The human resources department of any company has long been associated with one thing: the dreaded “pink slip.” But today’s HR department can offer more than just hiring or firing. Smart companies will leverage their HR team to create more satisfied, collaborative employees, resulting in a stronger team and a better company overall. Read on for tips on how to make the most of your HR department this year.
Employee Appreciation
HR departments can help organize regular employee appreciation efforts that will help show all of your employees, at every level of your company, that they truly matter. From creating fun environments in your call center to setting aside a day each quarter for all staff members to relax and mingle, give HR some leeway to figure out how to show your team that they’re tops. Not only will these events give your employees a chance to blow off steam and feel appreciated, it will also give HR a sense of how your workplace culture is doing; if managers or front level staff don’t seem happy or engaged, HR can identify these issues and work to course correct before you end up with an unexpected resignation or sudden drop in productivity.
Building a Strong Team
Team building activities can be as fun as employee appreciation events, but they also serve a real purpose in today’s workplace. Coming up with innovation solutions to your company’s problems takes many minds and collaboration is a skill that only gets better with practice. Task your HR company with developing teambuilding exercises or contracting with outside providers to deliver collaboration training to your employees. A recent article in Harvard Business Review suggests that this kind of work is one of the best uses of your HR team’s time. Allow them to outsource specialized jobs as needed, then turn the focus inwards to building a powerful team capable of real innovation.
Loyalty from Within
So what happens when your HR team gets the freedom to be creative and leverage strengths? Your company will see increased retention and greater loyalty. Employees will be happier and more satisfied, which in turn will trickle down to interactions with your customers. But more than that, you may also see an increase in the number of internal promotions. When your employees are invested in their workplace and feel like they are appreciated members of a team, they are more likely to grow within the company and apply for internal opportunities. HR can help you develop your staff from within, reducing employee turnover and training time lag, which can make your whole company run more efficiently.
Your HR team should be a major support for the rest of your company. If that’s not the case, it might be time to take another look at how you leverage HR and start working towards a more empowered, innovative human resources department today. For more information on how you can take certain hiring tasks off of your HR team’s plate, reach out to a professional call center service, like MAP Communications, to learn more about our employee call out solutions and whistleblower hotline services.