- Tie training to company goals: if you develop a new product, focus on the skills that your company needs to execute its strategic planning objectives
- Measure your success: Spend training dollars wisely. Be sure they’re producing a solid return on your investment (ROI). Use HR metrics to determine how your training is contributing to your business.
4. Proactively address HR compliance issues
It’s difficult to keep up with ever-changing regulations, especially if your business operates across different states. But doing so is one of the most important parts of strategic HR management. The penalties for not being HR compliant are severe and costly. and countries, while you juggle with the rest of your responsibilities.
Tips for proactively addressing HR compliance issues
It’s better to get ahead of compliance issues, rather than having to work out what to do when you fail to meet regulations. These tips will help.
- Assign a point person: You need a point person to stay on top of Federal and State HR regulations and changes. Your point person doesn’t have to do it alone. They should seek advice from an HR expert to make sure the company’s Employee Handbook and HR policies are compliant. And give them time to do it, rather than expect them to take on this complex task on top of their other work.
- Seek help from your HR software vendor: Your point person doesn’t have to do it alone. They should seek advice from expert HR software vendors to make sure they are up to date with the impact of different regulations.
5. Compensate your workers fairly and transparently. Talk about compensation openly which will create a much better workplace environment as well as helping to create a relationship of trust and boost employee morale.
Tips for compensating workers fairly and transparently
Many businesses run on tight margins, but your employees are your number one asset and you need to invest in paying them what they’re worth.
- Include incentives: Compensation doesn’t have to be just the amount in the monthly paycheck. By adding other benefits such as flexible working, work-from-home days, a summer schedule, and access to training, you provide creative incentives for your employees to stay with your company.
- Check out your competition: Participate in salary studies. Are you matching your competitors and the industry? If you’re not, you’ll see your talent dribble away.
6. Conduct offboarding with care
It doesn’t matter why an employee is leaving, always be professional and compassionate. The employee’s exit may have nothing to do with you, and they are relocating to another state for family reasons. Or maybe, they do not like their manager and don’t feel appreciated.
Tips for conducting offboarding with care
In an ideal scenario, you could resolve any issues and stop your employees from leaving, but that’s not always possible. Here’s what to do when an employee has decided to quit.
- Conduct an exit interview: You can learn a lot from employees who are leaving, and their feedback can help you improve your company, which will improve your employee retention rate.
- Be proactive and organized, and take care of the offboarding process. Do not wait until the employee’s last day to do everything.
Summary
In summary, please be sure that your HR Best Practices fit your organization. These HR Best Practices must align with you company goals and be achievable.
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