By Suzanne Gordon-Brown
While we start the year with great intentions, it’s so easy to let that ‘to do’ list grow and grow, especially when it comes to fine-tuning those essential business practices.
That’s why if you have a team of employees, it’s advisable to carry out an HR Health Check for your organisation. Think of it as a business MOT – something that you should be doing every year to benefit you, your team and ultimately your commercial operations.
What is an HR Health Check?
Put simply, an HR Health Check is an independent, impartial and disciplined review of your HR practices and procedures. Its purpose is to help you reduce risk and cost, improve performance, and demonstrate where HR can add value to your business.
An HR Health Check is a preventative measure rather than a reactive one. You don’t need to be in the middle of an HR nightmare before you carry one out – in fact an HR Heath Check may help you to avoid just that.
Just like an MOT, this process is all about ensuring your business is legally compliant (or roadworthy), that you’re addressing any concerns (making sure your brakes are working) and that you don’t leave yourself open to any potential issues (that your tyres are fully pumped up and ready to go).
What to think about when performing an HR Health Check
An HR Health Check is vital when thinking about the future of your business. It identifies areas of risks, issues that may damage employee relations or your business’ reputation.
It is also a great starting point for establishing future HR strategies and for identifying projects and priorities.
Unfortunately, HR issues and policies can feel overwhelming, but by carrying out this vital business process, you can break down those big chunks of HR information, into smaller, more digestible bites. This will help to create a bank of reliable and useable HR information and allow you to set manageable targets.
Before starting an HR Health Check, these are the main areas of consideration:
- Staff handbook
- HR policies and procedures
- Recruitment and selection processes
- Remuneration and benefits
- Induction
- Exit processes
- HR personnel files
Once you have gone through these areas and carried out your HR Health Check, this will help to identify any gaps in processes, ensure consistency and allow you to update all relevant documents.
How SGB HR Services can help
At SGB HR Services, we take the stress out of those policies and procedures and help you to understand your legal obligations in easy to understand, jargon-free language.
Get in touch with us to find out how we can carry out your HR Health Check to save you time and enhance your business operations. Once we’ve carried out the relevant checks, we’ll be able to advise you on areas for improvement, areas where you’re doing just fine and how to move forward.
Your HR Health Check will improve your confidence in dealing with employee issues, make your employees feel more valued and resolve any issues in your business’ HR strategy. Contact Suzanne now on sgbhrc@gmail.com to arrange your HR Health Check.