The HR department is a critical aspect of any successful company but without a proper structure in place, your HR department could be hurting your company more than helping.
From payroll and recruiting to compliance and benefits and everywhere in-between, having an efficient HR department structure is essential to the success of your organization. Understanding how to properly structure your HR department is so critical to your organization because, in order to stay up-to-date with changing compliance standards and to recruit the best employees for open positions, it’s essential to have a properly structured HR department.
Is your human resources department structured effectively?
Let’s look at how you can structure your HR department to ensure that your HR employees are contributing to the success of the organization.
People Management
People management, also known as people operations, is a data-based approach to understanding your organization’s employees. Employees are your company’s most valuable asset so it’s essential to have an HR professional devoted to retaining employees at the organization.
Since the best way to retain employees is to thoroughly understand what drives them and to address any problems or concerns they have with the company, having an HR professional solely dedicated to obtaining employee-related data is critical. When your HR department has at least one person in charge of people management, you’ll be able to more accurately identify issues, create a more engaging atmosphere, and keep your turnover rate low.
Automation
People management is critical to the success of your organization and with automation, your HR department can free up valuable time they otherwise would have spent on redundant, repetitive tasks. Many companies today are opting to put the ‘human’ back in human resources by automating tedious processes and repetitive tasks.
When your HR department automates time-consuming HR functions such as payroll, benefits, recruitment, and compliance standards, they’ll have more time and energy to improve their people management processes. People management is so critical to the success of an organization that even small businesses are beginning to implement more automation software to help their HR department recruit and retain top talent.
Business Partner Model
One way many companies are addressing their HR department structure issue is to work closely with company leaders to develop an HR agenda that supports the need and goals of the company. More and more companies today are placing an emphasis on aligning individual agendas with company goals.
When your HR department adopts a business partner model, they’ll become more involved with every aspect of the business, including other business functions outside of the HR department. By integrating your HR department with other business functions, you make it much easier for HR employees to identify, develop, and align all employees with company goals and make it even easier for the organization to remain successful.
Keep Goals in Mind
While developing a proper HR department structure is critical to the success of your organization, it’s also critical to keep HR goals in mind as you structure your HR department. The main goal of the HR department is to become a strategic business partner with the company, act as an agent for change, be a champion for all employees, and to fulfill all important administrative roles. HR departments in the past were much more reactive, addressing issues as they arose.
Today though, it is essential that HR departments are active and seek out any potential issues before they arise and resolve them as efficiently and accurately as possible. When your HR department puts people management first and constantly seeks to improve all aspects of the company, the organization as a whole will benefit and HR managers will be able to meet their goals much more seamlessly.
Divide as You Grow
As your business becomes more successful and continues to grow, so must your HR department. Whether it’s hiring a recruitment manager, employee relations manager, compensation manager, training manager, or even a compliance manager, as your organization grows, it’s essential that your HR department does as well. Without a properly functioning HR department, your people management efforts will suffer and your organization will become less successful as well.
Developing an effective HR department structure is critical to the success of your organization. Without a proper HR department structure in place, your people management processes will suffer which will in turn cause employees to seek other employment opportunities, causing your company to fail. If you’re not sure of where to begin to structure your HR department, keep these areas in mind as you sit down with senior leaders of your organization and agree on a business partner model to follow.
