Why your human resources department is so important for your business

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.

Developing and Training Employees

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. 

Developing Your Strategy

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.

Reducing Company Spending

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: 

• Trimming workforce management costs
• 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 Resolution

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.