Is it time HR professionals promote their successes more?

This is of course in addition to the sheer resilience and agility that HR teams have shown in the recent pandemic, who have rallied to the aid of their organisation and its people to see them through what has been an extraordinary time all round.

Underplaying achievements and hard graft are in fact a stance that is common across the HR discipline, but the problem is that modesty doesn’t necessarily get your voice heard.

So, we ask the question: is it finally time for HR professionals to start blowing their own trumpet?

 

Shying away from the spotlight

HR can usually be found working behind the scenes, juggling lots of activities and endeavouring to ensure everyone is happy and productive. But historically, one of the key reasons why the important and positive work that HR teams do every day hasn’t been regularly highlighted is because it’s so difficult to measure success.

Some elements, such as cost of recruitment, payroll and benefit levels and staff retention can all be monitored, measured and compared internally and externally to give a sense of performance. But in so many organisations, this kind of important strategic HR analysis is done manually. This takes a lot of time and therefore is usually done infrequently as other day-to-day tasks take priority.

Add to this the many variables that are much harder to measure. Value-added initiatives like employee engagement, behavioural change and talent management are all vital to the success of the organisation and require a significant amount of HR skill and experience to do well.

 

What’s the solution?

First, a change in mindset is required. If HR leaders want to take (or keep) their seat at the top table, then proudly and vocally communicating your well-crafted HR strategy is important. Once the senior leadership team and the wider organisation is clear on your goals and plans, it’s much easier for everyone to pull in the same direction and, most importantly, see the benefits of change.

Try the three action points below to kickstart your new approach - and bear in mind that all of these can be much quicker and easier to achieve with the support of HR software:

 

1. Keep on top of your HR data

Take a look at the core elements of your HR strategy and decide what data can be collated to support your proposed outcomes. Of course, your usual standard measures are useful but there may be other elements that you can monitor which more closely align with your strategic goals, such as the uptake of newly introduced wellbeing programmes. Ensuring this is reported regularly allows you to build up a picture, spot trends or any issues early, and provide evidence-based arguments to support your proposals going forward.

 

2. Share success stories more often

Make a point of regularly identifying across the HR team when things have gone well - and then use those success stories to demonstrate the less tangible ways in which HR supports the organisation. For example, this might be an internal drive to encourage positive reviews on Glassdoor which then bears fruit and indirectly helps support your recruitment activities.  

 

3. Consciously strive to be more visible

Be more open with the whole workforce - employees, volunteers, managers - about what HR does and how it improves everyone’s working lives on a day to day basis. Start with sharing your strategy widely and ask what are your goals and why are they important for everyone? Set benchmarks and then report back regularly on progress. This can be a detailed report to the senior management team and perhaps something lighter for team leaders and staff generally. Overall, it’s all about communicating more. Again, this is much easier with an HR system that allows you to send outgoing communications to all staff or target groups.

 

Feeling inspired? Discover how our technology can help you to redefine the role of HR and build an organisation of the future by booking a FREE demo with our friendly team.