Continuing from yesterday’s post, here are the remaining eight common human resources mistakes that you’ll want to avoid.
6. Working in a Silo
As an HR professional, it’s important to work with other departments to understand their human resource needs. You should talk to department heads and managers regularly, as well as employees, to discover where talent is lacking and where it can be strengthened, in addition to other productive ways of managing your organization’s workforce.
7. Lack of Follow-Up After Onboarding
Often, once employees are onboarded, they won’t hear from HR again until they’re either in trouble or ready for their annual review. However, following up with employees 1 month or so after they have been fully onboarded will provide them with an opportunity to ask you any follow-up questions or ask you for guidance in certain areas. This will set them at ease and give them an opportunity to better understand your organization and do their best.
8. Short Length of Onboarding
Onboarding employees takes time and care and should ideally last for at least a year. Research has indicated that longer onboarding programs:
- Increase new hire retention rates
- Lead to more productive and engaged employees
- Offer real-life context and structure
- Save your company money
Read: Why Your Onboarding Program Should Last at Least 1 Year, to learn more.
9. Incomplete Employee Learning and Personnel Profiles
It’s important that each employee profile has accurate records and is always up to date. You should update their information each time they move, get a new role at your organization, get written up, etc. Doing this is important for compliance and legal reasons but also so your company has accurate records to draw from.
10. Unreliable Tools and Technology
When recruiting prospects, interviewing candidates, hiring new employees, onboarding new employees, and documenting information for an employee’s profile, make sure you have systems that work well and that are secure. Seek out systems that automate repetitive tasks, and always make sure your security is up to date to keep your employees’ personal information protected.
11. Failing to Offer Regular Feedback and Praise
New generations of employees are demanding regular feedback on their performance, and annual reviews are starting to become a thing of the past because they aren’t effective. For stats and information on this, read Businesses Are Saying Goodbye to Performance Reviews and You Should, Too.
12. Never Offering Sincere Growth Opportunities or an L&D Path
HR and L&D departments should work together to ensure that each employee has a direct path for success within a company. Otherwise, employees will look outside of an organization for promotions and more challenging opportunities within 2 to 3 years.
13. Not Valuing Employees’ Privacy
Above all else, ensure your employees aren’t reprimanded in front of others and that their records are always kept secure and out of reach of those who don’t need access to their profiles. Once their trust is breached in this manner, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to gain it back.
Working in HR can be challenging sometimes but extremely rewarding. Make sure to avoid the 13 common mistakes mentioned above and in yesterday’s post to make certain working in HR remains rewarding for you.