What is an HR health check and Why Does Your Company Need It?
Just as you would take yourself for a health check, the same applies to your people function. An HR health check will provide you with an audit of your current HR systems and documents and provides valuable feedback on any areas that may require improvement.
It involves an assessment to ensure your company meets legal requirements, are achieving the goals of your organisation, and that there are no areas of concern. Some of the typical functions an HR health check will cover includes:
- Contract of Employment and policies
- Hiring
- Pay
- Discipline and Grievance
- Dismissal and Redundancy
- Employment status
- Exit interviews
- Health & Safety
- Performance
Our health check will identify any issues including changes that can be made to rectify these.
It is important to carry out an HR health check for your company, for several reasons.
Legal Compliance
You need a clear picture of where your Company stands when it comes to legal compliance. For instance, ensuring the company is adhering to GDPR. An HR health check will give you the opportunity to assess every aspect of your legal responsibility towards your employees and ensure that your company is compliant. When this is undertaken regularly, it means you will not end up with hefty fines, which is likely if you are found to be in breach of any legislation. This can happen accidentally if you are not aware that legislation has changed.
New Strategies
It is vital for companies to review their HR strategies and develop new ones as the business grows. For instance, a small business of 5 people will need completely different HR strategies to a business with 200. Your HR health check is a good opportunity to determine whether your current HR strategies are fit for your purpose and to make changes where necessary.
Improve Retention
The state of your HR strategies will determine whether you are able to retain your staff. For instance, if you don’t have training and development strategies in place, this could drive employees to your competitors. Similarly, if there are issues with your recruitment and selection processes, this could prove to be problematic for your recruitment efforts.
Positive Culture
The HR processes you have in place can determine whether you have a positive culture. If your staff are unhappy with some processes and find them frustrating, for instance, if they are convoluted, it could affect how happy they are in the workplace. There may be issues with payroll and employees may be regularly querying the accuracy of their pay. These are issues that may only come to light through an HR health check. When you undertake your HR health check, it will give you the chance to look at your processes in detail, including any flaws, and make changes to improve these. A positive culture is vital if you want to ensure your business will flourish and be a place where people want to do their best work.
Competitive
Another key benefit of an HR health check is to ensure you are a competitive employer. It may include reviewing and assessing your salary and benefits to determine whether they are in line with similar companies. It may also include reviewing your training and development processes. It is important that you keep reviewing these, otherwise, you may end up losing your best talent to your competitors. Things change quickly and it is imperative to keep up.