Within our team, we spend a lot of time discussing what we want to achieve and the messages we want to convey as a company; a common one that comes up is to challenge people’s views on HR.

We see with our clients, who come from all kinds of diverse industries how effective HR processes and activity, particularly managing and developing talent – can do so much for businesses and employees alike. But, despite HR having changed an awful lot in the last 20 years, away from the outdated personnel function with a tendency for a tea and sympathy approach, it can still get a bad rap.

Think back to your previous employment, your thoughts on the HR department, and what you thought that meant for you and the organisation. Was it positive? Many employees still have the impression that HR is to protect the employer only and many employers still have the impression that HR is full of red tape, stopping them from achieving their desired goals.

We are constantly looking at ways to make our clients’ businesses a great place to work. We know that retaining a happy, motivated and engaged workforce involves identifying and understanding what matters most to employees, and that is vital to an organisation’s growth and success.

And rather than adding to the load of bureaucracy, many of the administrative people management functions of HR are now streamlined and sped up by the use of effective online systems that employees can access themselves, freeing up time for HR to focus on gathering metrics and analytics, ensuring decisions regarding people strategy are based on evidence rather than emotion. Other pivotal areas of HR needed in the modern business world include talent development, organisational design and development and change management; practices that have a fundamental impact on an organisation’s success.

So what are HR leaders zooming in on this year? A Survey of HR leaders by XpertHR found these top four areas of focus:

  • Employee wellbeing, retention of key staff and maintaining/driving employee engagement levels are high priorities for respondents;
  • Hybrid working models continue to dominate, with employers doing a lot of work to ensure that such models facilitate diversity and inclusion;
  • Diversity and inclusion continue to move up the agenda for HR, with employers recognising the need to shift organisational culture from recognising the importance of diversity and inclusion to promoting and facilitating it; and
  • Many employers are also looking at their remuneration packages to ensure that they remain competitive and well-positioned to attract and retain talent.

We offer HR support in all of these areas and more whether you’re looking for HR Project Support or want the ongoing support of a consultant with our Retained HR Support which comes in a range of package options.

We also offer Recruitment Assistance helping you to get the right bums on the right seats, HR Documentation for a great employee experience and Training & Development to help progress and retain your workforce.

We’d love to talk about how you want to improve HR in your business – Get in touch