What Not to Do – List Of Don’ts For The HR Department

Human Resource Management (HRM) department is a crucial pillar of an organization, be it a small local company or a large multinational conglomerate. Its function goes beyond mere recruitment and payroll processing of employees. This department plays a vital role in shaping a company’s work environment & culture, ensuring employee satisfaction & motivation, as well as handling conflict resolution. Though there is a lot of material published on how a HR department should function, very few forums discuss the things this department must not do! The efficiency of the HR department governs the satisfaction and in turn, the productivity of a company’s work force. Hence, it is imperative to focus on these DON’Tsas well, in order to maintain the strength of the organization’s structure.

The Top 10 things that an HR Department should never do are as follows:

• DON’T LET YOUR EMPLOYEES BE YOUR LAST PRIORITY

Employees are a firm’s biggest and most important assets. The core function of the HR is to build and maintain a talented resource pool. This directly impacts the company’s growth and success. In the words of Richard Branson, CEO Virgin Airlines- ‘Put your employees first, customers second, and shareholders third’.Most companies falter as they fail to realize that loyal satisfied employees drive better service and help build a happy customer base.

• DON’T LURE IN NEW EMPLOYEES WITH FALSE INFORMATION

An HR department is the face of the organization. Therefore, if the HR indulges is luring new employees with false promises it will lead to a lack of organization credibility and a tarnished brand image. Moreover, those employees who come in with expectation based on this false information will soon learn of the reality. This will not only de-motivate them but will also drastically reduce their company loyalty as well as their contribution to the company.

• DON’T GIVE VAGUE JOB DESCRIPTIONS AND ROLES

An employee should be clear on their role in the organization and the management’s expectations. If the roles are vague, there will always be adisconnect between the employees’ and the company’s objectives. Even if you have employees multitasking, make sure the job description of the multiple roles is clearly listed and agreed upon.

• DON’T PROMOTE NATIONALITY BASED PAY

In today’s day and age where people across the globe are working together as one unit, it is common to see multiple nationalities represented in one organization. To encourage team spirit and a sense of equality, employees should be given compensation based on their skill set, job role and seniority. Pay based on nationality fosters discrimination and hence should not be encouraged in any organization.

• DON’T CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT OF UNCERTAINITY

We all know that due to increased competition and immense market volatility, mass layoffs have become a necessary evil. However, if an organization constantly talks about it, the employees will feel insecure, get de-motivated and this will impact their performance at work. A company needs to reassure its employees that it will try its best not to get into such dire situations. If they all work hard towards the common goal the company will thrive and their jobs will be at no risk.

• DON’T HAVE PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS THAT FOCUS ONLY ON NEGATIVES

A performance appraisal is not a forum to put down an employee and resort to fault finding. The whole aim of a performance appraisal is to map the performance to the expected job role and take steps to realign the employee wherever they are falling short of expectations. Hence, keep the discussions objective and focus on next steps as well as areas of improvement.

• DON’T CUT COSTS BY REDUCING CRUCIAL BENEFITS LIKE HEALTH INSURANCE

The instances that cement an employee’s loyalty to her company are usually occasions where the company extends help to her at time of need. The contrary is true too- if there is a medical emergency and the employee has to run helter-skelter for funds due to insufficient / expected insurance coverage, his interest in his job and firm will diminish. Hence, these crucial health insurance benefits are critical to improving employee job satisfaction and loyalty. Cutting costs in these areas may have a cascading effect over time.

• DON’T HOLD BACK THE PASSPORTS OF EMPLOYEES

A nonproductive employee is far more expensive& damaging to a company than losing that employee. Therefore, keeping an employee at work forcibly by holding back their passports, will do more harm than good and does not serve any real purpose. Holding back employees’ passports is in bad taste and companies should refrain from doing it.

• DON’T SHY AWAY FROM TRAINING COSTS

An employees’ professional growth in turn accelerates an organization’s growth. In addition to that when employees see their company investing in their professional development, it fosters loyalty, goodwill and job satisfaction. HR should have training and development of its employees as a part of the company growth strategy and should have a separate fund allocated for it.

• DON’T PROCRASTINATE RESOLUTION OF EMPLOYEE ISSUES

Employees turn to the HR management team when they face some issue or conflict at work. These issues raised should be tackled with sensitivity and without any time lag. An HR should always take the time out to listen to employees’ complaints. If not handled appropriately, these conflicts can become more serious and unmanageable over time, with agitated employees teaming up together.

CONCLUSION:

As per the survey done by Bayzat team in the UAE, productivity is boosted by over 55% after adopting an employee friendly culture. There is also direct correlation between succession planning and lower attrition rates in the UAE. Hence, this reiterates that if all the DON’Ts listed above are avoided, it will help companies achieve better profitability and growth. In conclusion, the Human Resource department now plays a very vital role in organizations and if channelized in the right direction can give a company its competitive edge.