The HR department may be one of the silent departments that operate in the background of a business or organization. However, this does not mean that the HR department does not play a crucial role in achieving success for the business. This is because the HR department primarily focuses on hiring the very people that will shape and mold the business towards success. Thus, it comes as a must to measure the productivity of the department itself. And there are actually top 10 tips to measure productivity that can greatly assist you here.

However, before we do discuss these relevant tips, it would be better to understand first the very reason why HR productivity has to be measured. There are so many reasons underlying this facet in any business or organization.

What first comes to mind when you hear the phrase HR department? For the most part, people would probably think about the HR department being responsible for recruitment and selection for any given company. This is indeed one major responsibility of the HR department; however, it is most certainly not the only responsibility that the department has on its shoulders. Aside from recruitment, the HR department also focuses on payroll, compensation, benefits, employee relations, and other legal matters. These are very important aspects HR personnel deal with every single day for all the employees in the company.

These and more are just some of the reasons why it is very important to measure HR productivity. Here are some tips that can come in handy for this endeavor.

#1. Focus on percentage improvement in terms of productivity. This pertains to the money spent on people costs for every generated revenue in terms of dollar. Compare the improvement, if there is any, between the present year and the previous year.

#2. Focus on quality of recruiting. For this, you should check the performance appraisal of scores of the new hires. Just check for the average here. If a lot of new hires have been promoted to higher positions, then recruiting is of much quality here.

#3. Focus on retention. Is the turnover rate high or low? How is the performance turnover when it comes to key positions in the company?

#4. Focus on compensation and benefits. Check for the percentage outlining the employees’ pay that is quite risky, especially when based on job performance.

#5. Focus on employee relations. Determine the turnover percentage of the managers that are rated at the bottom of the pile. How are employee relations between these bottom-rated managers and the employees they handle?

#6. Focus on training and development impact ratio. Determine the difference between the employees who take jobs offered due to development opportunities and the employees who leave the company because of a lack of said opportunities.

#7. Focus on the give away or take away ratio with your competition.

#8. Focus on the impact of HR on the business results of the managers. A survey is conducted here where the overhead functions of all managers are ranked according to importance. This helps managers focus on business performance goals.

#9. Focus on HR expenses per employee. If expenses are at an all-time high without significant results, then HR productivity becomes questionable.

#10. Focus on employment brand strength. Another survey is conducted to check if the applicants do view the management practices of the company as positive.

We all know how important the productivity of employees in a certain workplace is. This is because the overall success of the company greatly relies on just how productive its employees are. And this is the primary reason behind the pressing need to measure, control, and improve employees’ productivity.

Measuring, controlling, and improving the productivity of your employees is not as easy as one may think. Organizations all over the world have long been trying to come up with concrete ways to measure the productivity of employees. This is quite hard because there are so many aspects of productivity that are quite difficult to quantify in the first place. However, over the course of time, many specialists and such have come up with what are known as Productivity Metrics, to accurately measure employee productivity.

So, what exactly are these metrics? And how do they measure productivity? The main thing to remember here is that for you to measure productivity accurately, you need to know a few things first. These include the purpose of such measurement, the method to be used for such measurement, and the desired result or outcome of the resultant action that will take place after such measurement. These technical terms translate to you having to know the reason behind measuring productivity, the method to use to measure productivity, and the desired outcome or course of action that will take place to address the results of the measurement. These are the underlying concepts behind productivity metrics.

To answer the question pertaining to purpose, you need to check the goals and objectives that the organization originally put up during its very foundation. As for the method of measurement, this would then be your very own productivity metrics already. These are the quantitative figures that you will be using to quantify and measure productivity. The resultant action, on the other hand, would depend on how far the organization is from realizing corporate goals and objectives. And because these productivity metrics are crucial for the success of the organization, then they can also be aptly termed as Critical Success Factors or CSFs.

With all of these aspects defined, the next logical step would be the implementation of the metrics themselves. For the metrics to be properly implemented, you should first identify each contributing element. These are: the metric’s name, the metric description, the measurement procedure, the measurement frequency, the threshold estimation, the current threshold, the target value, and the units. The metric name and its description show what needs to be measured. The measurement procedure explains how measurement would take place here, whereas frequency pertains to how often this measurement would take place. Threshold estimation focuses on the calculation of the thresholds of measurement. The current threshold, in the meantime, is the value rage within which the measurement is considered normal for the metric being measured. The target value pertains to the best value possible for the metric, while the unit pertains to the unit used in measuring the metric.

All of these aspects are put into play as part of the means to measure, control, and improve the productivity of employees. As long as these are properly put into place, there is much promise for the accurate measurement of productivity and for the development of appropriate solutions towards the improvement of productivity here.

Conducting productivity-based employees training should be made a priority for human resource departments of organizations, regardless of their nature or organization size.

According to a report furnished by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), average training investment per employee is pegged at less than $1,500. About half of this budget was spent on training programs that are more technical and professional in nature. Two percent of the said amount was spent for orientation of new employees while about three percent was spent on training about competition, quality and business practices. Still, a number of companies do not bother to spend even a single cent on training. This is especially the case for those companies that experience high employee turnover. Because the profits these organizations obtained per employee are less than the training expense they would have to shoulder, they have a difficult time justifying such expense. Ironically, while high employee turnover could be a reason not to launch a training program altogether, the latter could also be a solution to the former. With proper training, employees become more productive. When they are productive, they feel more satisfied with their jobs and will be motivated to continue with their employment.

Today, it is an undeniable fact that companies not only compete in terms of goods and services. They also compete when it comes to attracting highly-qualified employees, experienced or otherwise. In fact, majority of fresh college graduates prefer to be employed by a company which they perceive as very committed in investing on training programs for their career and personal growth. Highly-qualified employees are considered very hot commodities especially since they are expected to be more productive and will generate a high profit per employee ratio. Matching and offering these employees with job positions where they are most suited is also necessary. More often, this responsibility falls in the hands of human resources personnel, labor relations managers or training specialists. These people provide the necessary link or connection between employees and top management. Ideally, human resource departments are concerned with enhancing and improving employee productivity and morale, improving overall organization performance and minimizing job turnover. The people in this department are also tasked to provide adequate training so that employee skills and development opportunities will be maximized and level of employee satisfaction on their working conditions and jobs are increased. Third-party organizations are also available to provide training programs that are especially designed and tailored to the training and development needs of their clients.

Given the tight competition prevalent in many industries today and the fast-pace of technological development, more and more managers now acknowledge the fact that the key to business success and growth is investing on skills and knowledge development of their workforce. Despite being costly, the benefits derived from this investment will be enjoyed by an organization in a long-term basis. Moreover, productivity-based employees training programs will help the workforce develop not only the confidence to perform their tasks but also a sense of loyalty towards the organization they belong to.

There are actually a lot of tips to improve the productivity of HR department. But one particular tip is very efficient that it begs to be discussed in detail. This tip actually involves the installation of an efficient computer system, more like, a database for all the data and information that any HR department would acquire about their employees and such over the years. This database is actually a piece of software that installed onto the system. Now, this can be costly. But if you think about it, the benefits would definitely outweigh the costs entailed in the long run. Imagine the bulk of information any HR department collects about its employees over time. That much information can then be organized by means of this database, which entails much convenience for any company.

This concept is not new at all. There was indeed a time when the basic tasks HR departments handle would be stored right onto main frame computers. These were the only computers at the time that could handle that much data for the whole system. However, being main frame computers, the operation and maintenance of such required the skills of many IT professionals and such, just to make sure the system is up and running. This is very costly, so this practice was cut short.

Today, however, HR departments can now enjoy the benefits of what are known as client server HR management systems. These systems primarily focus on the main responsibilities of HR departments, which are payroll issues, time management, labor management, compensation and benefits packages, and HR management issues. Because these are the only aspects a client server HR management system focuses on, then running such a system would not be that costly anymore.

There are actually many software applications that you can choose from today. The important thing to keep in mind here is to put into context the nature of your business, and the needs of your HR department. This way, your needs would be prioritized and the applications would be made to fit your needs.

There is even one such software application that allows you to gather all kinds of HR information and data that you need for your system. Once you are done collecting such data, all of these are then converted into a single format, so that the process of inputting them is made easier as well. The relevant information can then be weeded out from those that are not relevant, and then processed accordingly.

The convenience this brings is indeed a tip that can do wonders in improving the productivity of HR departments. You just might want to consider getting one of these software applications for your company now.