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5 Effective HR Process Improvement Steps to Strengthen Your Business

The team behind a company is what propels it to success. But finding and developing talent to meet business goals is a delicate balancing act for your HR team, especially with uncertainty around what some are calling “the great” return as businesses navigate turnover, hiring, and their future approach to remote/hybrid working.

Keeping your eyes open for HR process improvement opportunities is key to staying competitive in these fluctuating times.And finding ways to streamline your HR process can ultimately position your human resources team to be a better strategic ally in supporting your business goals. Below, we’ll take a closer look at some effective HR process improvement ideas you can use to help get your business on its way to a stronger future.

Benefits of Strategic HR Planning: Why It Matters

When it comes to running a strong business, creating a continuous improvement culture matters. At its heart, this type of culture is one that understands and values empowering employees to spot and reduce waste.

Incorporating this mindset, particularly into your HR function can have a lot of positive residual effects. It helps your team approach HR more strategically which can enable your team to:

• Create a more stable and reliable hiring process.
• Develop a system for acquiring top talent.
• Provide the right type of support needed to accomplish senior leadership’s vision.

Plus, after the landscape of the last several years, we’ve seen firsthand just how important it is that companies are able to be proactive, and not reactive, in response to current events. Being strategic with your HR function will help your company successfully navigate any large future of work shifts that are ignited through large-impact events.

5 HR Process Improvement Steps To Get Your Team Started

When you’re ready to get to work improving your HR department, here are the top 5 steps we recommend starting with.

1. Engage In Process Mapping & Identify Gaps

If your business has been growing rapidly or you’ve had a lot of shifts from internal/external factors, it’s important to start by digging into your current HR process design. From there, you’ll also be able to note where the gaps in these processes are occurring.

Tips for Assessing Your Processes

If you don’t have clear records around this, try creating a visual documentation of those processes that you can use to advocate for the change that’s needed. While there are plenty of ways to accomplish this, one of our favorite tactics is to try creating a swimlane chart.

Internal brainstorming is a great place to start, however, depending on who is involved it could also come along with some blind spots. If you’re looking for a clear and objective analysis of your HR business process, testing may be a better and more reliable route.

At Centri, our team developed the comprehensive HR Pulse test based on a database of questions developed by HR experts. Plus, the assessment you take is customized to your business model and industry, to help you get a more accurate analysis.Ultimately whatever method you choose, it’s important to start with getting a full picture of what’s happening in your HR function. From there, you’ll be able to identify the most pressing areas for improvement that should be streamlined first.

2. Write Or Re-Visit Your Human Resources Strategy Document

Once you have clear insight into your organization’s challenges, it’s time to document a strategy that HR can use to solve them. This is the step where HR can move from being an administrative function into a supportive alley.

When it comes to creating your strategy:

• Look at your business objectives.
• Consider employees and their current needs.
• Involve other stakeholders’ input in your decision-making.
• Factor in the gaps you discovered above.
• Consider your existing talent strategy.
• Examine the employees you have and how to develop them.
• Limit turnover by addressing any repeat issues.
• Plan for succession where possible.
• Collect and rely on analytics (compensation, turnover rate, and other key metrics.)
• Revisit or create a mission statement to use for your decision-making.

3. Document & Maintain Well-Written Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

Once your strategy is in place, the next step in building an effective HR department is to make sure it trickles down into your SOPs. Just like you did for your strategy, make sure there is well-written documentation in place. This will help your HR team function and help other teams with execution.

Use your SOP plans as a means to start streamlining work throughout the organization. Also, look for ways that these can offload administrative work from your HR team, so they have more time to tackle meaningful strategic work.

If you find there are a lot of big updates during this phase, consider looking for outside support to help your team thrive in the midst of these changes.

4. Invest In A Human Resources Management System (HRM) & Automate

If you haven’t made the jump to replace manual systems with automated ones, this is the perfect scenario in which to consider it. You’ll find you can much more easily gather and share data, as well as offer self-service options for employees to cut down on repetitive, administrative tasks.

A self-serve tool could allow your employees to access and get reminders as they want them around PTO, missing info, and incomplete timesheets, to name a few. You can also use it to build a more custom onboarding process that operates independently to collect information or provide details on their role, department, and company policies. All of this can help reduce the number of manual requests your HR team fields weekly.

Something else to consider is the increased security from investing in a good quality HRM system. You’re able to set and determine permissions to key administrators, without the risk of information falling into the wrong hands.

Plus, one of the biggest perks of a sophisticated system is that it can help you track all the important HR KPIs to use in future conversations. You’ll be able to keep better tabs on metrics like retention rates, time open to filling positions, employee satisfaction, and more, so your team can objectively identify areas of improvement.

Consider How AI Fits Into Your HR Function

As this technology becomes more sophisticated, it’s only natural to start considering how you can implement AI into the mix of your operations. Some places it may help include fielding benefits questions, data analysis, or the repetitive tasks around hiring.

As your team considers how it fits into the business landscape, just make sure you consider the pros and cons of AI early on. That way you can make sure it meets your needs without going against any ethics and founding principles your company stands on.

5. Get An Outside Perspective

Outside perspectives can lead to better breakthroughs, as inviting others to the table often gives us a better and more diverse view. As you go through this guide for HR process improvement, consider involving other stakeholders to get a pulse on their needs. This can also go a long way toward keeping and strengthening your company culture, which is especially important if this journey includes a lot of change.

The Benefits Of Using An Advisor for HR Process Review

Seeking an outside advisor can also help you achieve better outcomes. An experienced HR advisory team will have both a track record of helping companies improve and knowledge of the latest processes with technologies you can leverage.