22 Apr Understanding The Dynamic Relationship Between HR & Business Growth
As a business, your most important resource is guaranteed to be your people. If you develop detailed hiring processes and make an effort to ensure that your organisation provides upskilling and career advancement opportunities for your staff, then you’ll likely be able to boost the staff retention rate of your workplace, and perhaps even ensure a higher standard for employee output as well as customer or client service.
So employers – don’t lose sight of the fact that HR is a two-way street. You’ll want your employees to put their best foot forward, and you’ll want to hire only the best candidates. It’s also important to make your company an attractive place to work. This means creating fair working conditions and investing in your own business growth, whether by supporting staff innovations or by making a commitment to maintaining the quality of your operational processes by securing your ISO 9001 certification.
There are countless ways to leverage HR practices to spur your company to greater heights. In this article, we’ll talk about why it’s so important to get this aspect of business right, and how you can do it.
Invest In Your Staff & Their Skills-Building
For a long time, businesses have been aware that getting the right people in and managing them well is key to organisational growth. The data supports this too. There’s a strong link between high revenue and investing in employee training. Business is all about deciding where to put your limited resources, and you can’t go wrong by investing in the right people.
But how do you find the right people? As we mentioned earlier, developing strong hiring processes will help get your organisation halfway there, but business owners should also ensure that the tone of their web content and their outlined organisational values are also showcased on their website for prospective job candidates to explore. That way, you’re more likely to not only hire the right people but attract the right people to your organisation.
Once you have the right people on your team, you can let them do what they do best: learn and grow. The best industry talent are those who have a deep-seated drive to improve their skills with every additional task they take on. Coincidentally, the best managers and leaders are those who feed that drive and support their teams in their own upskilling pursuits. So make sure you incorporate training sessions and other upskilling opportunities into your weekly or even monthly routines, and support staff who may opt to return to school to gain new qualifications.
Leverage Business Technology
When it comes to process optimisation nowadays, most forward-thinking business owners will look towards business technology. This includes project management software like Trello, Monday, or Asana, as well as other software offerings that aid both managers and their employees.
There are also a number of ways technology can be used to boost your HR practices. Not only are there apps that are packed full of resources like the HR Management app, but there are also platforms out there that both give you access to job listings or the opportunity to place your own job listings. By utilising these platforms, you may be able to draw from a wider pool of candidates, as well as streamline things like going through resumes and conducting job interviews. Some business software may also streamline the process of collecting and analysing employee feedback or conducting performance reviews, ensuring that staff growth mapping can be done digitally and thus, with a focus on measurable growth steps.
Technology can also be used to improve in-company communication. Gone are the days when conversations only ever took place by email, in meetings or by the water cooler. Platforms like Slack allow quick messaging between coworkers, and tools like Zoom and Google Meets allow you to conduct meetings no matter where the participants physically are. So be sure to use these technologies to streamline your business processes and ensure that both managers and employees have the resources they need to boost their own output.
Create a Goal-Oriented Culture
As a manager, one of your aims should be to create a culture that prioritises setting and achieving goals. While it’s important to be flexible, it’s equally crucial to have an overarching vision as a company. For one thing, this will inform the decisions you make on a day-to-day basis. Being able to visualise where your company will be in the future will also serve to motivate your employees.
Goal-setting should also apply to the individuals who work with you. Set key performance indicators (KPIs) for each of your employees. We recommend involving them in the process of setting these goals, as the people on the ground will know best what is and isn’t realistic.
It’s also well worth mentioning that securing your ISO 9001 certification can help provide your business with a strong foundation of goal-setting. After all, making the commitment to adhere to internationally recognised standards that signify quality management systems will not only reflect well on your business to prospective clients, but will also set a precedent for staff for striving for excellence within themselves, both as a representative of your company but also as a dedicated and determined professional that wants to honour those standards for quality in their own work. You’d be surprised by just how impactful having benchmarks for quality can be in professional environments.
Treat People Like People
On the topic of KPIs, it must also be said that business owners should make sure their performance metrics and tracking don’t take the humanity out of their departments. It can be all too easy to get bogged down in things like KPIs and performance reports. Business is, after all, about results. However, it’s important to see your employees as people, not simply resources.
On a practical level, this means getting to know your employees personally. Learn about their personal and professional goals as well as how they work best, and do what you can as a manager to ensure that the environment you provide is conducive to them performing at their peak. No two individuals are the same, and you’ll want to be as accommodating as you can to their circumstances. For example, if one of your employees needs to pick up their kids from school every Friday, consider letting them off early and reallocating their working hours.
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HR is one of the pillars of business growth. Without good people, it’s unlikely your business will get anywhere. It’s absolutely crucial to both get the right people in and to treat your existing employees well. This involves both creating a supportive, goal-driven culture and leveraging existing tools to improve your HR processes.
In this article, we’ve gone over why HR is so important, and how you can leverage it to drive growth. Start implementing these tips into your company today: you won’t regret it.
About the author
Andressa Justo is the General Manager of ISO Certification Experts. With an MBA in Project Management, and over 10 years of experience in customer service and project management across many industries, Andressa heads the Marketing department and coordinates the internal improvement initiatives and projects for her staff. Alongside her professional expertise, Andressa holds a genuine passion for sustainability and the environment.
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