The Business Impact of Better HR
Published on by Jay Rammes, Amy Hehman, in Fractional HR Support & Client Advisory Services, Video
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The Business Impact of Better HR
A funny thing about HR challenges? They rarely stay confined to HR. An unexpected departure can disrupt payroll and benefits, inefficient processes can create unnecessary work and increase the potential for errors, and high employee turnover can affect morale, productivity, recruiting costs, and day-to-day operations.
So it’s important to get it right.
The good news? The right HR strategy can do more than solve an immediate problem: it can uncover opportunities to strengthen the organization for the long term.
Two recent client experiences show what that can look like.
How an unexpected HR departure turned into an opportunity
When a longtime HR professional unexpectedly left, our client’s immediate challenge was clear: someone still needed to handle payroll, benefits, and everything else that keeps HR running.
Within days, our fractional HR professionals stepped in as an interim team, providing support at the strategic, operational, and administrative levels.
But filling the gap was only the beginning.
A fresh look at the HR function revealed opportunities to optimize existing systems and streamline workflows. Disjointed processes were creating additional work and increasing the potential for errors, while the organization wasn’t getting the full return on its HR technology investment.
By evaluating those systems and processes, our team was able to help the organization improve workflows, provide training and coaching, and determine what type of HR talent it would need going forward.
Instead of simply replacing the person who left, they recognized an opportunity to build a more efficient and sustainable HR function for the future.
Getting to the root cause of employee turnover
At another client, high turnover was creating challenges in a critical area of the business. The effects were spreading beyond open positions, contributing to poor morale, repeated recruiting demands, and operational disruption.
Rather than assuming compensation was the problem, the fractional HR team recommended going directly to employees to understand what was driving the turnover.
Through employee listening and facilitated focus groups, we gained a clearer picture of what employees needed. Among the issues uncovered were a lack of career paths and opportunities for personal and professional growth, along with a need for additional management training.
Those insights gave leadership specific areas where action could be taken. After the recommended initiatives were implemented, turnover was reduced by half.
The value of an outside perspective
These experiences demonstrate another potential advantage of fractional HR support: objectivity.
An outside advisor can bring a fresh perspective informed by experience across multiple organizations while serving as a neutral party when employees are asked to share feedback. That independence can help employees speak more openly about their concerns and give leadership better information for making decisions.
Most importantly, the goal isn’t simply to identify problems, it’s to find practical solutions the organization is prepared to implement.
Whether you need immediate help filling an HR leadership gap or want to address a persistent workforce challenge, taking a strategic look at HR can reveal opportunities that go well beyond the original issue.
Better processes. Better employee experiences. Stronger retention. And ultimately, a stronger business.
If you’re facing HR challenges in your business or non-profit and want to talk to one of our fractional HR pros, contact us for a free consultation. As always, we’re here to help.
Related content
Download our free Fractional HR FAQ, with answers to the questions our HR pros hear most often. We also have a Fractional HR Toolkit, packed with resources to help you make the most of what HR can do for your organization (and that’s free as well). Or take our HR Assessment, which can help you identify challenges and unearth compliance issues that could be putting your business or non-profit at risk.
