How HR can do more with less?

‘Survey feedback’ which in many ways is the science behind all the modern employee engagement surveys is a good place to start.  HR professionals can learn to design and conduct survey feedback exercises to gauge engagement by themselves. This will not only take them closer to their employees but also empower them with new capabilities and save lots of money. 

For many years Organisations had informal clubs through which compensation data was shared among comparable Organisations.  This gave HR leaders and compensation & benefit specialists a first hand feel for market competitiveness.  Today compensation & benefit survey capabilities lie solely with C&B consultants.  With all the modern day advantages of professional and social networking and huge databases of various kinds, why would it not be possible for in house HR professionals to do a C&B survey and in the bargain save cost and learn a valuable competence.

The best talent is always head hunted and the best reference checks are always undertaken personally through informal networks.  Why can HR professionals not use their informal networks to bring on board some high cost talent and also save more money on things like reference checks?

As unwelcome as they are, economic downtowns and stagnation are inevitable and a good time to analyze your workforce from a long-term perspective. The business challenge is to balance short-term cost cutting initiatives with longer-term competitive readiness. This means not just doing more with less, but also maintaining the right employees so that your organization is poised for success when the market rebounds.

 Here are five steps HR can take to achieve direct and swift business benefits.

1. Fine-tune your HR management software to reduce labor and administrative costs.

According to a recent IDC report, “When payroll including time and attendance is integrated with HR systems, administrative tasks and errors are reduced.” Start by analyzing your Human Resource Management Software (HRMS) to ensure that it is eliminating redundant manual data entry that adds costly man-hours to HR’s day-to-day workload.

2. Ensure that HR, managers, and executives have the information needed to make sound business decisions.

Consolidate your sources of employee data into your HRMS in order to reduce the cost of maintaining different systems, interfaces, and payroll processing. Ensure that managers can monitor workforce performance and diagnose problems by drilling down to precise labor costs, or by conducting visual analysis via the HRMS system.

3. Reduce the risk of non-compliance and grievance.

When organizations need to make cuts in their workforce, HR needs the proper documentation to avoid lawsuits. Ensure that adequate and accurate employee records, such as basic employee demographic information, current performance reviews, compensation histories, attendance records and disciplinary issues and actions are readily available and easily accessible. On-demand access to this documentation will enable HR to quickly pinpoint:

ó   low performers;

ó   the number of employees who encompass a particular ethnic background, per EEO requirements;

ó   the breakdown of employees by age, anniversary, sex, education, or skills; and

ó   Employees with attendance or disciplinary issues.

4. Empower employees to play a role.

During turbulent economies, employees want heightened communication from management.

5. Retain the top talent your organization needs to emerge poised for innovation.

Once you’ve identified your top-performing staff, you can align their performance in such a way that the company can do more with less today and be in the best possible shape when the market rebounds.