HR professionals play a key role in enabling workplace happiness. They begin the process by recruiting talent and support workers throughout their careers – from new-hire orientation to performance reviews.
Employees expect HR help to be available when they need it – 24 hours a day. A centralized service center that uses technology to automate and organize workflows can scale to meet demand without increasing costs.
Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is employees’ emotional commitment and personal investment to the company and its goals. It’s a crucial driver of business success, as the Harvard Business Review reports that companies with highly engaged workers have higher productivity levels, lower staff turnover and are more effective at building customer relationships.
HR plays a major role in supporting and measuring employee engagement, as it oversees several areas that impact this business measure. The main areas of focus are:
The first key area for HR is safeguarding the company culture. This can be done by ensuring that new hires are a good cultural fit and that the organization’s vision and values are communicated to all employees.
Another key area is providing all employees with clear career paths, training and development opportunities. This can be achieved by facilitating employee-driven initiatives, such as employee suggestion programs and peer-to-peer mentoring.
Finally, fair and competitive compensation is essential for employee satisfaction. This can be accomplished by implementing salary growth programs, such as performance-based raises and promotions.
Employee satisfaction also requires frequent, open dialogue with managers. HR can help with this by implementing tools for two-way communication, such as secure team chats or email newsletters. This helps to ensure that employees are always up-to-date on company news and policy changes, as well as being able to provide feedback to their managers.
Employee Satisfaction
Employee satisfaction is the happiness or contentment an employee feels for their job. It is essential for a business as it drives employee productivity, impacting its bottom line. HR support services help boost employee satisfaction by facilitating open communication and providing employees with the tools they need to succeed.
For example, they can ensure managers know how to effectively communicate with their teams, which includes using the right language, listening actively, and focusing on active problem-solving. They also provide that managers can recognize and reward staff for their achievements, as research has shown that this can greatly impact employee satisfaction levels.
In addition, they can also provide the resources employees need to be successful in their roles, such as training on effective communication and conflict resolution skills or a self-assessment tool like the Myers-Briggs assessment, which helps employees understand their natural working style so they can better connect with others. They can also help work-life balance by ensuring employees can access flexible working options or benefits like free lunches.
HR professionals are often responsible for conducting exit interviews with departing employees, which can reveal much about employee engagement in an organization. They can then use this information to inform the management team on improving employee satisfaction. For instance, they suggest that managers encourage a more positive workplace culture or that the business invests in a more competitive compensation and benefits package.
Employee Retention
Employee retention is a vital component of the HR function, as high turnover can result in significant costs to a business. HR can mitigate the effects of turnover by ensuring employees have the information and tools to make informed decisions about their benefit options, job satisfaction, work-life balance, etc. Keeping open, two-way communication channels is important to maintaining staff satisfaction.
HR can also promote employee retention by ensuring managers have the tools and training to manage their teams effectively. This can include helping them set goals and objectives aligning with the company vision and values and individual team member goals. It is also important to recognize employee accomplishments and successes to increase engagement.
A well-trained, happy workforce is an attractive prospect for prospective candidates. It is also a key element of providing excellent customer service. Employees who feel well-supported by their managers will naturally emulate this camaraderie in their customer interactions, creating a positive experience for everyone involved.
Employees need to know that their concerns are being heard and will be resolved promptly. To this end, providing a multi-tiered support model that includes self-service, a dedicated HR representative for difficult or complex cases, and an always-on live chat feature for less urgent requests is important.
Employee Development
HR ensures all staff members follow the company’s values and vision. They typically communicate these to employees and managers regularly to ensure that everyone understands what the business is all about.
HR also helps to develop employees by providing them with opportunities for personal growth and development. This can be done by assisting employees with setting goals for their careers, working with them on developing better ways to work with colleagues or helping them find solutions to workplace issues they are experiencing.
Many companies provide employees with wellness programs that help them maintain healthy lifestyles and manage stress outside the office. This can reduce the number of sick days taken and improve employee productivity.
Another key way that HR can improve employee satisfaction is by reducing the time it takes to resolve requests. This can be accomplished by offering a tiered support system where employees can access self-service technology or ask for assistance from an HR representative. Suppose an issue is more complex than what can be resolved by the Tier 0 level. In that case, it will escalate to the next level, where subject matter experts can offer additional support. This can take the burden off of busy HR departments.
