Management Insights: Effective Human Resource Management Adds Value

Leading organizations create good places to work - places where people feel respected and valued, know the vision and mission and how they fit. You can create these conditions which increase productivity and reduce risk.

Creating a 'good place to work' involves looking at how you actually treat people. Policies define your organization's goals and procedures define the processes. Practices are the actual workings. It is the difference between executive talk, defined policies or procedures, and actual practices which creates employee problems - and work for lawyers.

Several research studies have shown that effective human resource management is directly related to higher levels of financial and market success.

Are you using your internal human resources staff and external HR consultants to add value effectively? Here are some questions to ask:

1. Do you have a human resources advisor actively involved in strategic planning?
2. Do you have a human resources advisor on your board of directors?
3. Do you audit your human resources practices periodically to see whether they match current strategy and business goals?
4. Do you worry more about legal compliance issues in human resources than about business issues?
5. Do you treat human resources as a 'policing' function and let managers abdicate such responsibilities?
6. Do you expect your human resources staff and external advisors to understand your business and to act as business partners?
7. Do you see the people in your organization as costs or investments?
8. Is human resources involved in executive personnel matters such as hiring, development, and compensation?

For help in improving your organization, contact SHR about a human resource management audit.

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