Outstanding leaders know that their most valuable asset is their team. You could have the most cutting edge equipment and facilities and they would be useless without the right people using them!

In order to find these people, there’s no question that you need outstanding HR leadership. Here are some characteristics to help you identify the difference between a good HR leader and an outstanding one.

1.   Having a Deep Understanding of the Business 

Having this high level of domain knowledge will not only help the HR department make the right appointment, it will also help them to monitor and provide guidance to staff in the future—essentially nurturing the talent they’ve helped acquire.

The best HR leaders will have an open mind and be ready to adapt to changes. When criticism shows up, they’ll listen to what people are saying and consider their points. The best leaders are always prepared to make improvements when necessary, and this is especially true when it comes to managing people.

The most challenging jobs are often the ones that are the most rewarding.  Completing the more difficult challenges will often help you to get ahead while competing HR departments are still ambling along taking the easy option to make life easier for themselves. Although facing tough jobs may be challenging in the short-term, it will help to make life a lot easier for you in the long term. If there’s a challenging job that needs to be done, an outstanding HR manager will tackle it with enthusiasm.

Although the rules should apply equally to everybody, there are times when an individual may have a legitimate reason for thinking outside of the box. If there is a genuine case where a talented member on your staff bends the rules a bit, you might want to consider the outcome of their actions before reprimanding them. They may discover a better or more efficient way of accomplishing a task and this could have huge benefits in the long run.

A study has shown that recruiters that used social media in their recruitment efforts saw a 49% improvement in the quality of candidates when compared to traditional methods. As technology around us changes—and the world along with it—it’s important for any leader to be adaptable to the changing environment otherwise they risk being left behind.  When new tools are made available the best leaders will be willing to embrace them as they could make a big difference to the company’s bottom line. The best HR leaders will always be up to date on cutting-edge human resources technology.

Listening and understanding other people is a science and an art. Here’s a strategy that can help you get better results out of your staff:question you have asked them. Be sure to listen to all sides of an argument before making any judgments in your mind.

One method of being sure that you have heard and understood correctly is to restate what you have just been told. For example: “So what you are saying is…”

7.   Always Being Prepared To Cut People Loose

Individuals that are not meeting expectations, for whatever reason, can have an adverse effect on others around them and the business in general. This can make it a bigger issue than just that one individual. The best leaders will try to work with troublesome or low-performing individuals and provide encouragement, training, and incentives where appropriate. If you have tried your best and they are still unwilling and/or unable to meet expectations then you should be prepared to let them go. Knowing when it’s time to do this is another sign of an outstanding HR leader.

8.   Allowing Others to Take the Spotlight

HR is typically a department that operates behind the scenes. Despite HR managers and their teams working tirelessly to help keep the company moving in the right direction, it’s usually other individuals and departments that end up receiving the accolades. This can sometimes be frustrating but a good HR manager will understand that results are what matter, not applause.

When leading people, among the most effective ways of showing them what needs to be done is to get hands on and get involved yourself. This is a great way of demonstrating that the job can be done and just how it should be done. It will also help the HR department to identify if there are any issues with the process that need to be addressed.

A large part of being a great HR manager involves recruiting the right people for the company, so it’s only right that they should be expected to recruit a great team for themselves. Having a great team working for you not only helps to ensure that the day to day tasks are completed effectively, it also helps to bring new ideas and different skills that can help the team to break the mold and innovate.

The HR department is one of the most important because it helps to ensure that the most valuable assets in business are being managed and led. The right HR leadership will help keep any business competitive and going strong.

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People power is one of the single most valuable assets that any company will have. In order to help a business flourish, the people working there need to be the right people who are committed to taking your business forward. This includes everybody in your organization from those in a senior management positions to temporary workers.

Considering the importance of getting the right people for the job, there is quite a bit of pressure on the HR department to get it all just right. The best HR departments have bulletproof procedures to help make their recruiting efforts as effective and efficient as possible. Here are just a few examples of how you can turbocharge yours.

According to Forbes, 75% of recruiters are struggling to recruit fully qualified personnel. One reason could be down to how vacancies are being advertised. You may be offering the best job in the world, but you’re unlikely to get the response you’re hoping for if it isn’t advertised in a way that makes it attractive to the ideal recruits.

What makes a job attractive is not only about the role, title, and salary—there’s a great deal more that people take into consideration. What are the working conditions like? What flexibility will they be allowed in their role? What additional training will they receive? Will they get the opportunity to learn from leaders in the business…the list of additional factors that can make even an otherwise mundane role a good proposition is endless.

In order to really attract the best talent, find out what people are looking for when applying for positions. You can then adjust the role and the additional benefits associated with it, helping to make the job a much more attractive proposition. Remember also to make it absolutely clear what benefits are available when advertising the job so the best prospects know that it is a great opportunity for them.

While it’s essential to have a team in place, it’s perhaps more important to have the RIGHT team in place. Rushing into hiring decisions and appointing the wrong person because you need to get SOMEBODY in place can be very counterproductive and hinder your productivity. If you do have the wrong person in place for a role then you could run into problems and the rest of your workforce could be adversely affected. You may also end up having to go through the time and expense of recruiting for the vacancy again.

Spend a little more time, effort and perhaps even expense in getting it right the first time and you could save yourself a lot of inconvenience and expense in the future. Recruit hastily and on the cheap, however, and you may well end up regretting doing so.

Strike a Balance between Experience and Talent

Recruiting an experienced candidate that has ’been there’ and ‘done that’ is a good way to help ensure that a job gets done. Sometimes though just getting a job done is not enough and what is really needed is somebody that can bring fresh ideas to the workforce if you are to stay ahead of the competition.

Many very talented prospects get overlooked for more experienced candidates in the recruitment process, and this could be to the loss of the recruiter. While you are recruiting the experienced candidates that are adept at getting the job done in tried and tested ways, your competitors can be snapping up those that bring innovation and variety to your company.

Ideally, you should try to find the right balance between experienced candidates that know the ins and outs of running an organization as yours with fresh talent that can help you shake things up with new ideas and approaches.

While it’s important to not be too hasty in making recruitment decisions, it’s equally as important that you don’t keep potential candidates waiting for too long. Many job applicants, particularly the better ones, will have other options available to them so if you drag your feet for too long then they may end up working for the competition.

If you are losing candidates to competitors during the recruitment process then you may need to look at your process to see whether or not it can be streamlined. Are parts of the process being duplicated, perhaps there are too many departments involved, or is there unnecessary bureaucratic tape slowing things down?

Undertake a review of your recruitment process and you could not only help to find ways to speed up the process, but also ways to enhance the process to improve the quality of recruitment. With a sleek and efficient recruitment policy in place, you are ready to build a team that can help to take your business to the next level.

Firing Can Be Just As Important As Hiring

It’s never an easy thing to have to tell people that they are no longer needed, but it is sometimes necessary. It’s important to remember that an unruly or inept member of the team can affect others, and it would be unfair to those that do contribute if they are adversely affected through no fault of their own. In cases where you have exhausted all possible procedures yet there is still no sign of improvement, it would be best to replace the person from the position and focus on ways you can turbocharge your recruiting to find a more suitable person for the role.

How HR managers can turbocharge the recruitment process

Even here in the 21st century, gender inequality is still an issue despite our best efforts so far to combat it. While the workplace has become more equal than it ever has been before, there is still work to be done before it is genuinely an even playing field for both genders. Addressing the situation is not always easy for companies, however, as many issues regarding inequality can be very nuanced, with causes going deep below the surface.

Many companies though are making concerted efforts to address gender inequality in the workplace with initiatives that are designed to encourage equality. Such innovators are creating examples that the rest of the business community can look up to as an inspiration when trying to tackle inequality in the workplace.

Generally speaking, we tend to consider a company’s workforce to be the people that are sitting in the company’s offices and working in their factories. However, the chain of contribution goes much further than that. Even if a person is not directly employed by a company, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t valuable contributors to the organization. Indeed, such people are often essential to any organization.

One such example is the contribution that female dairy workers make toward a company such as Nestle, and their contribution has not gone unrewarded. Nestle is helping these dairy workers with valuable advice and free veterinarian services, while they also help to make sure that any medicines needed for livestock

Research reveals that there are now more females going into further education than males. While this may well be helping with gender inequality issues in America and Europe, education opportunities for females are still lacking in other parts of the world.

Some companies have gone as far as providing funds for women to gain an education, particularly in impoverished parts of the world. Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee, for example, runs an initiative that provides education to girls living in Guatemalan coffee producing villages. Such initiatives provide education not only in academic subjects, but also on health, well-being, and gender inequality issues.

Subconscious bias in interviews can lead to better-suited candidates being overlooked for no other reasons than their gender. Quite often the interviewer has every intention of approaching the recruitment process fairly and is unaware that they are biased toward a particular gender. That the interviewer is often unaware of his or her own bias means it is a particularly difficult problem to overcome…or is it?

The solution is actually a lot simpler than it might first appear to be, and some of the largest companies out there are endorsing it as a policy.

In having both men and women interviewers, any subconscious gender bias is automatically balanced, helping to provide a much fairer recruitment process. For the company, this means that the best candidate for a job is more likely to be selected for a role, helping to create a more effective workforce. It may not be a perfect solution, but it should certainly go some way to helping redress the balance.

Some companies have developed programs that actively encourage women to take more prominent roles within their organization. This often involves mentoring programs that help to develop women’s qualifications and provide inspiration for them to take on the challenge of pushing higher up the echelons of the workforce. International law firm Allens has adopted such a strategy and has seen great success so far, with just over half of the participants now holding senior positions within the organization.

Such initiatives are not always entirely altruistic. In encouraging their brightest and most talented women to push further up the ladder, they get to tap into a talent pool that might otherwise have not been used to its full potential. Having women in senior positions within the organization also helps to act as an inspiration to others that are looking to progress in their career.

One of the greatest divides in the workplace is the subject of maternity and it is something that has long held women back in the workplace. Women are now legally protected throughout much of the world when it comes to pregnancy and maternity, but some businesses are taking it further than just abiding by the law.

Companies such Banco Brazil and Spanish financial services provider BBVA have created initiatives that emphasize equality where maternity is concerned. Their initiatives allow maternity leave beyond the legal requirements but that’s not all. The initiatives also help to create an environment where the woman is not made to feel guilty about taking maternity leave, helping to create a truly fair environment.

To ensure genuine equality, many companies also ensure that men are allowed paternity leave to spend time at home with family after the birth of a child.

These are just a few of the ways companies have been addressing gender inequality in the workforce. We still have a long ways to go, but hopefully we will see even bigger progress throughout the world as we move forward into 2017.

How the best companies address gender inequality

When hiring new staff, it’s important to find employees who are a good cultural fit for your organization, as well as qualified and experienced for the job.

This means taking the time to find people whose core values are aligned with your workplace culture, to support your company’s mission, vision and goals. You’ve no doubt worked hard to establish the culture of your business and each new person that you bring on board has the potential to contribute either positively or negatively to that culture.

With many of today’s workers looking to use their skills for companies that share their own values, hiring an employee that is a good cultural fit is beneficial to both parties.

Here are some strategies and points to consider, to help you find new hires that are the best fit for your business.

With recruitment and onboarding costing companies significant amounts of time and money, you don’t want to bring someone on board only to have them leave a short time after.

Employees who are a good cultural fit for their job show greater work satisfaction, higher performance levels and are more likely to remain with the same organization for a longer period of time. Happier staff are more productive and engaged, making it a win-win situation for both parties.

By spending time in your hiring process to find the right fit, you’ll reduce staff turnover and save money on further recruitment and onboarding.

Just because an applicant has the right experience doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the right person to fill the role.

So-called soft skills, such as communication, critical thinking and emotional intelligence are highly valued in the modern workforce and should not be overlooked when deciding on a new hire.

While traditionally, companies focused more on an employee’s IQ as a measure of potential success, today’s workforce is paying a lot of attention to emotional intelligence. In fact, with 90% of top performers showing high EQ, emotional intelligence is considered the strongest predictor of performance. Employees with high EQ are also seen to be happier, more resilient, better at conflict resolution, continually learning and more effective at leadership.

Personality traits such as empathy, compassion and honesty are also important, particularly for recruiters in the health, social justice or non-profit sectors.

As a recent article in Business News Daily says, “although the right skill set may seem like the most important factor in whether a candidate is a good fit for a particular role, the truth is that skills can be acquired, but personalities cannot.”

Potential employees should already have a sense of the way your organization is run from your company’s brand strategy, mission and values. This gives people a sense of knowing what’s “behind the scenes” before they even interview.

Company values should be apparent in the way you do business, every day. You can also use social media as a channel to express these values and make your corporate culture clearly visible to your audience. Show people what your brand is passionate about, what inspires company goals, what you live and breathe in your workplace.

This realistic preview of the job helps attract candidates who are a better fit for your organizational culture. You want people to feel that your company is a good fit for them, as well as vice versa. These new hires can become your best brand ambassadors, as staff who feel aligned with their work culture can contribute to growing your brand, achieving organizational goals and sharing your company values.

Interviews are the best opportunity to see if there’s a good fit between your organization and an individual.

You can use questions about how candidates have handled certain work situations in the past, to reveal how important values are in informing their behavior and actions. Interviewers can then determine how each response aligns with the culture and values of the organization.

Interviews also allow candidates to ask questions about the company and what it’s like to work for. You can get a good sense of how important work culture is to someone by the questions they ask and where their attention is focused.

Don’t Confuse Cultural Fit with Discrimination

When discussing cultural fit, it’s very important to be clear that we’re talking about finding a good fit for your corporate culture – the culture of your company or organization. Cultural fit has nothing to do with age, gender, race, citizenship or sexuality. Hiring, or not hiring, people based on these factors is discrimination, which is never a good thing.

In fact, as well as being discriminatory, in organizations where staff are too similar in personality, background or thinking styles “the resulting lack of diversity will often manifest in poor creativity and undermine a company's competitiveness.”

When selecting new hires, look for people who can help you build a diverse, positive and respectful work culture. Finding an employee who is the right fit will be worth it.

Are you hiring employees that are a good cultural fit?

One of the greatest problems in addressing gender equality issues in the workplace is recognizing that they even exist at all. A lot of gender equality issues in the workplace can be quite subtle, making them easy to miss if you don’t know what you are looking for. What might appear to be a little fun between colleagues, for example, could actually be quite distressing for somebody that is involved. What’s more is that somebody who is a victim of gender inequality in the workplace may not feel as though they are able to speak out. Many others are not aware of the procedures are should they wish to make a complaint.

Education is one of the most effective tools in addressing gender equality, and this can mean training your whole workforce. While management should clearly be well trained in identifying examples of gender inequality among the workforce, the responsibility can lie with everybody. If you don’t take necessary steps to clamp down on inequality in the workplace, especially instances of sexual harassment, then you could potentially be facing serious consequences.

Make it Known That Inequality is Not Tolerated

One way to help tackle gender inequality can be to make it clearly known to the whole workforce that it will not be tolerated. If necessary, you can offer regular reminders of your company’s stance on gender inequality by including it in newsletters or maybe in the occasional team meeting. Posters and signs will also help to make regular reminders to everybody that gender inequality will not be tolerated. As already mentioned, education will play a large part in this and training sessions should be held whenever possible. It is possible that if a policy on non-tolerance on inequality is not pressed home regularly then a culture of inequality could begin to develop, even if not intended.

The procedures for tackling gender inequality should also be made clear for everybody to understand. It should be made absolutely clear whom to approach when making a claim, and that making a complaint will not have any adverse effect on the career prospects of the person making the complaint. Too often, cases go unchecked because the victim is unsure of what to do, or is concerned that their position within the company may be adversely affected if they do make a complaint.

If one gender in your organization is being paid significantly more than the other, then this could be an indicator of inequality. A difference in wages alone does not confirm that there is an issue with inequality as there are other factors to be taken into consideration, although a significant gap could be worthy of investigation.

If something doesn’t add up, then you may need to address the recruitment process along with an investigation into other practices in the workplace. It could be that the environment within the workplace does not encourage women to try and progress. It may also be that one gender is being favored over the other, and this could be happening subconsciously.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, nearly half (47%) of the US workforce is made up of women. Despite this, some sectors, such as Tech and IT, are still very much male-dominated. This is despite the fact that women can be, and often are, just as able to perform well in the industry as men are.

It also works both ways as men can be overlooked for positions that are traditionally female dominated such as secretarial roles. This can lead to better-qualified candidates being overlooked for reasons that have not relation to their ability to do the job.

One way that can help to avoid this can be to remove names from application forms along with anything else that may reveal an applicant’s gender. In doing so, those reviewing the applications will be doing so based on nothing but the applicant’s ability to do the job. Make sure that the interview process is also fair and focuses only on the candidates’ qualifications and ability to do the job at hand.

Friendships are often struck up in the workplace and people will often choose to socialize with colleagues outside of working hours. Even though an individual may genuinely try to be impartial when it comes to making decisions in the workplace, it can be very difficult for them to select an individual they don’t know personally over one that they do. Meeting socially can also help to reveal characteristics that might favor a person when it comes to applying for jobs that might otherwise go unnoticed. This will give an applicant an unfair advantage when applying for a job in which somebody they know personally will be part of the recruitment team.

While it would be wrong to tell your workforce who they can and cannot socialize with outside of working hours, you could still encourage all members of the workforce to get involved to some degree. Team-building exercises and other social functions to which the whole team is invited can help to encourage everybody to make more personal connections, helping to address the balance of social exclusion.

Create the Right Balance Between Life and Work

If there is a culture of working long shifts within your organization then this is something that could be helping to contribute to inequality in the workplace. Many people have demanding family commitments that mean unsociable working hours just are not feasible for them. Such a working environment means that many people are not able to take advantage of the same opportunities as those with fewer commitments away from work, and this can help contribute to an issue with inequality.

Once you are able to identify issues they may be leading to inequality issues in the first place then you can begin to focus on how to fix them. Make sure that your staff receives adequate training on inequality issues and you are taking a step closer to a fair and productive working environment.

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

Education is one of the most effective tools in addressing gender equality. Here's what you need to know.

Addressing gender equality in your workplace

Education is one of the most effective tools in addressing gender equality. Here's what you need to know. 

When it comes to gender equality, we’ve come a long way in the U.S. Laws are now in place to ensure that everybody receives fair and equal treatment at work and we also see an increasing number of women taking roles in what were previously male dominated industries.

We certainly are getting there, although there is still work to be done if we are to see 100% equality in the workplace. Despite the progress that has been made, there are still some issues that plague the issue of gender equality in the American workplace.

Sexual discrimination is still a very real issue for many women working in the United States, and it ranges from being very subtle, to very obvious. In some instances it might mean women being deliberately left out of team building or social events, helping to create a male orientated environment in which the women are made to feel less worthy. In other cases it might mean teasing of a sexual nature, which could hold far deeper consequences that might first appear. It could also mean women being overlooked for certain positions due to gender stereotypes or prejudices, although this can work both ways with men also being occasionally overlooked for positions that are considered to be traditionally feminine.

There is also the serious issue of sexual harassment, which can potentially lead to very serious ramifications if not addressed. Remember that sexual harassment is not necessarily only about physical contact, it can also be psychological and what might appear to be a bit of fun can in fact be very intimidating for the victim.

Employers must do what they can to help prevent sexual harassment from taking place, and there are guidelines and procedures in place to help with this.

According to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), female workers in the United States currently receive approximately 80% of wages that men do. This is quite a significant gap of 20% between what men and women are paid. Studies by the US Department of Labor have shown that this figure is closer to 5% when taking into account career and education choices by women, but still the gap remains.

One recent high profile case that clearly outlined Gender inequality in the US is with actress Jennifer Lawrence when she learned that she was making significantly less than her male colleagues. Miss Lawrence herself has suggested that she is to blame herself because she could have held out for more money, so perhaps another issue could be that women are not encouraged enough to value their contribution as much as men are.

A disproportionately high wage gap could be an indicator of a sexual inequality issue within the workplace and is something that should not be ignored.

Gender occupational segregation is the workplace phenomena where different demographics are more or less likely to be in certain industries. One such example is the disproportionately high number of men that are employed in the software and tech industries. The male dominated careers and industries tend to be higher paid than the female dominated industries and this helps to explain the wage gap between the two genders.

One reason for this segregation is sexual discrimination, with one gender being favored over another for positions for no other reason than their gender. If you are found guilty of favoring one gender over the other for no other reason than their gender then you could have serious consequences to pay. If challenged, you could be expected to show that it is necessary to favor one gender over the other in the given scenario.

Family commitments are another thing that helps contribute to Gender Occupational Segregation and, by extension, the wage gap. Women are more inclined to choose roles that still allow them to dedicate time to other commitments such as bringing up their children and taking care of family members. What’s more is that the roles that women choose to take up may pay less, but tend to offer greater advantages in terms of social stratification.

Sometimes, in order to be careful not to be discriminatory, we can end up doing the exact opposite. In the case of Gender discrimination in the workplace, we could end up favoring a candidate for a particular position because of the need to be fair to both genders overall. While such actions may be well intended overall, they still put you in the position where a better-qualified candidate may have been denied an opportunity on gender reasons alone. Even if you did have good intentions in favoring one gender over another in the workplace, you could find that you have broken regulations and you may be prosecuted accordingly.

Some gender inequality issues are less obvious than others, and some may even go unnoticed completely. It is important that as many people within your organization are educated on gender inequality issues, particularly those in supervisory/managerial positions, so that issues are more likely to be identified when they occur.

It is necessary that you make it absolutely clear that procedures are in place to assist anybody that feels as though they have been discriminated against. It is also necessary to make it clear exactly what these procedures are and how to make a formal complaint.

If a formal complaint is made then you must undertake all necessary steps to be sure that you comply with legal procedures. Follow the correct procedures and you not only have a pleasant and fair working environment for all, you will also protect yourself legally should any instances of discrimination occur in the future.

How to promote gender equality in the workplace

A strong HR team is the backbone of any organisation. However, the role is not without challenges. From attracting and retaining employees to workplace security, communication, and leadership development, HR managers face common challenges that many of us could only imagine.  

As such, there is no better time for HR managers to refocus their attention on overcoming common challenges in the workplace. It’s time to develop plans and initiate policies that will build up their companies and their employees!

Acquiring the best talent, overcoming a sluggish economy, and building up a solid leadership team are just a few of the most pressing challenges that HR managers face in today’s business climate.

With this in mind, we’ll take you step-by-step through the most common challenges that HR managers face, offering actionable advice for overcoming these challenges. 

Attracting outstanding employees is the driving force behind any great business.  

For an HR manager, landing these talented individuals is a job in itself. To attract potential employees, businesses must set themselves apart from the competition. The job applicant should not be the only party working hard to impress. 

If an HR manager wants to find all-star candidates for a position, they must put their best foot forward and show the applicant what they have to offer. Great HR managers have to understand how to sell!

As ever, L&D plays a key role in attracting employees, with one study finding that 59% of people say opportunities to learn and grow are extremely important to them when applying for a job. 

To learn more, see our article on how to attract the best talent for your business. 

So, you’ve hired the perfect person, and they’ve signed on the dotted line. Now, how do you get them to stick around?

History has shown that some of the most successful companies have low turnover rates and positive atmospheres.

Promoting a positive work environment and sustaining employee morale is critical for HR managers. There are certain things you can do to keep your workers happy and performing at their very best, such as:

Establishing a positive workplace culture

Offering your employees the chance to consistently better themselves and improve their skills is not only good for them on a personal level but will also benefit the company. For example, 94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their professional development.

Whether you focus on courses offered in a traditional classroom setting or through online education, there are endless opportunities to foster progress in the workplace.

Focusing on the wants and needs of your employees and providing them with an atmosphere that will challenge them professionally and promote camaraderie should be a top priority for any human resources department.

To demonstrate this, TINYpulse finds that employees who don't feel recognized for their work are 2x more likely to be actively seeking a new job. What’s more, research shows that 79% of people who quit their jobs cite “lack of appreciation” as their reason for leaving. In contrast, a positive workplace culture will encourage employees to remain with a company long-term. 

To find out more, read our recent article on 5 tips for long-term employee retention. 

Whether you’re dealing with a potential data breach or a physical situation, ensuring your company is protected against security issues often begins with HR managers.

Reevaluating current policies and determining whether they work for present-day demands is essential. An HR manager will need to look at any vulnerabilities in a company’s structure and decide on a course of action to protect the business and its employees from personal and professional harm.

While the American economy is trudging along slowly, this is no guarantee for the future. Businesses must constantly work to protect themselves from financial downturns.

For HR managers, managing the HR budget is a large part of this protection plan.

This topic goes hand in hand with our previous suggestions on retaining good employees. The human resource department of any company should promote emotional intelligence within the workplace.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, emotional intelligence will be one of the top 10 job skills by 2020. 

Given this, employees want to know they are appreciated for more than just the work they turn in. Whether a business leader takes the time to understand them on a personal level can be a determining factor in a company’s success.

The HR management team should involve themselves in this by assisting the company heads in understanding the need for emotional intelligence.

It’s essential that employers lookout for more than just their own professional gains and focus on the fair treatment of their employees. HR managers should look for ways to encourage a dialogue between employees and managers and promote an appreciation of their team's emotional needs.

For further insights, you can read our article on increasing empathy and emotional intelligence. 

Good leadership is an essential part of a company’s success. Smooth operations often lie in the hands of the company’s current management team and those candidates with future potential.

To maintain a positive leadership culture, HR managers must support these individuals. This can mean offering a variety of things, including:

Potential leaders should be identified early and given ample support and training opportunities.

Hands-on experience is the best way to prepare for upcoming responsibilities. Having the chance to shadow and work alongside current managers can be the ideal preparation for future leadership roles.

For current managers and company leaders, training should be ongoing. Over time, there will always be room for improvement with new skills, policies, and technologies to discover.

Communication is vital in any workplace. While this may seem like an overstated concept, it’s surprising how many professional leaders aren’t great at communicating with other leaders and employees.

HR managers should seek out online resources that encourage enhanced communication.

Overcoming these challenges will promote business success

Many of the challenges mentioned above not only represent the current professional setting many businesses find themselves in, but they will continue to be relevant for generations to come.

If an HR manager can find the techniques to overcome these challenges, they will provide the company with tools that will last them years. The specifics may change from company to company, but the base necessities for workplace success will remain constant.

We’ll take you step-by-step through the most common challenges that HR managers face, offering actionable advice for overcoming these challenges.

How HR managers can overcome common challenges

We’ll take you step-by-step through the most common challenges that HR managers face, offering actionable advice for overcoming these challenges. 

We all know human resources is responsible for interviewing new hires and helping them through their onboarding process, but what other functions do HR professionals perform for their employers?

For HR teams, each day brings a diverse range of roles and responsibilities – from helping other staff grow and develop in their careers, to assisting with organizational strategy and budgets.

To get a better understanding of the diverse functions of human resources, let’s look at 5 reasons why your HR team is so important for your business.

Your HR team plays a vital role in the professional development of your company’s employees, carrying out important activities such as performance reviews and professional development programs.

HR professionals are able to identify the type of skills training and employee development necessary for individual staff members to improve their skills and qualifications. In this way, your HR plays a valuable role in enabling employees to reach objectives and company goals, which has a positive effect on your business’ profits and reputation.

Within their roles, HR staff can also gather valuable information and feedback from your staff, which can be used to improve levels of employee performance and engagement. 

The HR team can play an essential role in developing your company's strategic direction, with their job role giving them a direct say in all new hires and recruitment. This area of responsibility is very important in shaping the future of any company, having a definite impact on an organization's stability and future success.

In their interactions with staff across all teams and business units, and at all levels, HR professionals are able to form a big picture view of your organization and make continuous improvements to company processes and efficiencies. 

Through the use of employee surveys, focus groups and exit interviews, HR staff can conduct real assessments of your company’s culture and management through feedback from staff. This helps highlight any issues and challenges that need to be overcome, determining what underlies any employee dissatisfaction within your organization.

We tend to think of human resources as dealing primarily with the ‘people’ side of things, rather than finance, however your HR team can play a useful and positive role in curbing company spending.

It’s helpful for employers to understand how important the proper management of human capital is to your company's bottom line. Your HR team can reduce excessive spending by: 

Negotiating better rates for benefits such as health care coverage

Ensuring competitive and realistic wage-setting

Having a solid knowledge of employment trends and salary analysis

By making sure your recruitment and selection processes are efficient, HR can also minimize company expenses regarding advertising jobs, onboarding, training new employees and reducing staff turnover.

Conflict is bound to arise in all organizations, regardless of size or industry. With so many different personalities and working styles put together under one roof, it’s inevitable that certain employees will clash at one time or another.

The important thing is to have processes in place to deal with conflict, managed by experienced and qualified human resources professionals. HR staff are specially trained to handle conflict resolution between two employees, or even a manager and employee.

Your human resource manager can act as a consultant and mediator to sort out any issues in an effective manner and remove tensions from the workplace, before they get out of control.

Creating a Safe and Positive Work Culture

Last, but certainly not least, an organization’s HR team is responsible for creating a workplace culture that is safe and compliant, with minimal risks to your staff’s health or wellbeing.

In building a culture of compliance, your HR team will develop, implement and communicate policies around sexual harassment, bullying and workplace health and safety (WH&S). As champions of these policies, HR staff encourage equality, diversity and the protection of workers’ rights, with zero tolerance for any form of harassment or discrimination.

Every company wants to be known as an "employer of choice” – a workplace that receives recognition for the positive way in which they treat their staff. With organizational culture such an important part of any company, HR professionals also play a large role in how happy and engaged staff are in the workplace.

As you can see, your HR team is an incredibly valuable resource, responsible for empowering and strengthening your business through the successful management of your people.

Why your human resources department is so important for your business

Sexual harassment is a serious crime that is sometimes “brushed under the rug.”

In other cases, individuals don’t realize the effect of their actions and don’t consider their so-called “innocent behavior” as true harassment. Despite their lack of understanding, however, the legal ramifications that can occur are quite real indeed.

In order to truly understand the consequences faced by offenders, it’s important to recognize how sexual harassment is defined in the United States.

By definition, sexual harassment is most commonly identified by one or more specific actions, such as:

Verbal and/or physical actions of a sexual nature

Sexual actions are not the only type of harassment that occurs, however. It can also include derogatory remarks about a person based on their gender. The law focuses on when the act is taking place in an aggressive way that is detrimental in a mental or physical capacity.

Understanding the legal penalties of sexual harassment

Offensive actions against another person can be considered sexual harassment no matter whom they occur between. While the legal consequences can differ based on an individual’s role in the company, it should be understood that the ramifications of proven harassment are severe.

Where businesses are concerned, the employer can be found legally responsible for workplace harassment if they knew it was occurring and did nothing to correct the situation. This concept holds true whether the responsible party was a supervisor or employee.

There are two different types of sexual harassment claims that can be filed:

Quid pro quo sexual harassmentThis type of claim refers primarily to incidents where a supervisor has negatively approached an employee. Often times these cases revolve around the request for sexual favors in exchange for things like promotions, or for an individual to keep their job.

Hostile work environment claims
When harassment has created an environment that feels threatening and offensive, a hostile work environment claim should be filed. These claims are analyzed based on different factors, such as the frequency of occurrence, the type of action taking place, and the person responsible for the harassment.

Once an employee has issued their complaint, the Equal Employment Opportunity Council (EEOC) will open an investigation into the company.

These investigations are performed in order to backup harassment claims and determine how the victim has been affected.

Once the investigation has been completed, the EEOC will usually attempt to work with the employer and employee to reach a settlement. Employers are often requested to offer the employee repayment compensation for things like:

Repayment of any lost wages due to the harassment

If an agreement cannot be reached through mediation, one of two things will usually occur:

The EEOC will file a lawsuit with the Federal court system

The claim will be dropped and the victim may, or may not, receive a “right-to-sue” letter that allows them to hire their own attorneys and bring the case to court.

The victim may also be entitled to ask for this letter before the EEOC has concluded their involvement in the case, depending on the circumstances.

How is sexual harassment typically penalized?

One of the first steps to take following a sexual harassment claim is to conduct a review between the offending party and the victim.

In addition to reviewing their actions, the responsible party may be subjected to repercussions, such as monitoring, counseling, and probation.

As the company is often held responsible for sexual harassment claims, along with the offender, many businesses have zero-tolerance policies in place. Depending on the severity and frequency of the events in question, many employers will mandate automatic termination in order to avoid lawsuits themselves.

Once the EEOC is involved in harassment suits, there is a very good chance the employer will have to pay a variety of different penalties.

If the victim is forced to take time off of work, or even quit, the employer will be required to provide them with back pay and/or rehire them. Given the mental and physical harm that the victim may have experienced, there is also a good chance the employer will need to take care of medical bills and compensatory damages towards the emotional support of the employee.

Most of the penalty fees are distributed in cases where the employer knew what was occurring and did nothing to stop it. That being said, they are often also required to pay punitive damage fees as a means of retribution.

Sexual harassment is a serious problem in the workplace. Learn about the legal ramifications of sexual misconduct in the workplace.