Effective HR should help the operation run better, not create more administration for the people running it.
As you plan for next year, spend some time looking at the people side of the business. You don’t need an HR audit or another lengthy report. You need to know what’s working, what isn’t, and what could get in the way of achieving next year’s business goals and objectives.
Here are five questions worth asking.
1. What people issues are taking up too much management time?
Poor performance. Attendance. Conflict. Difficult employees. Managers who aren’t managing. A problem everyone is talking about, and no one has dealt with.
These issues consume your bandwidth and affect your team culture and organizational performance. So, spend some time identifying the biggest ‘opportunities’ and create a plan to deal with them in a manner that speaks to your leadership, values and principles.
2. Do our policies and procedures reflect how we actually operate?
Policies should make decisions easier, not create more work.
Review the policies and procedures you actually use, including vacation, sick time, attendance, leaves, workplace conduct and other day-to-day practices and procedures. Are they clear? What’s not working? Where are the bottlenecks?
Review your policies and processes; identify and fix the gaps.
3. Are we getting the best from the people we already have?
Do you have the right people, and are they ‘in the right seat on the bus’? Take a look at your valued, high-potential employees; is it time to increase their scope and enrich their roles? Could work be organized differently? Is a weak manager limiting the performance of an otherwise capable team?
Sometimes you need to hire; other times, you need to make better use of the people you already have. Still other times, you’ve just got to make the hard decisions. I always tell my clients, “Inaction condones behaviour.” Have the courage to make those hard decisions, for the right reasons.
4. Are our managers equipped to manage?
Strong leaders identify and address challenges early, while weak management allows small challenges to become large HR problems.
Your managers don’t need to become HR experts, but they should know how to set expectations, give feedback, address performance and make reasonable day-to-day people decisions.
If your managers are escalating all issues for you to fix, the problem may not be your HR process; it may be management competency and capability.
5. Does our people plan support next year’s business goals and objectives?
Your people strategy should support where the business is going, not operate separately from it.
Start with the business plan, not the HR plan. Start with where the business is headed and what your goals are for the coming year. Then determine what you need from your people to get there. Plain and simple.
Keep HR Focused on Value
You don’t need more HR for the sake of having more HR.
You need the right amount of HR support focused on the right issues: improving performance, supporting managers, reducing risk and helping the business execute its plan.
At year-end, that should result in a short list of priorities, not a binder.
Know what needs attention, decide who’s responsible and get it done.
RCM Solutions Ltd. provides practical, strategic HR support to businesses throughout British Columbia and across Canada.