Every HR professional knows when employees ask a question they expect a response pretty fast. If not resolved in a timely manner this can cause a disruption, impact employee morale, and decrease productivity. Here you'll get the 3 steps to get your HR Department rocking and elevate employee morale to new heights. 

Standardize HR Requests

If your standardization of HR requests is to suggest employees put something unique in the subject line of an email you might be working harder than you need to. Making the process through which employees make requests of their HR  Department a consistent, manageable process can transform the effectiveness of your HR team.

Standardize HR request processes by providing employees with a self-service portal - an HR “storefront” for the business where they know how and where to send requests. 

What is an HR Self Service Portal? 

An HR self service portal is a website where you direct your employees to go to gain answers to the information they seek. Here's a few other key benefits and reasons to have an HR portal:

• Empowers employees to udpae their personal information
• A strong FAQs section can reduce HR requests.
• Forms easily downloadable and electronically fileld out versus the stream of requests for W-4's for just one example.
• Easy access for employees to reveiew benefits and pay stub information.
• Employees can make other changes like direct deposit.

A consistent approach allows HR Managers to work toward making improvements based on the data that a self-service portal can provide. This ensures that measurement is based on true data rather than subjective opinions. Most importantly these tactics help HR do more with less. When employees become a part of the process they tend to compalin less and focus on work more, all for the better of the company.

Improve HR Responsiveness

While it's true most employees requesting assistance of an HR Department expect immediate service, it's not an expectation that should be the default. The reality for every HR Manager is responsiveness is more about expectation than true time tables. If you allow employees to set a time table of the priority it may help you be more successful. 

Are you crazy, letting employees choose a response time!?"

No, we're not crazy! Don't forget: if you choose the options, you decide the outcome. A way to eliminate those special employees who let everyone know HR is slow to respond is to make response time mandatory which allows the employee to set the time frame yet the HR Manager controls those time frame options. Here are some response time frame cosndierations:  

Priority Now  Route these requests to a phone call direct to the HR team. Employees can easily say "now", but when they have to take the time to call during normal business hours and share their needs, they may be likely to accept another priority level. The HR Specialist can enter this request in the standardized system.

5 Business Days This is a reasonable time frame for almost any request. This gives your team the opportunity to follow up with the employee, get any clarifying questions answered and complete the request in a reasonable time frame. 

In the end, one of the most efficient ways to improve responsiveness is to make sure the HR requests are sent to the right specialists. There's nothing worse than losing a couple days because the HR request bounced around the HR Department or was left in someone's hands who could not address the need. When a company shows they care about employees by being responsive to their personal needs employees are more likely to stay engaged as 

Improve HR Quality

Reduce the risk of human error by automating requests that are typically managed through unstructured methods like email or phone. Not only will this help the HR team to respond sooner but with increased efficiency quality is not far behind.

Become proactive vs. reactive when it comes to employee requests. Work to better understand the volume and types of requests handled by HR. Then, evaluate HR resource utilization to drive staffing efficiencies and improve service levels. 

HR Automation Bonuses Review

It is the modern age and everyone gets automating the HR Department can be beneficial, but what are some of those extras you might expect beyond improved employee feedback or increased response times? The reality is money savings. Investing in an automated process will reduce the manpower required to achieve your company's objectives. This means more budget to take care of your existing team who will now be getting more done. 

According to this study on the biggest challenges facing Human Resources Departments by Villanova University numbers 3 & 4 on the list are HR effectiveness measurement and organizational effectiveness. 

A more efficient HR department leads to greater morale. Being able to  make improvements based on actual data will benefit the employees themselves, as they are the ones providing the feedback. This will raise productivity levels and create a positive work environment leading to better productivity.

If you want to learn more about simplyfying your HR delivery, you can download a free guide here. Maybe you have a general question on how automating HR can transform your business and help you overcome the challenges of rocking HR? If you want some free advice or insight on moving your HR Deaprtment to the next level, just send us a question on this simple form and we'll follow up soon!