Shifting to a people-focused HR approach
Traditional HR departments focus on ensuring compliance and minimising liability for their firms, however, as the business world continues to evolve, there are new issues of importance — and plenty of exciting opportunities to help drive results. It’s clear that digital technologies have influenced people’s interactions, work, purchases and lifestyles, but this revolution has also elevated the value of people within a business.
The days of an employee remaining loyal to one company for 40 plus years are long gone. ‘Millennials’ and ‘Gen Zers’ have a great deal of control over their careers — and they’re embracing it. According to a LinkedIn Executive (in an interview with EdSurge) people will change jobs 15 times over their lifetimes. When you combine this with the fact that the average cost of losing an employee is 33% of their annual salary, it’s clear that HR teams must do their utmost to help cultivate a meaningful and rewarding employee experience, with a people-focused approach.
What is people-focused HR?
For many HR teams, a change is mindset is the first step to becoming more ‘people-focused’. Success depends on the skill, knowledge, experience and effectiveness of your people. You may want to ask yourself (and your key-stakeholders) “as an organisation, are we doing everything in our power to elevate the value of our people?” For example, one aspect of traditional HR is keeping staff informed about decisions as opposed to involving them in strategic conversations.
According to a study (as part of a psychological paper) by J.K. Harter and colleagues, companies with more engaged employees have a 51% higher productivity rate when compared to firms with a lower number of engaged staff. By engaging with employees in reaching strategic destinations, you can help make more informed decisions, take appropriate risks and act in the best interests of the people at the heart of the business.
Traditional HR management can hinder success
Today agility is key to successful human resource management. HR is at a crossroads, with new and emerging technologies making businesses more interconnected and transparent than ever before. It’s, therefore, critical to adapt to the changing needs of your employees.
Get to know your people — Develop strong bonds by learning about their families, backgrounds and personal goals.
Give them the tools they need to succeed — Whether they need additional training to gain confidence in their role or require one-to-one coaching to deal with tasks that are particularly overwhelming; look to solutions that help them maintain productivity — and improve their level of engagement.
Make staff aware of businesses goals, challenges and successes — Invite employees to contribute ideas for areas of the business that require improvement.
Minimise micromanagement — Give them the room they need to showcase their skills and ability without standing over their shoulder.
Act on feedback — Listening is critical, but so too is acting on the valuable feedback you receive, showing you care about their thoughts and concerns.
Foster a culture of openness, encouragement and collaboration
We’ve touched on the fact that millennials have greater control over their careers. While retention rates are of utmost importance to HR departments, it’s essential to look at the bigger picture. According to Great Place to Work, millennials are more than 22 times more likely to stay with a company if they believe there is a high-trust culture in place. None of us can perform to the best of our ability if we are pressured into tasks we don’t want to complete or feel overwhelmed, upset, and anxious when faced with uncertainty. Therefore, a change in mindset can pave the way for a new culture, whereby organisations treat people like professionals — and trust in them to complete the jobs they were hired to do.
Change is never easy, but working on your employee experience can be incredibly rewarding. EX Lab has developed our ‘Design Thinking for HR’ workshop, which helps HR and People Experience professionals advance their Employee Experience from the get-go. With a proven, modern, structured and creative approach that delivers tangible results in a short amount of time; this is not a boring presentation with prescriptive notes. We call it a PlaySprint because it’s interactive, guiding you through the stages of Design Thinking, working with your team in a playful yet insightful manner.
You can learn more about our approach and course contents here, but if you need any further advice or information on cultivating a positive people culture, please get in touch with our friendly team today.
