Managing Performance 101: Optimizing HR Practice

Managing one’s performance is an essential aspect of any business, especially as the business grows in size. With size comes more employees, and more employees mean more management. HR can streamline a lot of the issues that come with an extensive roster of employees.

Responsibilities of your HR department include vital aspects of business such as hiring, recruiting, employee benefits, training, and general employee dispute resolution. Today, let’s break down the important aspects of HR and how it plays into the learning design of your business.

Recruiting

Recruitment is vital to a company’s growth. Recruiters find employees with the skills for a position and have the appropriate “character” to mesh properly with the company’s culture. Employees with staying power are significant assets.

Recruiters need to show an eye for understanding people. They need to look at a resume and simulate what the employee will be like once in the company. Perfecting the recruitment process will make mistakes less likely for the next four steps.

Pre-Hiring Interview

Before hiring a prospective employee, an interviewer must get a feel for the person’s abilities at work, social skills, and general demeanor. You need to ask questions that apply to any potential hire and specific questions that relate to the position.

The interview is the last step before the onboarding process, and knowing whether or not an employee is a good fit can be confirmed only. Take your time, observe the potential recruit throughout the interview, and consider any standout qualities to keep an eye on.

Training

Once you have settled on a recruit to hire, take time for them to undergo training. Often, there is an introductory period wherein the recruit is observed to see how well the candidate fits with the organization in an actual work environment. HR’s duty in this process is to support employees as they learn the ropes of their new position.

The introductory period will determine a new employee’s understanding of your company’s core values, fellow employees, company goals, and overall fit with the company’s culture.

Overall, you can break it down into four core concepts:

• Connection – How they interact with fellow employees and clients
• Clarification – How often do they communicate with their team regarding their duties and projects
• Culture – How well they mesh with the company’s goals and expectations
• Compliance – How they follow the policies and legal rules in place at the company

Instill those concepts into your HR team as it is a core aspect of their responsibilities. Proper training will help them improve themselves and the company’s performance.

Performance Review

Performance reviews are a crucial practice to ensure that you and your employee know how they’re doing and where they can make improvements. The review is a crucial piece of data that documents their performance with the company. Performance reviews are often given annually, after an introductory period, or for particular circumstances.

Blend performance reviews into the learning experience of your employees, HR, and regular staff. Their perspective on what goals they’ve achieved, where they can do better, and what goals they should aim for is crucial in the learning process.

Performance reviews often affect essential things such as additional benefits, salary increases, and promotions. To translate it into your company’s learning design, ensure employees provide feedback on how they improved after performance reviews and how they mentored other new hires on how to ace their evaluations.

Exit Interview

Eventually, some employees will leave. This is inevitable in any business, and HR must walk them to the door. Exit interviews are crucial for discovering what areas of your business you should improve. If an employee leaves for a negative reason, HR should communicate these issues to the higher-ups and recommend policies or changes that rectify this.

Exit interviews need to show honest feedback without the employee fearing backlash from the company. Informal questions must leave the exiting employee with a good impression of you instead of a negative one.

This feedback is crucial to improving our learning design. The information gained from exit interviews can improve employee retention and future recruitment processes.

Conclusion

This is only the tip of the iceberg for the HR Process. They have several day-to-day responsibilities, including benefits management and employee dispute resolution. However, the five duties listed here serve as the basis for the significant HR responsibilities. Improving these practices is crucial for cultivating a learning design that can keep enhancing itself. By instilling these five duties into your trainees, you can ensure the rest of their duties will come more accessible to them. I hope this assessment of the best HR practices improves your learning design.

What do you think about Managing Performance?  What’s missing, or what do you agree with within this week’s blog?  Comment below or contact me, and we’d love to chat more with you about it.

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