Are you serious about equality in the Workplace? Here’s some guidelines to help you create an inclusive and diverse workforce.

In the era of #MeToo and countless reports on the gender pay gap, many organisations are focusing purely on gender equality initiatives in the workplace.  While this is a positive and much needed move, diversity and inclusion has a much greater span than gender inequality.

Organisations that are serious about equality, gender parity and inclusion of all people in the workforce have been broadening and strengthening their diversity and inclusion policies.  When implemented correctly, these policies can create healthy work environments, promote respect toward fellow employees and assists with breeding an open and friendly culture.

Employees need to be aware of acceptable behaviour, which is critical when you consider the varying difference in lifestyles, attitudes and values.  Employees need to feel secure and that they are being treated equally and fairly.  Organisations that have robust diversity and inclusion policies as well as continued education for their employees in this space, ensures that individuals and their rights are protected. Importantly, if there is any type of discrimination, employees need to know how to identify, report and hopefully resolve issues.

What can you do to promote diversity and inclusion in your workplace?

There are many ways that organisations can invest in diversity and inclusion, the below are just a few recommendations that will have a positive impact in your workplace:

• Ensure your job descriptions are gender-neutral and state your commitment to building a diverse and inclusive culture on your careers page
• Review your HR policies to ensure all employees feel that they are included in the workplace, including –
  • Diversity Strategy – outlining the organisations commitment to promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace where all staff, regardless of their background, can achieve their full potential. The strategy should tie together a range of initiatives to support gender, disability, Indigenous affairs, sexual orientation, age and diversity of culture, as well as the broader equality, diversity and inclusion agenda.
  • Flexible working policy – focussing on flexibility being the norm and available to all employees, not just for mothers returning to the workplace,
  • Strong code of conduct guidelines that clearly define the standards of acceptable workplace behaviour
• Provide unconscious bias training for all employees involved in the recruitment
• Implement a Diversity network – these networks are normally responsible for organising events to raise diversity awareness and provide advice to the organisation on diversity initiatives.

 

The responsibility of compiling and maintaining HR policies and procedures should only be given to experienced HR practitioners who are well-versed with the current employment legislation and directions.

Whether you are located in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Canberra (or a regional area) HBA Consulting can provide you with a robust human resource strategy which will assist you with evaluating your organisations current policies and procedures as well as job documentation and website content through

We can also assist with workplace investigations if the matter arises, and we have an excellent workplace mediation service, to assist with working through matters and helping employees find a way to work together again.

So, Your HR Strategy Failed Again? Here’s What Might Have Gone Wrong

The importance of HR plans in an organisation cannot be stressed enough. Most organisations today understand the value of and need for a strategic HR plan. But just recognising the value of something and wanting it isn’t enough.

Building a human resource plan requires proper planning, diligence and foresight. Even with a competent HR team in place, an organisation is bound to face challenges when developing an HR strategy.

Here are some reasons why most HR strategies fail. Avoid these situations to ensure successful implementation of your Human Resource strategy and business growth.

Not having the “WHY” figured out

It might be hard to believe but many organisations develop an HR plan simply because all successful organisations have one. That’s it. There are no clear linkages to the corporate objectives of the organisation, how the defined objectives and goals in the HR strategy link to these and why the company is developing specific HR initiatives to drive some or all objectives and how are they going to benefit the employees and organisation itself.

To make sure the purpose of HR plan you develop doesn’t get lost in the process, it needs to clearly draw together these key linkages and demonstrate how it can really make a difference and benefit both the company and its employees.

At the end of the day, its not ‘HR’s’ plan its the businesses plan for creating and sustaining its people to do what it needs them to in order to deliver on its mission and corporate objectives.

There’s no plan behind the initiative

Another often overlooked aspect of an HR plan is the “how” of it. Having an HR strategy that lacks a robust plan explaining how you are going to do things is as likely to fail as an HR strategy without proper linkages to the business strategy and objectives or a meaningful role in the employment framework of a business.

There are companies that come up with HR plans full of standard principles and ideas like “we want to deliver the highest level of customer satisfaction” or “we want to be the best in the region”. These plans are just about high-level goals and aren’t helpful in terms of implementation at the tactical and operational levels of the business.

The key is to know both the “why” and the “how” of the plan.

Lack of communication

The worst case of HR strategy failure can be when there’s clarity in planning, concept, purpose and execution but there’s also a major communication gap. There’s no point in developing a strategic human resource plan with defined objectives and initiatives to be taken to meet those objectives, if you don’t communicate it properly, consistently and regularly to the business.

For an HR plan to work out successfully, it is important to effectively communicate the key components of the plan and how they will support the organisation in varied operations and meeting business goals.

Lack of sustainability

Almost every plan starts off with a bang, but it is not uncommon for many big plans to fizzle out soon after their launch. This often happens because the HR professionals and employees eventually lose interest and enthusiasm due to changes in workload, responsibilities or other company circumstances. It also can happen because its not actively monitored, progress again plan analysed and the results (or lack of them) reported to the Executive team for consideration and action.

To avoid the situation, be sure to consider the long-term impacts of the plan and how its gong to be measured, monitored, analysed and managed.

Think about change management issues and project risk

No matter how efficient your planning, implementing an HR plan without thinking over the change management implications and risks can (will!) increase the chances of plan failure. If it’s the first HR strategy or a new version of it, the change implementation issues need to be identified, considered and addressed. While you can’t always foresee everything that could arise in the future, you can still forecast and take into account some things that might impact in the future and that need to be managed now.

The Art of Attracting and Retaining the Right Talent in a Highly Competitive Market

What’s one of the biggest challenges faced by the HR team of an organisation?

Well, if you guessed “helping the business areas to find and select the best possible candidates for an interview”, then you are partially correct. However, it’s not just about selecting the right candidate by running a professional, role focused recruitment process.  What’s often even harder is to retain the people that are selected.

This blog focuses on the need to ensure that business areas and Human Resource don’t drop the ball post the recruitment process. The hard work of retaining and developing the new people coming into your organisation is where the real return on investment is either realised or lost.

While there is no doubt that a strong remuneration and benefits package including components like performance bonuses, flexible work arrangements and assistance with health/fitness and child care services do play an important role in successful recruitment and retention, they are only part of the picture.

A recent study declares 91% of employees at small and medium size enterprises identified non-traditional benefits (like child care and gym memberships) as an important aspect of their job attraction and satisfaction

These non-traditional benefits can have positive impacts on employees’ well-being and likelihood to stay with an employer. A further breakdown pf this headline statistics shows that

• 85% of employees feel non-traditional benefits improve employee morale.
• 82% feel non-traditional benefits improve employee retention, and
• 73% feel non-traditional benefits boosts company culture.

Below-mentioned are a few tips that will help you to retain the right talent, help to keep them happy and more motivated to work with your organisation over time.

ENCOURAGE HEALTHY WORK/LIFE BALANCE: Good employees love to stay with employers where there is some ‘give and take’ in how and when work is done. Allow them to take an off to attend their children’s sports day, doctor’s appointment. Give them a birthday off or allow them to do work from home occasionally. Good employees will appreciate these types of offerings from there and in turn they can help to motivate that ‘extra effort’ when it’s needed.

PROVIDE AUTONOMY TO EMPLOYEES: Don’t try to be a ‘Sherlock Holmes’ constantly watching over your employees’ every move.  Show trust in your employees. The right employees want to take ownership of their own work and usually do tasks independently in order to come up with the required results. Conversely, don’t put off providing feedback to employees when they aren’t delivering – because good employees can get quickly demotivated when they work hard and others are carried at work.

RECOGNITION AND REWARD: The feeling of being genuinely appreciated motivates employees like nothing else. Meaningful recognition serves as a great motivation for employees to perform their best and grow themselves while continuing to work with the company. A simple ‘well done’ delivered as close as possible to the good work being done, and in a meaningful way and genuine way is worth a lot more to an employee than an award certificate or morning tea.

THE TAKEAWAY

The job with a new employee doesn’t stop when the recruitment process is finished, and the new starter arrives. All that investment can easily be wasted if they enter a work environment and culture that isn’t aligned with the employee expectations as set through the process. Aligning expectations with reality at work is a key obligation for all employers. Take time, invest time in new employees, be honest about the work and the organisation that they will be doing, recognise good work consistently and genuinely – are all critical to attracting and retaining good people.

Having a holistic and robust human resource strategy in place will help you to attract, develop, reward and retain employees in the most effective manner.