Do you know what the Top 10 HR Practices are? Although this is obviously an opinion, maybe you can find some value in knowing what the top practices are.
High-performing human resource functions are usually considered to be big contributors to firm performance. Although there is much debate about this, there is broad agreement that the following HR practices are important for firm performance.
Prioritize Workplace Safety
Although workplace safety has always been important, there is definitely a renewed focus on this critical HR practice. While some people have only ever thought about workplace safety in terms of factory work or being careful with heavy machinery, this is not the case.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced all workplaces, regardless of industry or activity, to place a greater emphasis on the safety of their employees. If employees cannot come to work and feel like they’re safe and cared for, they may just stop coming to work.
So what does this look like in practice? Here are a few things to consider when working to make a safe environment for employees:
- Place hand sanitizing stations throughout your office in order to give everyone easy access to clean their hands.
- Regularly spray desks and computer monitors with disinfectant.
- Limit the number of people who can sit together inside a conference room.
- Spread out employee desks so they are socially distanced.
- Purchase plexiglass barriers to place in between cubicles.
- Circulate air regularly
- Purchase air purification systems
- Do not allow visitors in the office
- Require that masks be worn in the office
- Limit access to shared spaces or common areas like the break room or kitchen
Of course, the above suggestions are related to precautions in association with COVID-19. If your office has other safety measures that need to be enforced due to the nature of the work, (like in a factory or warehouse setting) then ensure those safety guidelines are established and followed.
Open book management style
Sharing information about contracts, sales, new clients, management objectives, company policies, employee personal data, etc. ensures that the workforce is as enthusiastic about the business as the management. It helps in making people interested in your strategic decisions, thus aligning them to your business objectives. Be as open as you can. Employee self-service portal, manager on-line etc. are some tools available today to practice this style.
Create Open Communication Channels
Whether your employees are working from home, working in the office, or doing a combination of the two, creating open communication channels is an essential HR best practice. It is important for employees to feel like they can be heard. If their voice isn’t valued, then it’ll be hard to find the motivation to work hard.
The pandemic has changed a lot about the ways employees communicate, and we expect many of those changes to remain. Chat tools such as Slack or Microsoft Team, project management tools like Asana or ClickUp, and video conferencing tools like Zoom and Google Meet are all very common in many offices and organizations around the globe.
As an HR department, part of your job will be to ensure that communication is consistent across the entire organization. Make sure employees are comfortable using the tools they’ve been assigned to communicate with and make sure everyone in the organization has a way to get in touch with anyone else.
Another thing you might consider is providing opportunities for employees to speak directly to company leadership. Of course, every employee should have a manager that they meet with regularly, and this manager can pass on information to higher-ups in the organization when appropriate. In addition to this, some companies have open discussions or forums with company leaders on a monthly or quarterly basis to allow employees to ask questions or give input on the direction of the company. These types of conversations help employees to feel more included and more involved.
Providing security to employees
The first Human Resource best practice is employment security. Life is unpredictable and work is a stable factor that is very important to most people. Having an employer who enables the employee to provide for themselves and their family is, in essence, the number one reason why people come to work.
There is both a formal contract (labor for money) and an informal contract (you put in some extra effort, we take good care of you) between the employee and the employer. Employment security enables employees to go home after work and provide for themselves and their families. This concept of security is essential and underpins almost everything HR does.
When this employment security is threatened, for example when there is a restructuring or a layoff, you see this immediately ripple through the organization.
Employment security also benefits organizations because it helps them retain their people. When employees are laid off, for example, it’s usually the organization that pays the price. They are the ones who have invested in the selection, training, and development of these employees. This is a costly process. If the organization doesn’t work on retaining its people, they are more likely to leave and work for the competition.
In 2020, a survey found that job security is the third most important factor for employees. 28% of 1,100 professionals surveyed in the UK listed job security as an important factor. Job security is important across global HRM practices.
360 Degree performance management feedback system
This system, which solicits feedback from seniors (including the boss), peers, and subordinates, has been increasingly embraced as the best available method for collecting performance feedback. Every person in the team is responsible for giving relevant, positive and constructive feedback.
Selective hiring: Hiring the right people
The second HR best practice is selective hiring. This enables an organization to bring in employees who add value.
You can’t just hire anyone; you want people who are fit for the job. Companies do their utmost best to hire exceptional people because they add the most value to the business. There also needs to be a prioritization of building a structured and fair selection process. This reflects legal requirements, internal diversity goals, and that a more diverse workforce, better reflects society. This can be hugely beneficial for understanding wider consumer behavior and the needs of different customers.
Research shows that the difference in performance between an average performer and a high performer can be as high as 400%! This holds for different industries and job types, including researchers, entertainers, and athletes.
Bringing in the right people is, therefore, a key to building a competitive advantage.
In today’s digital world, there are a lot of different recruitment tools we can use to make the right selection. More and more companies vigorously keep track of their recruitment metrics to see how well they are doing in this regard.
Commonly used selection instruments are structured and unstructured interviews, IQ tests, personality assessments, work tests, peer assessments, and reference checks. These (pre-employment) assessments are used to uncover three key candidate characteristics.
- Ability: Is the person able to do the job? Does the person have the right technical and soft skills? Is the person smart enough to do the job well?
- Trainability: Can we train this person to improve his/her skills? Has the person the aptitude to learn and keep developing?
- Commitment: Will the person commit to his/her work and to the organization? Will we be able to retain this person once he/she is up to speed and fully productive?
Compensate Employees Fairly
In many surveys conducted across hundreds or even thousands of employees, the most important thing to employees is fair pay. When employees feel like they are being compensated fairly, they spend a lot less time worrying about why they’re not making more, and a lot more time focused on projects and efforts that move the company forward.
So how can you know that your employees are making a fair wage? A good way to do this is to compare their salaries and compensation packages against the market in your local area. Obviously, if your business is operating in rural Nebraska, you don’t need to compensate employees as if you were headquartered in San Francisco. Location matters when it comes to compensation.
Services such as Glassdoor and Payscale are easy, convenient ways to get compensation data for different job titles. You can see the range of compensation being paid for positions with those job titles, and you can ensure that the salaries you are paying fall within the range. Of course, it’s always a good idea to pay at the high end of the range when you can afford it. When an employee is well-paid they feel valued and care for. This will likely lead to them staying in your company for a longer period of time.
In addition to salaries, you should also consider if and how your company pays out bonuses. Bonuses are a great way to incentivize employees and can be a welcome surprise for some of your top performers. Consider creating a bonus structure that aligns the goals of the business with the performance of employees.
Knowledge sharing
Adopt a systematic approach to ensure that knowledge management supports strategy. Store knowledge in databases to provide greater access to information posted either by the company or the employees on the knowledge portals of the company. When an employee returns after attending any competencies or skills development program, sharing essential knowledge with others could be made mandatory. Innovative ideas (implemented at the work place) should also be posted on these knowledge sharing platforms. However, what to store and how to maintain a knowledge base requires further and detailed plans.
Conclusion
Many organizations today struggle with the need to satisfy the needs of the employee and the company at the same time. Many companies offer rewards or incentives in exchange for increased productivity and increased sales, but many people in the Human Resources field suggested that there is a simple way in which to increase sales and productivity using incentives and rewards without having to worry about money, and that is just by increasing employee morale.