At least 50 percent of a company’s profits are contingent on internal situations — whether or not there are unsolved problems with employees.
If you have challenges in one department, odds are you have HR issues in other departments.
In fact, human capital is the No. 1 reason why CEOs lose sleep at night.
However, you can turn your human resources department into a profit center.
Businesses need an objective source of information and expertise from critical thinkers from either inside the organization or from outside.
Certainly, it’s vital to have a resource — someone who is up-to-date on contemporary issues.
You need at least one expert with fresh eyes to foresee and solve challenges.
That means experts who know how to evaluate situations – big and small – to deliver solutions that benefit you long term.
To turn your HR department into a profit center, you need to be prepared in several ways:
— Cultural change
— Employee attitudinal surveys
— HR audits
— Wage and compensation studies
— Employee handbooks
— A sounding board for bosses; a critical thinker with whom to talk and to discuss challenges and ideas
— Executive coaching for you or your managers
— Mentoring for employees
— Training programs, especially soft skills, for teamwork and customer service and sales
To save time and money you’ll want to hire expertise – a skilled HR consulting firm that has seen such challenges before and has proprietary methods to help you become more profitable.
Look for the following:
1. Master strategist
You’ll need a consultant with a rich background and extensive experience to help you with your big-picture and how it’s affected by specific challenges. That necessitates someone who stays current in best practices, and who will provide the best service, and who will share concepts with you and your employees for your organization’s long-term benefit – not just for the short-term.
For instance, let’s say there are workplace policies that need to be updated. But you want your policies to be accepted and followed by your employees. Employees are often uncomfortable with change even if it’s necessary for a business turnaround. High morale among employees propels profits. An expert consultant will provide tips to market your HR-policy changes to employees.
2. Time savings
It costs organizations money to delay improvements. It’s in your best interests to implement the right strategies and metrics for business profits. So hire someone who can generate results in a timely fashion to save you valuable time and money.
3. Cost vis-à-vis investment
If you have any kind of human resources concerns, such as developing non-financial incentives to motivate employees, hire a consultant who can advise you on staff and operational costs and implement strategies.
The time you spend on human resources is usually better spent dealing with your marketplace challenges. Make sure it’s someone who will deliver results – so it’s an investment in your future – not just an expense.
4. Adaptability
In this dynamic marketplace, you can always count on change. Proverbially speaking, employees are where the tire meets the road. Savvy consultants know how their clients can profit from human capital to motivate employees to offer profitable ideas.
Such knowledge is a powerful weapon for high performance in a competitive marketplace. Furthermore, there’s a correlation among excellent sales, happy customers, and high employee morale.
Often, change is rapid. You need a consultant who will anticipate a looming tsunami – someone who is flexible with changing conditions that obstruct your profits – to help you realize your vision for success.
5. Legal considerations
Perhaps you need to prevent problems, have a need for internal investigations, to prevent unnecessary employee complaints, mediate employee concerns or to avoid Equal Employment Opportunity Commission discrimination suits.
Worse, you might need to learn how to respond to EEOC complaints.
Often, there’s a simple strategy to prevent legal issues. When companies implement outstanding employee-engagement programs, they’re more successful.
6. Objectivity
Some challenges are difficult to solve and require an outside participant, especially in sensitive matters. Employees sometimes fear consultants. However, an experienced consultant handles situations adroitly and soon employees are very accepting. That’s especially true when the employees begin to see and enjoy positive developments.
In conclusion, to get your money’s worth from a consultant, you might be surprised to learn you have to use best practices in your role as the client. For strong results, it’s not just a matter of hiring a consultant, forgetting about it and expecting work to get done.
You’ll get top results after retaining a consultant if you’re at the top of your game as a client. Make sure you get your money’s worth from a consultant.
From the Coach’s Corner, here related HR tips:
10 Steps to Manage Conflict for High Performance — For progress, a business needs human interaction for ideas and innovation. Sometimes, argument, debate and conflict prove to be productive catalysts for high performance. But such catalysts can be obstacles to success, too. Here are the simplest ways to manage conflict.
13 Management Tips to Solve Employee Absenteeism — Absenteeism causes migraines for a lot of bosses. Obviously, your company will make healthier profits, if you don’t have an absenteeism problem. Check your attendance records. You’ll see Monday is the most-abused day of the week and January is the worst month for absenteeism.
Management/HR – How to Increase Profits via Employee Turnover — As cost centers, human resources have opportunities to shine whenever they act as profit centers. And employee turnover presents opportunities for companies to make money.
Hiring? 4 Pointers on Negotiating Wages with Job Applicants — Some employers have had difficulty in successfully extending job offers to applicants, especially Millennial professionals. It’s not uncommon to interview applicants who aren’t shy in negotiations with their inflated egos and salary expectations. Of course, that wasn’t the case in the Great Recession.
“Management by objectives works if you first think through your objectives. Ninety percent of the time you haven’t.”
-Peter Drucker
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