The talent pool at your workplace starts with the human resources department. Solid HR training and development can create build either teams that work to build a company or a revolving door that cycles talent out of your company.
Improving human resources standards entails not just buying software, spending more money, or hiring more people. It comes from within each member of the team and their ability to develop talent.
As the skills needed by new employees changes over time, the same is true for a human resources department. To attract and keep the best talent, here are some important HR training and development tactics your company needs.
Talent Over Skills
When seeking to fill a position, managers will pass along a set of “must-have” skills. They may feel strongly about this list and you should take them seriously. But you must also be willing to give some pushback.
Having a particular skill in your toolkit can get a new employee on the ground running to fulfill an important project timeline. But what about when that project is over? If that new hire doesn’t have the talent of learning new skills, she may be less useful to you over time.
Technical needs change over time. What doesn’t change is the need for tenacity at taking on a problem. You need to make sure the talents of your hires aren’t too rigid to change with a change in the market.
Multiply Your Paths To Success
Spread your skills around. Give your marketing and IT teams a chance to work together. Put your executive team in a room with your software or sales departments.
Shake up people’s daily routines and give your employees an opportunity to connect on a personal and professional level. Talented employees can excel at a variety of tasks. Give your employees a chance to grow through good communication.
If there are openings, let teams from every department know. Someone who has spent their life working in software might have studied advertising in college. They might have intimate details about your products and have a new perspective on how to sell them.
Hiring internally is an often overlooked tactic to building your company.
Perhaps someone from the shipping department has been taking night classes for an IT certification. Be sure that employees know that you promote hiring from within. You’ll build lifetime loyalty by showing that you appreciate people on a personal level.
Professional Development
If you’ve found people who have the talent to pick up new skills, encourage them by offering seminars. Many agencies will rent out their talent for training sessions. Find an engaging speaker to give your talent new perspectives on an old routine.
Conferences are good for employees too.
Look into upcoming conference opportunities and see if you can get day passes for your employees. This can give them a chance to see different approaches to problems they may face on a regular basis.
Conferences also offer cutting-edge concepts and technologies that may excite your employees and get them thinking about how to improve the workplace.
If your employees come to you about taking evening classes, always say yes. An employee who is looking to grow can add untold value to your organization. Employees who are excited about learning can bring back valuable skills to their team and solve problems more efficiently.
Personal Development
A great HR training and development program takes into account the individuals who they work with. If you’ve got a young and creative minded group of people working together, they’ll need more than just a ping pong table and beer on Fridays to feel close.
Give your teams carte-blanche to organize an event on a weekend sponsored by work. It can be a day at the golf course, a rafting trip or a weekend at a campsite. Figure out who they are and give them the ability to be themselves and you’ll find dedication will follow.
Hold seasonal family-friendly events for employees with kids. Hold them after work hours, encourage partners and employees without kids to join in. Give everyone without kids a task–serving punch, tying balloon animals, or painting faces–and you’ll find a bond will come naturally.
A foundation of strong personal communication will help your teams build strong business communication.
Build Your HR Team Internally
It’s important to be thinking about employees on a company-wide perspective but be sure to take care of things in your own department. Neglecting the development of your team and failing to apply those skills to your own HR team can cause HR to feel left behind.
Strong HR training and development practices should apply to HR professionals.
Be sure that change management and relationship management practices continue to grow for all of your team members. Often HR organizations hire for skill sets they know nothing about. This frustrates potential talent and makes the company seem disorganized.
Give your HR team the opportunity to build industry knowledge and familiarity with best practices. Be sure that every HR team member has a baseline level of understanding of the technical demands of your company. If your company deals with technical systems, HR employees should know the basic terminologies and their application.
Good talent wants to speak with knowledgeable HR staff and will be able to sniff out a good company through that familiarity.
If you’re struggling to build your team internally, companies like Clarionttech offer guidance and training.
Keep Your HR Training and Development Flexible
Not every organization is built to handle every aspect of human resources work. Knowing when to outsource the work to either software or a third-party organization can save time, spare frustration, and keep employees from feeling overwhelmed.
Make sure that you advocate for your HR team to have a seat at the table with the direction of your company. Know what your executive teams are looking for so that you can steer your HR training and development in that direction.
Smart executive teams know that a strong human resources department can add untold value to an organization. A well-oiled HR team will attract talent instead of having to seek it out. Stay ahead of the curve by staying flexible.