As with all aspects of business these days there is a need in human resources to
show that the department adds value to the company rather than being seen as simply a necessary overhead. Adding value is not about coming up with cheap and cheerful solutions for human resources issues, its about demonstrating the department has good competitive advantage. For human resources this means staying informed of what the businesses rivals are doing in order to strive to excel them in the areas of people management.
In order to demonstrate you are adding value you need to be able to measure everything that is core to the business values. Identifying the return on investment is essential and HR must learn how to self evaluate. HR consultancy can offer help here and look at capability tests and indexing to look at the value for money and ability to meet goals.
Through HR consultancy human resources can learn to develop a performance culture where achievements are recorded and rewarded. Rather than rewarding traditional values such as seniority, loyalty and effort it needs to move towards rewarding business results as other departments do. This means retraining staff to understand performance management methods which will cover the process and how to mentor and coach others to develop a higher performance.
Again, HR consultancy can help to ensure a thorough programme of implementation is carried out. This will cover setting up processes of accountability, learning and measurement to ensure there is continual development in these areas.
This all leads to the requirement for a well defined HR strategy. The HR strategy needs to be developed and publicised so that everyone understands it. It should cover aspects of human resources such as talent development, resourcing, health and safety risks and learning and development. It should also show in-depth knowledge of the economic factors affecting the business and people management.
At NorthgateArinso we offer expert HR consultancy across a variety of industries.