When your business reaches a certain size, you will find yourself needing some help managing your team. It’s a great stage of growth and a really exciting time for businesses. But it also means you need to make some tough decisions. For example, do you hire an internal HR manager for your business? Or do you outsource the function to an HR company?
Whichever avenue you go down, it’s important that you find an HR solution that’s proactive, and not reactive. By definition, reactive HR is when you have an HR function, but they only really come into play when something goes wrong. This is sadly quite common in smaller businesses and often happens when the HR function is mixed with another function, like accounting or management. This arrangement might sound ideal for the budget-conscious business, but in reality, a reactive HR function can do more harm than good.
What Is Reactive HR?
Reactive HR essentially means your HR function doesn’t do much until issues arise. At which point they react, taking action on that issue until it is resolved, and then carry on maintaining the status quo. For example, a senior team member hands in their notice, so they will look for someone to replace them. They won’t necessarily have been evaluating the needs of the team on an ongoing basis, upskilling people so that they can move someone into the senior role right away so that they can easily fill the new vacancy with a junior role instead.
There are a lot of reasons businesses end up with a reactive approach to HR, from being relatively small and not knowing how their HR department should function when it’s so new, all the way through to higher management restricting what HR is allowed to do. Either way, having a completely reactive HR function is only slightly better than not having one at all, and the main reason is that passive HR can be damaging to your business and everyone in it.
How Is Proactive HR Different?
Proactive HR is exactly what it says on the tin. It’s taking a proactive approach to your company’s HR function. Active involvement in the employee lifecycle, maintaining employee relationships and overseeing the development and training of employees. Regularly reviewing and updating policies and procedures, improving recruitment processes and working with employees to provide appropriate benefits. In short – active HR is all about being involved and solving problems before they happen – rather than just reacting when they do.
Why You Need Proactive HR
Proactive HR is generally the better route forward to any business. By being actively involved in the HR process at every stage your business can:
Find better candidates for vacancies: Being able to fill roles quickly with highly qualified and suitable candidates is the dream for many businesses, but it can feel a bit like looking for a golden unicorn. The only way to achieve it is to take a proactive approach to your recruiting process. That means succession planning and employee development so that you can promote from within. It means understanding where skills gaps are within teams so that you can fill them with the right people. And it means being proactive about developing and maintaining a full candidate pipeline that allows you to move quickly when you need to. This proactive approach means you can reduce the time to hire, keep you on track for your goals and free up HR to focus on wider strategy instead of scrambling to fill vacancies when they come up.
Prioritise employee development: By listening to what your employees want; you can provide it in much more effective ways. One of the biggest complaints of employees is that there aren’t enough routes to career development, which is often why great employees end up leaving. But by engaging with your team and listening to them, you can provide additional training and create opportunities that will be valuable to them. This boosts employee satisfaction, productivity and retention in one go.
Foster a positive company culture: Studies have shown that employees who work in companies with a positive company culture perform better across the board. Company culture is a powerful thing – it can impact sales, profits, recruiting efforts and employee morale – all in a positive or a negative way. Employees who feel listened to and supported by their HR department are likely to be happier, feel valued and motivated, feeding into a positive company culture.
If you don’t have the capacity to do all of this in house, then it might be time to consider outsourcing to an HR specialist. Bringing in an HR consultant at an early stage can help you design a proactive approach to HR and ensure you stay on top of everything you need to, without taking up more of your time than needed.
At Karen HRM, we work with businesses across the south to create HR policies that are proactive, not reactive. With our help, you will be fully prepared for any legal issues you could face, and you can enjoy peace of mind knowing that your policies and procedures will always be up to date. You will also have your own personal HR advisor on call to help with employee issues, maintain relationships and support your business and your employees. If you’d like to know more about how we can support your business, just get in touch with the team today to book your free, no-obligation consultation.