How to Improve Your Human Resources Department?

Any organization’s success is largely a factor of the performance, knowledge, and innovativeness of its workforce. This naturally places a great importance on the talent pool that a company has. C-suite executives increasingly find people as the biggest differentiator in today’s competitive environment. Without having access to the best talent, no matter how technologically advanced business processes are in place, it is not possible to run a business to its maximum potential.

The burning question of the hour is: How to tap the top talent pool to ensure business growth? This is why CXOs are now more attentive towards upgrading the HR capabilities through implementation of cloud services, advanced HR management tools and hiring more technologically adept HR professionals. We can say that CHROs are finally getting their due which they deserved all along. HR is not a functional department any more, it is a strategic business partner. The different ways in which organizations can improve HR department are:

• Upgrade technology for human resource department improvement
• Using big data in HR is one of the ways to improve your human resources department
• Use cloud based HR systems to improve hr department
• Use social media for HR to improve the effectiveness of human resource department

Upgrade technology for human resource department improvement

Most of the organizations today employ a crop of HR Management Systems that function more as employee record keeping systems.  Consider the ever changing needs of the HR and the business. Does your HRMS provide mobile access? Do you still spend hours making reports? Is your HRMS lagging behind in releases and patches? If the answer is in the affirmative to any of the above questions, it’s time to invest in an upgraded HRMS which helps in better interaction with employees and helps you, as an HR manager, make better decisions.

The current crop of jobseekers is comprised of millennials mostly, whose lives revolve around their smartphones and other pieces of mobile technology. This eventually means if you have a target audience that is highly mobile centric, then enabling mobility should be your top most priority as an HR organization. Thus, the HR technology being deployed by you should have a mobile first strategy as mobile devices are the key drivers where all decisions are being made.

(Also Read: Cognitive Computing in HR: The Evolution)

Using big data in HR is one of the ways to improve your human resources department

A lot has already been said about the near miraculous power of Big Data in various industries and enterprise functions. Big Data is no magical pill, but it certainly can prove a game changer for the recruiters.  With a mounting number of applications, the pressure on the recruiters to fill roles faster and with quality candidates is more than ever. On the other hand, retaining the top talent for a considerable period of time is another challenge. Big Data can highly augment the abilities of the recruiters by revealing hidden patterns, trends and associations related to human behavior and interactions.  In recruitment terminology, big data can help hire quicker, remove any human bias and provide factual evidence to support hiring decisions.

(Also Read: Big Data in HR: What Does It Mean?)

Use cloud based HR systems to improve hr department

Realizing the immense benefits that come along with adoption of cloud-based human resource management systems, around 40% of the 300+ organizations surveyed in the PwC 2017 HR Tech Survey have moved their core applications to the cloud. There are many on the fence who are actively considering migration to the cloud over the next one year. Improved user experience, access to latest innovation and reduced operating costs are some of the instant benefits experienced by HR managers by moving to the cloud. With cloud-based HR technology, HR departments do not need to worry about applying the latest updates and patches as all of this is taken care of by the cloud service provider. This ensures the HR can now focus their time on more important tasks and developing strategic initiatives.

(Also Read: Benefits of Cloud Computing for Human Resources)

Use social media for HR to improve the effectiveness of human resource department

Your HR system should be able to integrate with multiple social media channels to get improved insights into the employees and attract the top available talent. Social media is a two way communication channel where both recruiters and candidates have an opportunity to build a relationship and determine if they are a good fit for each other. However, like every worthwhile recruiting channel, social recruiting also needs to be studied in the light of data and numbers. In addition to having millions of fans and followers, you also need to use the power of web analytics tools like Google Analytics to comprehend where the candidates are arriving from and what content is leading them to apply to jobs.

Today, organizations are at the helm of a new era in human resource technology. While it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the pace of changing business requirements and technological advancements, it is also high time that we move away from traditional approach to investments in HR and make it as a strategic business partner.

(Also Read: Hiring trends in 2018 That You Can’t Ignore)