Whilst HR departments have a magnitude of different roles within themselves, none are perhaps more important than sorting out the company culture.
A culture is about how a business operates, both internally and externally. They go hand in hand, and HR works hard to make both as happy as the other.
Importance Of Culture
Most businesses in the UK will have an identifiable sense of culture and hierarchy. The most successful businesses are those that get their culture across in positive light. Especially in the UK, culture and team working is everything.
A business without a culture, is effectively a business without organisation and teamwork. As you can imagine, that’s quite disastrous for any company looking for success and profitability.
One of the most effective ways a business can be identified by its culture, is from its ethics. The media within the UK will jump on any business that displays poor ethics and culture, at a local and regional level.
Getting culture right can be tricky. Fortunately, when it’s right, then the benefits will soon make businesses and HR departments forget all about the hard work in getting there.
Changing Dynamics For The Better
In terms of dynamics within a company culture, there can be multiple levels across the business. In most cases, this can be analysed by observing day-to-day operations.
Organisational culture is quite important, it can be observed by observing projects, speaking to employees or asking for feedback.
More often than not, employees will be brutally honest about the daily life within their workplace, if asked anonymously. An effective HR department will root out the problems and attempt to solve them without disrupting the workflow.
The idea is to improve the workflow to a place where everyone is happy, productive and problem-free.
Dealing With Bad News
One of the most difficult parts of working within HR is having to be the person who gives bad news to employees. Of course, it’s always easy to break this news to an employee who has done something drastic, such as breaking the law.
But in most cases, hard-working individuals are let go through no fault of their own. This could be due to issues outside of business control, such as when the pandemic hit, or a reshuffle of corporate structure.
One of the most effective ways in which HR can deal with this is by using a Career Outplacement service, such as the highly reputable Randstad RiseSmart. If you’re looking for help with your career, they are the people to speak to about Outplacement. They offer career coaching, as well as a high-quality outplacement service.
An outplacement service is designed to assist outgoing employees, who perhaps didn’t want to leave, with their next career step. Usually, a HR department will go to a third party to do this, as there are trained experts who specialise within this field.
They also work and partner with the HR and business as a whole too, working with the team to keep retention numbers high, and protect the brand of the business, sometimes even seeing an increase in reputation.
The way in which bad news is handled can essentially structure a business culture for the foreseeable future, so it’s important to get it right.
Technological Introductions
New technologies introduced at the right time, can also improve company culture, this is especially true for HR departments.
When it comes to utilising HR effectively, you must have up to date technology. We saw examples of why this was important during the coronavirus pandemic, as technological difficulties made it difficult to communicate with some workers.
Newer and more innovative technologies aim to streamline business processes, and in doing so can raise the culture of a business.
Engaging With Employees
Truly, a company that does not engage well with its employees, is a business with a doomed culture. If you, as a HR representative, can help with employee engagement, then you’ll be able to inspect the culture at a closer angle.
Employees who have the benefit of engagement, are much more likely to be productive, and understand the mission objectives.
As a HR representative, you should be at the forefront, doing strategic assessments to understand where employees are at. From here, you’ll be able to advise management of what can be done to bring effective change and look at what areas of culture can be changed.
More Decision Making
Once you have a strong business culture, you should start to see some benefits pretty quickly. One of the biggest changes you’ll see will be within the workforce.
For example, there will be more trust across the board at all levels of the hierarchy, not only that but more cooperation in general. This newly earned trust means fewer disagreements, and importantly, a more efficient culture of decision making.
HR will be on the frontline of growing this culture, in terms of shaping and sustaining it for the long-term future.