Perhaps the most difficult thing that any business does is manage its people.
People are complicated creatures, requiring companies to dedicate entire departments to them. With the rise of artificial intelligence and big data, some companies are trying to find data-driven solutions to their human resources problems.
Although Sanjay Sathe, the president and CEO of a career transition company, says that it takes more than brute data crunching to get human services right.
In a recent interview with Business News Daily, he said that businesses need to acknowledge that the talent in their firms can’t be reduced to mere statistics and analysis. Firms also have to approach other people from a “human capital perspective.”
But what does taking a human capital perspective actually look like in practice? Here are some simple ways to help your HR department evolve.
Extend Beyond Mere Recruiting And Onboarding
Some HR departments believe that once they’ve recruited somebody, it’s job done, except for the occasional holiday request. But HR departments that are outwardly focused tend to forget about the people they’ve already hired.
According to Sathe, businesses that don’t tend to their present crop of employees are missing a trick. If they don’t invest time in their employees, those workers will soon lose their enthusiasm for the company.
Sathe recommends that businesses leverage their HR departments to constantly interact with their employees throughout the entire employee recognising.
He suggests regularly recognising their work, monitoring their performance and providing them with detailed planning for future career success.
Companies that struggle to perform these functions internally can outsource them to firms like Ellis Whittam, especially if they have limited resources.
Sathe says that employees should feel as if they have a say in how the company operates, thereby increasing their engagement.
Manage Employees On A Case By Case Basis
The best managers aren’t those who apply the same management techniques consistently across all their staff. Instead, they’re the managers who adjust their techniques, depending on whom they’re talking to.
Melissa Moore, the head of HR at a behavioural analytics company, says that HR departments need to follow the lead of top managers and adjust their processes depending on the personalities of the people involved.
It’s worth carrying a Myers-Briggs personality type test on employees to ascertain which category they fall into. Moore says that once you know how a person is “wired up,” then you’ve got a pretty good idea of how to keep your relationship with them in check.
The bottom line? Different personalities have different needs.
Invest In HR Technology
Human resources technology has come a long way since the early days. The biggest way it has been improved, according to consulting manager Claire Bissot, is through technologies that improve efficiency.
It’s no longer necessary to do payroll accounting or holidays by hand. All this paperwork can now be done instantly within an appropriate software environment.
According to Bissot, practically every aspect of human capital management can be augmented with technology. This, she says, gives HR departments time to get out from behind all the paperwork and meet with the people.
