There comes a time when every engagement ends. The compensation study has been completed and recommendations implemented, the candidate we recruited has accepted the offer and has a start date, the performance management system has been developed and managers are starting to use it. After all of the work has been completed, our clients sometimes ask how we can provide ongoing, daily support to them.
Our usual response is that while we don’t generally function as an outsourced HR solution, we can help them decide if it might be more effective to hire a dedicated Human Resources professional. What are some of the considerations for when it might be time to add an HR professional to your team?
- How much recruiting, orientation, and onboarding activity do you have, or plan to have in the near term? Recruiting is one of the most labor-intensive activities in HR, mainly because in order to capture top talent quickly, someone needs to be managing the sourcing, screening, and engagement with candidates pretty much all the time, including evenings and weekends. Having someone besides hiring managers do this work can help you get the people you want more quickly and efficiently. Bonus if this person can help develop strategies for staffing growing departments and generating novel ways of engaging with the labor market.
- How strong/capable are your mid-level managers? If your managers are pretty green or haven’t gotten good training on how to lead effectively and hold people accountable, an HR professional can help fill those gaps. HR professionals know how to build effective training and development programs and more importantly, can work with your supervisors on an ongoing basis to provide additional coaching and help them become more proficient.
- Are you having to deal with too many employee matters? From interpersonal conflicts to critical incidents, HR professionals are trained how to help employees navigate tough situations. More importantly, HR professionals know how to develop strong working relationships with supervisors to help them avoid bad situations [and decisions] and provide solutions that help keep supervisors focused on your customers, service goals, etc.
- Are you putting out too many fires? Does it seem like each day there is a new situation to deal with? And that each time you are coming up with a never-before-used approach to resolving it? An HR professional should be able to put systems in place to address the root causes or provide guidance so that decision-making is easier. The HR professional will be able to bring best practices to make things work more effectively and efficiently.