How Effective is Your HR Department?
As head of the Church of St. Michael’s the Archangel in Manhattan, Father George Rutler has had a rather large staff. Therefore, Rutler is very sensitive to having an effective HR Department.
One of the best benefits of an effective HR department is that the HR staff is very sensitive and has its pulse on the need for payroll and benefits.
Pay too little, or not offer enough benefits, and it’s possible a business may attract only second-rate employees.
At the same time, overpay, and it will cost a business a lot of money. And fat and content employees may not be motivated to advance and grow.
That’s one reason why HR departments can be worth their weight in gold. They know how to motivate employees and get the best out of them.
And for great employees, retention is key. It is much more desirable to keep an experienced, valuable employee than it is to hire a new employee and get them up to speed.
However, every organization has to periodically hire new employees, and HR screening is essential. And the harder the job, the more involved HR may be in the process.
Father George Rutler believes that a good HR staff know how to scour the landscape to attract the attention of job seekers and keep in mind that the best employees often currently work for someone else.
So, an HR department will often need to spend many hours in the recruitment of the best candidates, and once hired, HR departments are critical to the success and integration of a new employee into the company culture. This often involves detailed training programs and the pairing of senior employees with the new employee as mentors.
Unfortunately, the HR department also is called upon to be the bad guy to enforce the rules. Employees occasionally cross the line in racial or sexual harassment situations, drug and alcohol problems, and things such as simple absenteeism.
When to draw the line to protect the company against possible lawsuits, as well as to keep the rest of the employees content, and when to be compassionate and offer second chances, and even company paid for treatment programs is a delicate balance that HR departments must deal with.
The HR department will also be called on to negotiate benefits with health insurers and work with payroll companies to ensure employees are paid in a timely manner.
And as many of the issues concerning HR are regulated by law, an effective HR department must work with legal specialists like Scheid Cleveland in Colorado to make sure a company meets every city, state, and federal regulation.
A good HR department is critical to producing a workplace that people actually want to work for, and will tend to stay for a long period of time.
And HR departments are also a critical part of helping a business cut when times are lean or helping a business plan on how to organize itself as it grows.
Companies that want to avoid a lot of turnover in staffing can play a lot into whether a company as a whole is successful or not.