How Do You Know You are Succeeding in HR?

I attended an HR forum last week where I conversed with Brenda, an HR professional. She wanted to know if she is succeeding in HR. ‘’I go to work every day and I do what needs to be done. I attend HR- related training and ensure to grow my skills. I attend forums like this where I can exchange experiences with other HR professionals. What I have noticed during these activities is that we have different opinions when it comes to knowing if we are succeeding in HR. How do I know?’’

HR acts as a bridge between employees and employers. You are also responsible for streamlining functions in an organization and ensuring you have proper structures and implement them.

This helps you guide the work and behavior of employees, identify gaps and fill them, solve issues before they become problems, protect the company from potential law-suits, develop a healthy and positive workplace to ensure employees are engaged, produce results and much more.

Even when doing your day-to-day activities, it is important to not only do your work but ensure that you are succeeding in it. Brenda got me thinking about how one can know if they are succeeding in HR and this is what I came up with.

1. When HR is Aligned with the Company’s Strategy

Tying HR with the company’s strategy is crucial. It helps ensure that any of the changes you make are impactful.

It is important to ensure that you understand the vision and priorities of leadership and how HR can come in to impact those goals positively and in the long term.

This helps you communicate with a better understanding and make informed decisions. It also helps you make change if you have the support of the leadership.

When you understand your firm’s vision and mission and ensure HR functions are aligned with this, then it is a sign that you are succeeding.

2. When You are Achieving Your Key Performance Indicators

As an HR professional, it is important to measure your key performance indicators. This can be done by looking at the time you take to fill in positions, how good the retention rates are and how much you spend on hiring each employee.

Other factors to look at could be measuring employee satisfaction through absenteeism and retention rates or even conducting surveys to find out how engaged employees are.

3. When You Know Which HR Metrics To Track for Business Success

Knowing how to find and use data in a way that caters to your organization’s needs is important. This helps you make informed decisions on hiring, staff engagement, well-being, benefits and training. For instance, if you offer benefits below the market rate or your culture is not the best, then your firm may not be the most attractive for top talent.

With this knowledge, you find that management can consult you before making informed and strategic decisions for the business.

4. When the Employee Turnover Rate is Low

As an HR professional, being able to attract, maintain and engage talented staff who contributes to the firm’s success is important. 

When employees keep leaving a company, it shows that there is a problem; either the people hired are not the right match for the role and or the organization.

Hiring is an expensive process and it can cost the company time and money. Having a high retention rate shows that you are doing something that keeps employees engaged which increases their productivity leading to business revenue.

5. When There is Improved Employee Performance

This is usually done through setting goals and measuring success and finding ways to improve employee performance. Providing the tools and developing the skills they need to do their jobs while empowering them with skills to address workplace issues such as conflicts is crucial.

Tying this to key business goals and priorities ensures you get the best out of the activities you do in the organization and the success is seen in the employee’s performance.                                                                                             

Conclusion

HR is vital to any organisation’s success. It is important to measure and track your success by looking at different functions to ensure you know what difference you bring on the table and how you can improve your efforts.

Watch this video to know how you can take your HR Career to the next level