Top HR Strategies

Top HR Strategies

As we step into the aftermath of one of the biggest tragedies of the modern era, the world is not the same, and probably will never be. Business verticals are back to the drawing board, and so are HR managers. This new era needs new plans, policies, and strategies, as words which were seldom used like quarantine and lockdowns are now common. In 2021, HR managers have a lot on their hands to take care of, something more challenging than ever. If you are one of them looking for some inputs for 2021, here’re the top HR strategies for the year:

1. Revamped Skill Development Programs

The global crisis has refuelled the importance of skill development, and therefore, it is only sane to invest in skill development programs for existing and new employees. The better skilfully equipped they are, the better they can perform under stressful and testing times. Moreover, if your employees are better skilled and more efficient, you need to hire fewer people, cutting down extra burden of HR costs on the organization during this phase. Also, skill development programs help the employees to achieve their personal development goals, keeping them motivated to work more dedicatedly and thereby retain them at your organisation.

2. Nurturing Future Leadership

Plant a seed today, so that you can reap the fruits tomorrow, quite a traditional saying. However, it is not just about the top leadership. The lockdown saw companies lay off a number of mid-level managers, and filling those gaps proved to be quite a task. Therefore, it has become essential for HR managers to help the current crop of junior employees develop leadership skills. Experienced companies that provide HR services in Mumbai, Delhi, and other metro cities, like Prompt Personnel, can help your employees a great deal to hone their skills through extensive training programs, shaping the leaders of the future.

3. Redesigning Employees’ Work Experience

The daily routine of an employee prior to the pandemic has become absolutely redundant. Gone are the days of travelling every day to the office in traffic jams and crowded trains. With work-from-home and virtual meetings becoming the “new normal”, HR managers need to design strategies for employees’ work experience keeping these changes in mind. This includes flexible work times whenever possible, integrated setups for remote workforce, introduction of technology and automation wherever possible, personalization, and dynamic reward and incentive mechanisms.

4. Focus on Contractual Employees & Freelancers

While most of the organizations are still in recovery mode, it may not be feasible to fill all the vacant positions with full time employees all at once. Contractual employment is the next best option. HR service providers like Prompt Personnel can help you with extensive contract staffing solutions that can be less time-consuming and more economical. Likewise, hiring services of freelancers will also help you access specialized talents without spending much. Including these two options in your strategies will help you cut down on employment costs to a substantial extent.

5. Better Mental Health & Wellness Policies

The pandemic has impacted a huge proportion of people in the world with mental health issues such as depression and anxiety on the rise due to various reasons like loss of job, isolation etc. Mental health is an important aspect for an employer to consider while laying down HR strategies for the current year. Including employee wellness programs have become important for helping them stay emotionally healthy. Employers also need to rethink their health policies and find insurers that provide a more comprehensive cover. While these steps are beneficial for the employees, it will yield better results for the organization in the long run.

To build a strong strategy, it is important to have inputs from the experts. Being one of the leading HR Firms in Mumbai, Prompt Personnel has excellent expertise in HR planning and management. Working with Prompt will help you lay down the right strategies for your organisation, especially in such times that we find ourselves in.

Ask a Recruitment Expert: How to Build a Recruitment Process

Ask a Recruitment Expert: How to Build a Recruitment Process

Recruitment is one of the key driving forces of every organization, and hence, managers need to place special emphasis on improving recruitment processes. And how do you build a process?? By asking a pro. Recruitment is a professional process of hiring the best talent for an organization, by employing the minimum possible time and resources. It includes a number of stages such as identifying suitable candidates, attracting, screening, shortlisting, and interviewing them for selection. Here’s what experts think you need to build a robust recruitment process:

1. Clear & Extensive Advertising

Advertising is an important factor in building a successful recruitment process. The more you advertise, the more applications you will attract. This will help you to have a wide range of talents to choose from for the openings you have. However, for your ad campaign to be fruitful, it needs to be clear in describing your requirements and what you have to offer. The last thing you want is a barrage of underqualified applications for a position that will only waste your time scrutinizing and rejecting them.

2. Definitive Mechanism for Evaluation

Once you receive all the applications, you will need to process these applications for selection. Selection is usually a multi-level process, going right from the HR to the top-level management. At each level, the company must have a clear mechanism for evaluation, which would ease the workload of the recruiters as well as the candidates. While the mechanism can be altered or bypassed as and when required, having a preset evaluation system helps you evaluate the candidates on merit, and subsequently make better calculated decisions.

3. Simplify Onboarding

You may have the best selection process, but if your onboarding procedures are complicated it may turn off deserving candidates. Cumbersome procedures have a history of delaying processes, and make it more of a chore rather than an experience. Therefore, you need to simplify onboarding as much as possible. Make the clerical work to join your company simple and easy so that they are less stressed once they are on the floor. This also includes simplifying bank account linking, PF & ESIC, enrollment to facilities, ID-Card Procurement, etc.

4. Ensure Optimum Compliance

Compliance will have more relevance in the post-pandemic era than ever. Not only while recruiting a new employee but also for the existing employees you need to ensure that all the laws are complied with, especially the labour laws and other laws related to employees’ rights. Any gap in compliance could cause unnecessary delays in the process, sometimes resulting in heavy penalties by the labour law authorities too. End-to-end HR solutions companies like Prompt Personnel that provide recruitment services also offer labour law compliance solutions. You can utilize their expertise to stay totally compliant and ensure you don’t end up on the wrong side of the law.

5. Hire a Reputed HR Consultancy Firm

To be a pro, you have to be with the pro. Working with reputed recruitment consultants like Prompt Personnel gives you immense experience in the core competencies required for building a successful recruitment process. Such HR firms can offer services to a large number of clients across several industries, which helps them generate an extensive database of candidate profiles and analyze market trends. Data analytics and insights from a reputed HR consultancy firm give you a competitive advantage in building a more efficient recruitment process.

Working with professional recruitment service providers like Prompt Personnel not only gives you useful insights that help you build a strong team but also expedites the entire process. Moreover, banking on their strong team and exhaustive candidate profile data, you’re more likely to find the best talent for each role.

How to Mitigate the Risk of Compliance in a Remote Work Force

How to Mitigate the Risk of Compliance in a Remote Work Force

To say the very least, the unprecedented times that we are in have altered the ways a human mind thinks. With lockdowns in most parts of the country terms like remote workforce and work-from-home have become the new normal. However, the new ways of functioning have posed some of the most challenging questions which have caused managers across industries to reimagine business operations and find ways, not only to survive but also to thrive. 

One of the toughest challenges out of all is the compliance risks, which is not only a key concern for industries such as banking, finance, and insurance, but almost all those that are involved in classified information or confidential client data. We’ve already witnessed several instances throughout the country of compliance and data security breaches directly or indirectly caused due to remote workforce. However, there are certain steps that can help you minimize compliance risks to a great extent:

  • Regularly Analyzing the Regulatory Directions by the Government

Unprecedented times have called for unprecedented measures, and you wouldn’t want to be on the wrong side of the new laws. Therefore, you need to keep a regular track of all the new government directions and amendments in labour laws, and regulations related to the specific industries. It is a no-brainer to hire a firm that specializes in labour law compliance and advisory, consult someone like Prompt Personnel who have a dedicated team of labour law experts to ensure clients stay compliant.

  • Deploying Technology to Ensure Maximum Data Security and Employee Activities

Technology hasn’t been more important to companies than it is in the post pandemic era. And there’s been a considerable amount of innovation in finding solutions to the new problems and needs. Look for such solutions, see what would help you track your employees’ activities while working on your cyber systems, and what could be more helpful in protecting confidential information, and deploy it. There could hardly be a better investment in such dire times.

  • Enable Automation Wherever Possible

We’re living in the digital age, an age where machines are intelligent, but only as much as we want them to be. This also means that they are more trustworthy than human beings as humans have the power of choice, but the machines don’t. Therefore, it only makes sense to go for automation as far as possible. Though, the only question is how far can you go and still be within limits of the labour laws. An expert labour law advisor, like the ones at Prompt, can help you practically understand the extent of automation you can have and still be compliant of the laws.

  • Thorough Background Verifications of New Recruits

While background verification of new recruits itself is a crucial part of compliant staffing processes, it holds even more relevance in the post pandemic age. It is not as much about hiring talented professionals, as it is about hiring those with a proven track record of integrity. While working remotely gives you access to talent from all over the country, it also invites influences from various cultures and communities. Therefore, having a reliable partner with a nationwide presence, is a great asset at this time. Employees with clean records, credible academic and professional credentials automatically reduces a certain part of compliance risks companies face in a remote workforce.

If you follow these steps and consistently monitor your processes, you will definitely be able to minimize losses more efficiently. Partner with Prompt, and we will make sure that you have the best practices in place to avoid any compliance risks in a remote workforce.

Background Verification Basics – What You Need to Know

Background Verification Basics – What You Need to Know

Hiring an employee is quite similar to adding a new member to the family. Once they’re in, they are the company, its heart and soul. To avoid any future regrets, it is essential to thoroughly verify the credentials furnished by the employee, and their background. In the digital age, where Deepfake is the new normal, background verification has become more important than ever. With the evolution of technology, methods of verifying backgrounds have also evolved over time. However, the basics still remain the same, albeit the approach towards them has changed. To help you have a clear idea on the basics of background verification and modern techniques of approach, here are a few tips that you need:

  • Identity Verification

Identify verification is one of the most basic background checks you need to make – ensuring that the would-be employee is indeed the person he/she claims to be. This includes verifying the authenticity of government-issued IDs, photographs, and other identification certificates. While this might seem quite obvious, to make mistakes where you never expect is a human tendency. Top background verification companies like Prompt Personnel can help you a great deal in this regard, as they specialize in such services.

  • Address Verification

Address verification is another important aspect, which is a tedious one, given the fact that the company has to do it for every new employee. And that’s a lot, especially in industries like IT and BPO. A few hiccups here and there is all needed for a verification breach, and that’s not a good sign, to say the least. Address verification includes verifying rent agreements, electricity bills, and also about previous residential history. Hiring experts with a pan India presence, is the smart thing to do, given the fact that they have employees in megacities from all over the country.

  • Criminal Database Verification

This is where you really don’t want to go wrong – verifying the criminal record, or the absence of it, of the employee. The last thing you want is a sexual offender or a cyber security hacker to get into the cosmopolitan culture of your IT or Pharma company, where patents and secrecy is the key. Especially for those companies with zero-tolerance policy, it becomes even more important to verify criminal records for potential employees hailing from places far and wide – another reason why background verification companies in Mumbai like Prompt, who have a presence in 8 metro cities in India, are of immense value.

  • Credential Verification – Academic, Employment & Professional Reference 

One of the key parameters to assess the candidate are the past credentials. This includes academics, employment experiences, professional references from previous organizations, etc. Consequently, verifying credentials is the most crucial part in the process of staffing, especially while hiring for influential posts of team leaders, managers, surveillance personnel, etc. While academics help you somewhat judge the capabilities of the employee, employment and professional reference verification help you to evaluate behavior, consistency, dedication, and professionalism. 

To solve your necessities of background verifications, Prompt Personnel offers a complete suite of verification services. And coupled with the nationwide network, it is the only firm you will ever need for background verification and other staffing solutions. 

Debunking 5 Myths about Temporary staffing

Debunking 5 Myths about Temporary staffing

The year of the pandemic has caused businesses a lot of disruption in their operations and many have taken a hit. This has inadvertently led to many businesses tightening their budgets and cutting costs. Amongst such cost cuts, manpower costs have been on the forefront. It has been an uphill task for managers to make a decision on hiring activities. In such a scenario, Temporary staffing has proven to be a silver lining for many businesses which were hesitant for permanent hiring.

Small businesses or even large multinational conglomerates benefit largely from temp staffing. One can not only fill up the gaps in the company and support the workload but also meet the seasonal demands of the business as well as improve productivity by availing temporary staffing services. As the economy is starting to go on the positive side, more and more companies are inclining towards temporary staffing for reasons such as –

  •  Cost-efficiency
  •  Helps to maintain appropriate staffing levels
  •  Increased productivity
  • Time-saving
  • Reduced training costs

These advantages are also accompanied by certain misconceptions that companies and even employees still have. Read on to differentiate myths from facts as temp staffing is the future. 

Myth 1: The employees will only be there for a temporary period

Yes, employers can avail temporary staffing services through agencies but the duration of the workforce totally depends on the employer. The employers are free to retain the employee for as long as the project duration or even hire them permanently. The staffing agencies are just a mode to avail the necessary workforce whenever needed, however it is the discretion of the employer to retain the employees for as long as the business requires.

Myth 2: Temp staffing is expensive

Nothing can be as distant from fact as this myth. Hiring temporary staffing agencies will help you to not only save time but also effort and money. These staffing agencies are made up of professionals who specialize in sourcing, training, and appointing employees based on your requirements. All the duties, from conducting interviews to the recruitment and training process, will be taken care of by these firms. In turn, you get to focus more on the output, key performance areas, and thereby increase the turnover. 

Myth 3: Temporary staffing may not give the benefit of quality talent

This is yet another myth. Studies have shown that in recent times, more and more employees are looking for part-time or contractual jobs as they need more flexibility and want to try various job exposures. So, opting for temporary jobs helps to meet their needs and enter the workforce. Moreover, staffing agencies invest a lot of time and effort to conduct a thorough background check and ensure that the final candidates match the client’s requirements. 

Myth 4: HR vs Staffing agencies

Many companies believe that their HR division will take care of the recruitment process. But the reality is that in most cases the HR teams are large enough to maintain normal business profits. Moreover, HR needs to monitor other important aspects of the company as well related to compensation and benefits. In cases where we need to fill up immediate vacancies can increase the workload on the internal HR teams. Thus, hiring temp staffing agencies will not only help to fill the vacancies in a quick turnaround time but also be cost and labor efficient. 

Myth 5: Staffing agencies only fill entry-level positions

This is yet another myth that is far away from reality. These staffing agencies have all the necessary tools, knowledge about the industry, and sources to look for the best-suited candidates. From sourcing in entry-level employees to skilled employees matching the job profile, staffing agencies may prove to be beneficial. Temporary staffing has got much more attention in the previous few years. Many renowned and specialist recruiting firms are offering the best temp staffing services to reduce the financial burden from the companies. 

If you are concerned about how temporary recruitment works, we at Prompt Personnel can help you understand this better. With over 2 decades of experience in Temporary staffing, we provide end-to-end services right from recruitment, onboarding, payroll, compliance up to full and final settlement.

Top employee retention strategies

Top employee retention strategies

Employees are considered as the backbone of a company and they play an important role in the development of an organization. If an organisation needs to flourish it will require a team of efficient and productive employees. Employee retention strategies include policies adopted by companies to reduce the turnover rate or lower employee attenuation to a considerate level.

Why are employee retention strategies essential?

A well-described employment policy along with a healthy environment is essential to give a morale boost to the employees. Higher rates of employee turnover don’t only impact business productivity but also hampers the workplace culture. Moreover, the company may incur a lot of expenses in filling up the space of the departed employee. Permanent staffing companies in India are well equipped to provide ideal employees to match the company profile. 

Employee retention strategies

This article describes some of the best employee retention strategies that organizations can adopt in 2021.

  • Hiring the right people

The uprising of a company begins with hiring the right people who fit with your company’s culture and are aligned with your organization’s goals. Hiring top talents not only increase the company’s performance but also boosts employee morale. Staffing companies in India have established a thorough recruitment process that helps employers to hire the right talent. 

  • Advanced onboarding process

New employees want to be valued by every member of the organisation. Once the recruitment process is done, the managers must ensure the onboarding process is exciting and engaging. An advanced onboarding process also helps to generate trust among the newly hired and the existing employees. Digital on boarding is one of the best ways to combat the current situation and make employees well acquainted with the company and its policies. Digital onboarding has set a new pathway by overcoming the traditional challenges and streamlining the hiring process.

  • Conducting career development program

Organizations must regularly conduct career development programs. Career development programs are one of the best strategies for employee retention. The managers should conduct one-to-one meetings with their team to get proper feedback. Such programs will lead to understanding whether their goals are being met, and also check if any progress is being made. Even in today’s new way of remote working managers must take the time to understand the strengths, weaknesses, capabilities and skills of the employees. It will help them to find out the areas of improvement to draft their training schedule.

  • Give more positive feedbacks

Work from home is a different ball game. It requires smart and efficient communication between managers, team and people across the organisation. Monitoring, scheduling is crucial for work from home. It demanges regular communication as well as optimum vigilance between managers and teams. Managers or business owners should make sure to give positive feedback to motivate their team. Positive feedback can include appreciation mails, handwritten notes, communal praising, and many more ways that boost their productivity as well as dedication towards the company.

  • Work-life balance

The global pandemic has caused great unrest and has created uncertain ambiguous situations. Working professionals find it difficult to cope up with the blurring lines between work and personal life. To retain the job position, combat the situation and secure the future an employee must maintain a balance between personal and work-life. The company must provide its employees with flexible working hours or work from home scenarios to maintain this balance. This balance, in turn, helps the employees to concentrate on their duties and increases productivity. 

  • Respect ideas and thoughts of employees

No matter if the staff is permanent or temporary, the management should always give a chance and an open environment to employees to share their ideas. Not only will their input make them feel valued but also give them the zeal to work harder. This will in turn impact the employee retention at the organisation.

  • Build a reward program

Building a rewarding system will help the employees to understand that their hard work has paid off. They will feel appreciated and thereby have a positive perception of their workplace. 

  • Offer an alluring base salary

The employees must feel like their hard work is being appreciated. The companies can offer attractive base salaries that will make the employees feel valued for their time and effort. 

In India, several staffing companies provide excellent staffing solutions. Whether looking for temp staffing or a more permanent solution, these HR staffing corporations can do wonders. Hereby, it can be stated that the profit of a company largely depends on the professionalism and proficiency of its employees. Employee retention can help to acquire the desired stability in these unstable and difficult times. It can streamline the work and inculcate great confidence in the employees as well as organization. Companies must incorporate newer strategies and adopt advanced techniques to retain their employees and stabilize organisational working. After all, employee retention is the key for success of any business. 

Business Enquiry