Checklist to maximise the impact of human resources in your business

People will always be the lifeblood of business. Human interaction will always play an integral part in business success. The digital revolution and rapid technology advances means the face of business is changing and individuals roles will change accordingly.   

“Your biggest pain point is often your biggest opportunity”

I am often asked how to get the biggest human resource impact in the shortest possible time. This is obviously a difficult question and one that changes by organisation, industry and what stage of the growth phase a business is in. Business owners have war stories about their employees and what I have found is they often get overwhelmed. Where do you start?

“Your culture is the sum of thousands of small actions”

Taking action is the key, but where? Here are my top three HR focus areas that will have immediate and long-lasting impact if executed well:

1.       Organisational structure

Structures must be functional and thought out. More often than not organisational structure evolves around individuals and not essential business functions. Without a focus on functionality communication and performance can’t be optimised. Managers should have no more than four to six direct reports and succession should be transparent and obvious to everyone. Each role in an organisation should have a simple, useful role description that is linked to the organisational structure, not an individual. Ensuring you have a functional organisational structure is critical.

2.       Connection to your purpose

A purpose or mission is why you do what you do, it is the business you are in and depicts a feeling. It is the way you connect your team and encourage them out of bed every morning or to go the extra mile. Your purpose should be forever pursued, but never achieved and causes goose bumps when discussed. Many businesses are yet to find their purpose and what their flow-on effect is on the world. Your purpose should be supported by a story that engages people and success comes when your tribe is engaged. People connect to your story and want to get on your bus.

3.       Customise your employee ecosystem

There is a plethora of HR frameworks, that when linked together create an ecosystem that underpins your HR strategy. There is true power in a customised ecosystem linked to learning, communication efficiency and performance. There is no one size fits all, but a customised internal ecosystem that links HR frameworks will ensure you get the most out of your people and takes pressure away from managers by providing direction.

We need to nurture the dream believers to optimise performance. Executing the three areas above well, will help you leverage your human capital investment. Don’t be overwhelmed, take action and focus your energy where it can make a difference.

Creating more engaged employees might be your biggest opportunity and it will certainly make a difference.

Sue-Ellen Watts is the founder and director of wattsnext, specialists in HR, recruitment, compliance and people performance.