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The 9 pillars of HR that will help grow your business after COVID-19

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The 9 pillars of HR that will help grow your business after COVID-19

As businesses gradually begin to return to work after COVID-19, many will need to recover their losses in recent months and then start to plan how they can grow bigger and better in order to survive and thrive.
HR needs to take a prominent role in this plan. Effective people management will be crucial, which means giving serious thought to the organisational structure, systems, processes and data that fall under the HR umbrella within your business.
These are the nine pillars of HR that will help you develop your team and help grow your business following COVID-19.

Contracts of employment

First and foremost, get the legal boxes ticked.
Make sure everyone has got an up to date contract of employment and you have a signed copy on record. Also make sure that the staff handbook is relevant, with a full complement of appropriate policies, and issued to all staff. Getting this in place is critical in setting the benchmark and making sure your business is protected.

Proper job descriptions

Next, make sure everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing.
This one might seem obvious, but as your company grows, it becomes more complex. This usually means more people doing more tasks. Therefore, it is really important that everyone has up to date and relevant job descriptions that set out exactly what falls within their area of responsibility. The most effective way to get buy in from an employee on a job description is to involve them in putting it together.

Organisational structures

This means making sure everyone knows where they sit in comparison to everyone else.
Again, it might sound incredibly simple, but organisational structure is often completely overlooked. Staff knowing who they report to and exactly where they sit within the company structure is important. A lot of time gets wasted through overlapping instructions from different managers and staff carrying out the same job without realising. Clarity on this keeps the business streamlined, in-order and therefore, efficient.

Well trained managers

Your managers must be trained. As the number of employees increase, so does central control. You have to start relying upon your management team to manage their teams. They can only do this if they are effectively trained. As a bare minimum, they should understand basic HR and employment law rights so they can properly implement company rules and expectations.

Accurate data recording

It might be time to move from various spreadsheets and invest in some HR software.  Central recording of staff data is important for efficient and consistent staff management. Holidays, sickness, next of kin details, right to work checks, all need to be in one place which is secure and easy to access.

Effective performance management

As your business grows, closely managing the performance of every team member is more challenging. As above, your managers are there to do that, but they should be given a framework to work within. A proper performance management system is crucial to ensure staff know what they’re aiming for and what ‘good’ looks like.

Team engagement

Genuine and real time feedback from your team is crucial to growing your business. It’s a tough recruitment market out there and the best talent has choice. You therefore need to ensure you retain key members of staff. Measuring engagement is therefore vitally important – periodic surveys of your team, analysis of the results and, crucially, implementation of the findings will see engagement and therefore productivity remain strong.

Refined recruitment

Too much time and money is wasted through ineffective recruitment. Job analysis, specifications and a robust interview processes must come to fruition to ensure you are recruiting the right people for the business. This then has to be followed with a good induction and ‘onboarding’ process so new starters settle quickly and effectively.

Meaningful reward and recognition

As your business grows, you have to start thinking about your whole reward package to ensure it is robust, fair and – importantly – future proof. This needs thought, looking at market forces but also your internal values and what type of company you want to be. Competitive salaries, pool tables, gym membership, death in service, more holidays, pension contributions, bonuses, time off for birthdays. The list is endless. A well-thought out pay and reward strategy is crucial at this juncture.
These ‘9 Pillars’ are an introduction to how effective HR helps grow a business. Get in touch with the team at Howarths for support on how to implement this. With specific qualifications and years of technical experience across many business markets, our HR team are well placed to help you drive performance through your people.

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