When building a company, businesses must understand the importance of HR and its role in human resource planning, development and implementation of talent acquisition strategy, company culture, and more. Cultivating an effective HR department from the outset saves an organization from multiple challenges. The following are essential HR responsibilities that every organization must consider:
Table of Contents
Talent Acquisition
Acquiring talent is among the key responsibilities of HR at any company. An organization’s HR is the main asset and point of leverage in winning the talent wars and onboarding the candidates best suited to each role. Whereas many organizations leverage the expertise of a staffing agency, others opt for internal hiring. In the case of the latter, HR creates job posts, advertises them on job boards, parses resume, and selects the best candidates for interviews and screenings followed by onboarding. In the case of the former, a qualified agency provides significant resources to reduce the outlay required by the HR department, or it augments their work to cast the widest possible net for the acquisition of credible talent. In either case, HR must maintain a high standard of attention to detail to ensure solid ROI on hiring efforts.
Setting Fair Compensation and Benefits
Attracting and retaining talent requires offering a competitive salary and benefits. New companies usually have a limited budget to run operations. The responsibility to conduct market research, find average salaries for job roles, and offer attractive compensation within the allocated budget falls to HR.
In addition to these management expectations, employees likewise expect substantial value propositions, particularly in terms of benefits. A company’s HR must regularly research and advocate for trending voluntary benefits with shared costs. For example, many organizations assist employees with student loan repayment and gym coverage. Such valuable benefits improve job satisfaction and employee retention.
Workforce Planning
Upcoming projects or expansions translate to a growing number of positions within an organization. In addition to filling the vacant positions, HR is also responsible for forecasting future talent needs. HR professionals analyze the current talent supply, predict future demand, balance the supply and demand, and support organizational goals.
Learning and Development Initiatives
Adopting modern technologies at an organization usually comes with a learning curve. As such, organizations must focus on upskilling and reskilling talent. From convincing the higher management about the importance of learning activities to ideation and implementation, HR is responsible for most key tasks.
HR is responsible for identifying skill gaps and designing necessary skill development programs to bridge those gaps. Such initiatives could be facilitating online learning, buying courses for the teams, or arranging in-house seminars. New companies usually have a limited staff, and upskilling in-house resources can fill future leadership roles.
Employee Engagement Initiatives
Disengagement is one of the key reasons behind quiet quitting and lack of productivity among employees. Long-term disengagement can be frustrating and could lead to various issues. To ensure motivation and job satisfaction among team members. HR professionals plan team-building activities and initiatives over the course of the year.
WFH and hybrid models have made employee engagement more challenging for HR departments. However, many are now adopting technology for this purpose with activities like creation of a virtual office environment and help overcome collaboration challenges. Further, organizing virtual events creates a sense of belonging among all resources, regardless of whether they work from the office or home.
Performance Management and Appraisals
Salary, benefits, and engagement initiatives aside, employees seek growth opportunities and performance-based rewards. Having a performance appraisal process enables the managers to monitor and track an employee’s performance, conduct unbiased evaluation, and ensure that top performers are rewarded.
Conflict Resolution and Strengthening Employee Relationships
Employee conflicts and internal politics take a toll on productivity. If left unresolved, such conflicts can result in a business losing its top-performing talent. Employees who have been targets of inappropriate behavior like harassment can bring their case to HR for disciplinary action. Also, managers can report problematic or insubordinate employees to the HR for assistance with further action. Intervention and mediation of HR professionals can help with faster resolutions and building a healthy working environment.
Promoting Company Culture
Conclusion
Amid ongoing challenges like employee crisis and inflation, it is incumbent on businesses of every size to understand the importance of HR and general operations.
It is an integral component with multifaceted roles that help businesses achieve their goals by assisting employees and employers with the peripheral challenges in their respective workdays. Everything considered, developing an effective HR can prove to be one of the best investments for those starting a business, or developing an organization.
