How to spot an overburdened HR department and what to do about it

Manchester office

Your Human Resource department should run like a well-oiled machine, providing your business with the right amount of support to ensure that it can perform at its best.

A properly functioning HR department ensures that you can hire and retain the right talent, as well as support the development of this talent as your company grows.

Because HR rests at the core of any business, an overburdened HR department poses a risk not only to employee satisfaction, but to the productivity of the business itself. At its worst, the problems of an inefficient HR department can become apparent to customers and clients, and can impede growth.

How to tell if your HR department is overworked

1. Paperwork is piling up

If employees’ requests for vacation take ages to answer, it might be a sign that HR simply has too much on their plate. When work piles up, communication suffers, potentially leading to a culture of distrust of the HR department.

2. HR staff members frequently call in sick

Employees calling in sick frequently are a sign of potential burnout, something an employer should be avoiding at all costs.

3. Teams in your company are not working well together

Overwhelmed HR departments can’t spend the time they would like to fostering a cooperative company culture, and end up spending inadequate time onboarding new employees. This can lead to misunderstandings or divisions between teams in your business. Further, a stressed HR team may struggle to retain the best talent, leading to high turnover and straining relationships among staff members.

Long-lasting solutions for effective HR management

Finding help for your HR department does not necessarily mean hiring more HR staff. A sustainable solution that will accompany your business’ scaling goals should aim to reduce the amount of work that HR is responsible for. This means streamlining and automating tasks, and reducing reliance on time-consuming paperwork. Increasingly, businesses are turning to technology for exactly this purpose. HR management software affords HR teams the time and resources they need to carrying out
HR best practices
effectively.

What to consider when choosing an HR management software

The best HR software is holistic, covering all aspects of your HR department’s responsibilities, and accompanying your employees through the duration of their time with your company. For example, software like Personio is easy to set up and use, and offers businesses a streamlined, structured approach to HR tasks, from recruitment to offboarding. The software helps your business move away from relying on complicated Excel tables and file systems, and toward simple platforms that can easily track anything from employee attendance to payroll.

But there are also other aspects to consider. Because HR departments collect sensitive personal information on a business’ employees, the security of HR management software technology is especially important to keep in mind. In particular, make sure the software follows the guidelines laid out by the European General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR).

Furthermore, effective HR management makes it easier to evaluate an employee’s performance or see what effect a change in staff had on productivity. Look out for HR software that includes performance analytics: this can help provide useful data upon which to base decisions for promotions and bonuses, providing a solid foundation to further grow your business.