Know Where You Are to Get Where You're Going
Q. How can you know if you have the people capabilities you need to achieve the results you desire?
A. Perform an HR Assessment to review the current state of your human resource related processes, policies, and systems objectively and thoroughly to determine what’s working for you and what could be improved.
The Path Forward in Brief
Organization leaders need to know if the processes deployed to address their HR needs are complete and functioning effectively so that they can have confidence results can be achieved.
An HR Assessment provides an objective review of all human resource-related processes, policies, and systems against a best practices framework. The result is confirmation of what’s working well and identification of improvements suggested.
Task your HR team to conduct an objective assessment of key processes and alignment with strategic objectives or hire an expert HR firm to do it for you.
Why do an HR Assessment?
Your organization has a mission and a purpose. Your leaders provide the vision, focus and strategic objectives to be accomplished. Your employees, through effort fueled by their capabilities and disciplined execution, work to get you to your destination, the results you seek.
Because you can’t get where you’re going without your employees, the route you take includes the processes you use for finding, selecting, hiring, on-boarding, managing, developing, rewarding, leading and separating with your employees. Guiding these processes are the policies, procedures, tools, and systems you use to carry out employment life-cycle activities. Finally, you should also consider the HR talent you employ (or contract with) to manage these processes and provide expert guidance and support to determine if these resources are meeting the needs of your organization.
Assessing objectively the current state of your organization’s human resource processes, policies, systems and staff is the only way to effectively determine if you have what you need and what you should consider doing differently to address any gaps.
Organizations do HR Assessments for a variety of reasons.
Three of the more common reasons for an HR Assessment are illustrated in these client examples:
Preparing for rapid growth
The Founder and CEO of a growing tech company is about to receive the next round of funding that will allow for hiring dozens of new employees needed take the next step in their journey. He is an astute leader and knows he needs the right HR processes in place to scale employment levels quickly and with the right people. Some of the processes they have in place are likely fine, but he knows other elements are missing. Wanting to focus on best practices, processes, and tools common in the tech sector, he requested an HR assessment to both review current practices and design new processes for those not yet in place. Selection, on-boarding, continuous performance feedback, system tools to support engagement measures, and pulse-checks were among the processes included in the assessment. Their employee benefits package was also reviewed for market comparison to bigger tech companies from which they would be trying to attract talent. The assessment included a recommendation for the number of HR people needed to run the function as well as the required skill sets.
Documented compliance review
The Chief Administrative Officer of a home loan processing company operates in a highly regulated industry subject to operating standards which must be reviewed routinely. Critical among the operating standards are those involving the hiring and training of employees and managers and overall employment compliance. She elects to have a third-party HR firm conduct the assessment annually and produce a summary document for their files. The focus of the assessment is compliance and required processes for background checks, drug screening and documentation of training completed.
A fresh look at HR after a change
A 150-employee radiology practice had recently lost their HR Director to resignation and wanted to take a fresh look at the state of HR. In addition to a full review of processes and policies, they wanted input on changes they should make to HR staffing going forward. Input from department managers and a cross section of employees was important to the CFO and CEO, so interviews were included in the assessment process. They wanted to understand the expectations of HR from the customer perspective to inform the improvements and HR staffing decisions. They had also just decided on a new HR technology platform, so work processes would need to be reviewed with the new system in mind since it had much more functionality and implementation was soon to begin.
What topics are covered in an HR Assessment?
An HR assessment should help you understand, evaluate, and prioritize your HR practices, policies, and procedures to help maximize employee productivity, reduce liabilities, and further reach your business goals. At a minimum, the assessment should review for compliance, however the most robust and helpful assessments include both compliance and best-practices. A compliance review typically includes the handbook, any other policies, forms, labor law posters, personnel file review, I-9 forms, benefit plan documents and required communications. In addition to basic compliance review, here are some of the areas typically included in a more robust HR assessment including a brief description of why each matters:
Recruiting, Hiring, & On-boarding
A job candidate, selected or not, will share their interview experience with others. A new hire, successfully on-boarded is more engaged, gets up to speed faster, and is less likely to leave in the first two years. A compliant recruiting and selection process ensures fair treatment and reduces risk.
Training & Development
Employees who are well-trained not only perform their jobs better and are more engaged, they help the organization achieve targeted results faster. Planned training and development is one of the leading ways employers can invest in their people.
Performance Management
Helping employees realize and use their full potential in carrying out an organization’s mission and objectives is just one key purpose of performance management. Other key purposes include providing feedback to employees about how they’re doing and providing information to managers who make decisions about promotions, job changes, improvement plans, and other employment-related actions.
Payroll & Pay Practices
Well thought out pay practices help employers appropriately reward employees, can be clearly communicated, are based on market rates, do not create unintended liabilities, and allow an organization to budget wisely.
Benefits & Benefits Administration
Cost-effective and competitive benefits not only help employees and their families stay healthy, strong benefits help with recruiting and retaining top talent.
Leave of Absence Administration
A leave of absence is typically at the request of an employee, for a specific reason and/or amount of time. Knowing what types of leaves your employees are eligible for by law, as well as any leaves you choose to offer as the employer, is necessary for proper administration. Successful leave administration supports your employees, reduces the interruption to the job and workflow, and can reduce or eliminate liability.
Safety & Accident Prevention
Properly managed workplace safety programs benefit both employees and employers. Morale is higher when employees know their employer cares about their safety, absenteeism is lower when safety is high, and safety is one of the easiest areas around which to bring everyone together – going home safe each day is a common goal. A strong safety record can help an employer win new work, keep insurance rates low, reduce business interruptions, and increase goodwill and reputation.
Exiting/Off-boarding
Regardless of the departure reason, a positive employee off-boarding experience is important. Others will watch how the exiting employee is treated, and it will affect how they view the employer. Even if the situation is tense, treating an exiting employee with respect and dignity is not only the right thing to do, it can also make your replacement search easier and can leave the door open for a return (if you’re interested). And strong employers ask questions to try and learn what, if anything, went wrong or how they can improve.
Employee Data Management/HRIS
While keeping personal employee data confidential is required, certain employee data can be used to improve decisions, optimize processes, increase employee morale, and help the organization reach its goals more effectively. The system(s) used should be evaluated against these objectives.
Communication
When all employees hear the organization’s story and consistent messaging about purpose, goals, and vision, they are more connected and aligned. When communication channels allow input from front line employees and leaders listen, then a stronger, healthier culture will be sustained.
Goal/Objective Planning & Execution
When daily work expectations are clear and there are processes in place that cause teams to be working on the problems and opportunities that make the greatest difference to success then results follow. This includes having a consistent cadence for accountability.
Employee Engagement/Experience/Well-being
When an organization has data from employees and managers that measures engagement, well-being and the employee experience and uses the data to monitor what’s working and what needs attention, problems can be resolved faster and more effectively.
Employee & Manager Interviews
An optional feature, interviewing managers and/or employees adds qualitative data to the assessment and often uncovers valuable insights into how HR is functioning from a customer perspective.
HR Assessments are a great way to see where you are and inform your future direction. As an organization grows, the need to adapt HR processes and systems evolves through distinct phases of growth. Next time we’ll walk through the growth journey and highlight the evolving needs for HR support.
To your success!