The closer HR is to the business, the better it can serve the business, believes Karl Jolly, director of people at Welcome Break Group.
He certainly considers himself to be an ‘ops’ man through and through rather than being one step removed from business.
As a result, Jolly offers us advice based on his own experience of how HR can best keep in step with business and truly support its organisational aims:
1. Keep it simple
Make sure that you have a very simple purpose that relates to what the organisation is trying to achieve. It’s all too easy to get caught up in day-to-day HR matters and so not take that step back to check that your actions really are totally in line with the bigger organisational vision and strategy.
2. Focus
Keeping those organisational goals in mind, identify three or four specific things that the HR team can do to actively help implement them. The team needs to focus most of its efforts on achieving those key aims.
3. Measure
It is crucial to measure how you are delivering on those three or four main HR strategies so benchmark your achievements and take note of areas that require more attention.
4. Small steps
Alongside formal benchmarking, members of the HR team should be encouraged to assess how they are working towards those goals, even in very small ways.
