Workforce management is an ocean, and organizations need to employ a variety of practices and policies to ensure that their workforce management efforts are successful.
Gone are the days when employees had no exposure or many expectations from the company; today, there is increased awareness among all parties about the role of employees as assets of the organization, and therefore, they would have to be treated as such.
In this post, we will see some good practices to implement for better workforce management:
Increase transparency in decision-making
Opaqueness into HR decisions is one of the primary reasons for employee dissatisfaction and demotivation. If merit and efforts do not gain results and if there are biases in decision-making, employees get disillusioned and leave the organization. To avoid, this, organizations have to ensure that there is complete transparency into making decisions, especially ones that have an effect on the whole organization like succession, promotions, bonuses, etc.
Collaborative recruitment
Often, recruitment becomes the headache of the recruiter and the manager will not be involved much in the process. This is wrong, and any miscommunication that happens at this stage will result in a bad hire that will be costly for the organization in the long run. Therefore, it is essential that recruitment is done in a collaborative manner with all the stakeholders participating in it effectively. all of them must have clearly-defined roles and responsibilities.
Eliminate silos
Close on collaboration is the bit about eliminating any silos that come in operations. In HRM, a lot of stakeholders are involved, and for the process to be run effectively, there should be effective data- and information-sharing practices instituted at the workplace. It is also a good idea to centralize data as it helps with analysis.
Explain goals to everyone
It happens in organizations that the line employees never really know or care about the organizational goals. Often, through poor workforce management they are involved with their own work, and do not have time to think about contributing to the organization, and this shows in their work, where they will just be doing their tasks without thinking about the big picture.
This again leads to silos and inconsistent way of doing things, which is detrimental for the organization. Therefore, leaders and managers should take the time out to explain the organizational goals, and the part each employee plays in attaining their goals to everyone. A focused and effective workforce management plan that esnures everyone is working towards a single direction is much more useful than a bunch of them working on their own.
Effective performance management
Not all employees perform at their best from day one. Their performance needs to be nurtured and managed, and organizations have a big role to play in this. There needs to be an effective and meaningful way of measuring employee performance and offering feedback to them so that they can improve.
The old ways of performance measurement are broken, and care must be taken to ensure that these programs are more useful for the stakeholders. Periodic measurement and feedback are essential for the organization to execute effective workforce management and allow employees to grow.
Take care of the culture
Organizational culture is always present, whether intentionally or by neglect, and will impact the organization one way or the other. If not taken care of, the culture becomes lax, and it will show up in the results. Employees will be disengaged and demotivated, and the workplace will become static and sloppy instead of dynamic and vibrant. Therefore, it is essential for the workforce management plan to take care of the organizational culture and take steps to improve it.
Effective communication
Effective communication can make up for so many things. Even if the employee is not happy with an instance or an occurrence, if it is effectively communicated to them, they can still be placated. And it is not an overstatement to say that communication is the bedrock of workforce management.
Every employee must be made to feel an important asset of the organization, and communication makes this possible. Therefore, at all levels, care must be taken to ensure communication is optimal. This should also reflect in the way the organization interacts with outsiders.
Technology
With so much to take care of and keep track of, how can workforce management be effective without the smart use of technology?
Today’s HR solutions available in the market are highly advanced, and equip HR professionals and employees with the means for success. These solutions introduce a lot of automation in HR operations, and make all the processes and tasks streamlined. This helps all the stakeholders carry out their tasks faster and better.