If we want something to be working smoothly, we must ensure a good maintenance. Whether it’s a car, a piece of clothing or even processes in a company. Here are a few tips of how to keep up to date your HR processes.
Remember when was the last time when you were a newbie in a company and could not help asking yourself “why they do what they do?”. The thing is that when we work in a company, when we create internal processes, we get so used to them that eventually we tend not to see what is maybe no longer working, needs to be renewed or replaced. What follows next – we have a new joiner who starts with a fresh enthusiasm and is curious about why, for example, his/her first day or first week is organized in this way. Also, you might hear questions like what is he/she supposed to do on the first day, what is the dress code in the office and so on, which indicates that there might be something that needs to be revised in your onboarding process. These kind of questions must be answered before a new employee starts work.
If you are an HR person who does the recruitment in the company and you have noticed that the percentage of candidates who are going to the next stage of recruitment started to drop or candidates refuse to continue. This might be a sign that your recruitment process needs a little boost and that you might no longer be compatible with the market around you.
Actually, the list of similar situations can be very long but you get the point. Regular fresh look into existing HR processes in the company can be a powerful tool to ensure that HR gives the best possible input into achieving company‘s short term and long term goals. This is the time and place where the HR processes audit is irreplaceable. There two ways to do it. First one – periodical check-up. It should be done at least once per year, but depending on your business specifics and whether it is a fast pace environment you are working in, you might need to do it more often. It should not only be the concern of HR department, make sure you include all level employees into this, like managers and specialists, people of different seniorities. Sometimes HR department might need some statistical data to confirm that there is a need for a change. It can be, for example, data after 3/6/9 months interviews, employee turnover rate statistics, employee engagement survey results. When you have a clear understanding, what you need to change within a process, do not be too long to start implementing.
The second way to do HR process audit is to have an outsourced support. First of all, there is no need to have an internal HR manager (an employee for administrative tasks is enough) in the company, especially in a small business, you can outsource the skills and competencies, get the necessary conclusions, tips and training to continue using processes on your own. Secondly, the external professional, doing HR processes audit, will be impartial and will be able to assess the effectiveness of the process while interacting with all related parties – HR, managers and employees. Finally, it saves time and specialists inside the company can focus on completing the tasks to achieve current business goals.
To summarize, there are different signs that indicate the need of HR processes refresh as well as there are different ways to do it. It all depends on your business needs and whether you have internal capacities and competencies to do it. No matter which way you decide to go, undoubtedly there will be a step forward to ensure that your employees have the best possible experience in the company.
If you have been thinking about if for a while, now it is time to do it. Good luck!