How does HR contribute to business success?

Is your HR strategy fully integrated into your overall business plan? Or is it a bit of an afterthought, something you think about whenever you are short-staffed and looking to hire? Human resources may be but one division in your business, but if affects the entire company and how it performs. The people of your company are what drive its success, so it is critical to have the HR strategies in place to ensure that your hires fit with your company’s objectives, culture, brand and values. Here are seven ways to ensure that your HR strategy is a driving force behind your company’s success.

HR Strategy #1. Create a Culture of Business Success

In many ways, your human resources website sets the tone and perception of your business culture. This is where prospective employees research your company and what helps them to decide if it is the type of place where they want to work. Does your HR strategy effectively convey your company’s values? Take the time to get to the heart of your business. What characterizes the internal culture? What does your business and your employees strive for? Articulate this to current and future employees and incorporate this culture into everything you do.

HR Strategy #2. Use Clear Job Descriptions

With a firm grasp of your business culture, you can integrate this into each employee’s role. Make it part of your HR strategy to have clear job descriptions that link each position to the greater goals of your organization. Make it clear to your employees how they each contribute daily to your organizational goals and to making your business a success. When an employee can clearly see where they fit in, how they can impact the business, there is greater commitment and job satisfaction.

HR Strategy #3. Identify the Right Talent

A strong HR strategy makes it possible to attract the right talent to your job competitions and to identify these as the job applications pour in. With job descriptions that clearly describe both the individual role and the company culture it is easier to attract those who support and believe in the same goals and principles. With candidates who already support your vision, you are a step ahead in achieving them.

HR Strategy #4. Manage the Interview Process

Your HR strategy should extend beyond the job advertisement phase and be incorporated into the interview process. Plan your interviews and ensure that your questions help you to assess not only the skills and talents you are seeking — you also need to assess how a candidate would fit within your organization. Is the candidate’s personality compatible with the organizational culture? Do they believe in company goals, offer new insights and perspectives? Will they fit within their new team? Your HR strategy should ensure that each interview process has questions to help you discern this.

HR Strategy #5. Evaluate Based on Company Goals

When judging candidates with comparable skills, fit is the determining factor in the success of a new hire. As such, your HR strategy needs to clearly guide hiring managers in how to assess a candidate’s organizational fit. What are the key goals that characterize your company? What questions will help hiring managers to assess if candidates support these goals? Provide the resources hiring managers need to ensure they include this vital component of evaluation in each job process.

HR Strategy #6. Make the Best Possible Decisions

With an HR strategy that emphasizes company goals and culture, hiring managers will be well positioned to make the hires that help your organization to achieve its objectives. By gaining insight into a candidate’s organizational fit, you are more likely to have a successful hire who contributes to your overall business goals and less employee turnover. This is better for your company’s bottom line.

HR Strategy #7. Hire Quickly

Finally, it is critical that your HR strategy includes making smart and quick hires. Top candidates are in high demand, so you need to be able to quickly discern both who is qualified and who will fit. This way you can beat your competition to the punch when it comes to making your job offer and hiring the best candidate to support your business goals.

By integrating your HR strategy, business goals and company values into everything you do, you create a business culture of success. Your employees are clear on the ultimate objectives of your business and its values, and you have a dedicated team ready to take you there.

HR usually isn't lumped into this "right-hand" category, and that's a shame because HR leaders are critical to the success of every organization. They do much more behind the scenes than many people realize. Without them, businesses wouldn't have dedicated teams of talented people, and without people, there is no business.

Here are just a few of the ways HR staff are critical to the success of every organization -- and to every CEO:

They work to hire the best.

It sounds simple, but hiring is a deeply complex process. In fact, 48 percent of CEOs surveyed by CareerBuilder in 2015 said their companies had lost money due to inefficient recruiting. And that process isn't getting any easier.

Among recruiters surveyed by Jobvite this year, 95 percent expected recruiting to be as or more challenging in 2017. But that's where HR departments come in. They're not trying to hire people as fast and cheaply as possible -- they're looking for the best people for the job, and that saves money in the long run.

An HR department is more concerned with post-hire metrics like performance and retention of new hires than metrics that measure the hiring process, like cost and time-to-hire. This focus on the success of new employees is critical to the overall health of the organization as a whole.

Related: How This Company Is Helping Businesses Find Zen in Human Resource Paperwork

According to a report published by Gallup in May, turnover involving millennials alone costs the U.S. economy $30.5 billion annually. But when HR takes the time to find the best talent for the job, and then finds ways to keep these individuals satisfied, talent sticks around. Retention keeps companies moving forward while saving both time and money.

They're focused on employee engagement.

Employee engagement is seen as one of the biggest workplace problems. Gallup's 2013 State of the American Workplace survey of more than 350,000 respondents nationwide estimated that disengaged employees cost U.S. businesses between $450 billion and $550 billion each year in lost productivity.

But HR is on the case, leading the charge to make sure employees are engaged. Engagement, in fact, can be boiled down to just a few factors, including employee recognition, feedback, learning and development, plus compensation, benefits and work-life balance.

So, whether an HR department is finding new learning and development opportunities, collecting employee feedback with regular engagement surveys or developing recognition programs and incentives, the HR staff is always looking for the best engagement strategies to fit their employees and company culture.

And motivating, recognizing and engaging employees has a huge impact. Among employees surveyed by Globoforce in 2016, 82 percent said that when they feel appreciated and recognized, they feel more engaged, and 78 percent feel more productive.

Their insights improve the business.

HR has a unique view of the company and the people behind it, putting them in the perfect position to help make important business decisions. While the HR department isn't traditionally thought of as a part of the strategy team, 65 percent of CEOs in the CareerBuilder survey said that, post-recession, HR opinions carry greater weight with senior management. What's more, 73 percent said their HR leader had provided data that they had incorporated into their business strategy.

If things are working as they should, a company's HR department has a deep understanding of talent and how employees work, and tracks the data to back up their suggestions. More than half (57 percent) of CEOs in the CareerBuilder survey said HR executives can show ways to increase efficiencies and cut costs by better using the company's human capital.

When the HR department and C-suite work together, the results are powerful. A 2014 survey by EY found that when companies boasted strong collaboration between HR and finance, they also reported higher earnings and stronger improvement across a range of HR metrics, such as employee engagement.

Related: Why You Need to Embrace the Big Data Trend in HR

Effective HR departments, then, help organizations get the most from their people, while also keeping those people happy. With HR's insights, employers can make smarter decisions on where and how to invest in their talent to benefit everyone.

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