HR departments face an uphill battle because they must cut HR costs while also boosting productivity and employee engagement. With super competitive markets and capricious economies, businesses are under incessant pressure to lower costs and maximize profitability. Human resources costs are among the unexpected costs that businesses may need to contemplate.
Here’s the good news! You can both reduce HR costs and boost employee engagement at the same time. Here’s how –
1) Making the right hires
When cost-cutting is taken into consideration, recruiting is one of the first things that is cut down. This is one of the first initiatives taken by businesses to reduce costs. Honestly, this may not be the ideal thing to do. This is the best time to figure out your recruitment process and to make sure that every person you hire adds value to your organization.
Recruiting becomes a costly affair when it is done incorrectly. It is an integral part of business growth, and poor hiring can directly affect employee motivation and engagement. If your company has a revolving door of undesirable recruits, it can directly impact staff morale and your employer brand.
Recruitment is an end-to-end process and where HRs should speculate as to what didn’t work and find solutions the same. Ask the right questions – Is it the appropriate skill set? Was it the person’s charisma? Cultural fit? Was there a gap in your hiring process that overlooked an important aspect of the role? Invest your time to sternly evaluate the overlooked gaps and how they can be avoided in future hires.
The hiring perspectives may vary from business to business as different industries demand different criteria that need to be fulfilled. The act of engaging others is closely associated with team building, collaboration, and fostering connections with colleagues and teammates. Hire passionate, committed employees who are culturally a good match for your company during the hiring process thereby stabilizing unnecessary HR costs.
2) HR Automation can change the game
Human resources automation (HR automation) employs software to automate and optimize repetitive and time-consuming operations to assist an HR department in personnel management. By deploying new-age HR Tech, HR services can boost productivity and bring value to the company by focusing on more complicated duties like strategizing initiatives that deliver a bigger business impact. The time spent on employee onboarding can be reduced considerably with HR software. In addition to providing HR leaders with candidate tracking, employee onboarding and offboarding tools, people analytics to aid decision-making, and an employee database, most good HR software also offers performance management tools.
Automation of HR processes will increase employee engagement by also allowing them to self-serve and manage their requests for annual leave, training, and expenses. As a result, employees have access to their HR files, meaning they can easily find the information they need, and they are in control of their personal HR experiences.
On successful implementation of the right HR Tech, expect huge cost savings and improved employee experience which will have a long-lasting impact on the organization.
3) Incorporate the Right Training Programs
Most cost-cutting strategies make learning and development the first casualties. On the other side, upskilling through learning and development can save HR costs while also increasing employee engagement in the long run. While reduced employee turnover is unquestionably a benefit of investing in training, it can also help you boost your productivity. This is true not only while the employee is at work, but also when an employee is absent or leaves; if a colleague has gotten the same training, it is easier for them to take over their responsibilities.
Could you transfer some staff training online if it is inevitable that L&D spending must be cut? Employees can get virtual training for a fraction of the expense of in-person classes using tools like LinkedIn Learning. Alternatively, enlist the help of some of your employees to create online tutorials, films, or instructions that can be shared with the rest of the company.
Evaluate the cost for everything. Identify the gaps in what demands manual attention and what can you automate. This will eventually help you reduce your HR costs to a great extent without impacting productivity and employee engagement.