Eight Ways to Evaluate your HR Function

HR is under scrutiny to manage costs better, demonstrate its effectiveness and show how its contributions add value to the organization. Many HR departments claim they are a ‘business partner,’ but few can provide evidence that they are having a strategic business impact or are even seen as a valid partner by managers.

It is critical that all HR activities be correctly measured and evaluated. This evaluation will allow for a demonstration of how HR contributes to the success of the organization. As HR has become increasingly scrutinized for its real contribution and return on investment (ROI), the need for evaluation is greater than ever.

All HR activities can be measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. There are many different assessment and measurement tools that can be used to measure HR effectiveness. Eight very useful methods are:

1. Organizational Quantitative Criteria (e.g. measuring profit per employee)
2. Specific Quantified Criteria (Employee behavior such as turnover, absenteeism {Bradford Factor} or service-level criteria such as time to fill vacancies)
3. Achievement of specified goals (e.g. all staff trained in X by date or establish an Employee Assistance Programme for all global staff)
4. Service level agreements (e.g. response times for recruitment and selection or handling of employee grievance investigation)
5. Subjective overall evaluation (g. Quality of advice and services provided as observed/experienced by an independent evaluator)
6. User reaction measures and employee satisfaction measures (e.g. on-line staff surveys or exit interview data)
7. Benchmarking (e.g. compare what the HR function is doing within the organization with what is happening in a similar or matched organization)
8. Predictive analysis (e.g. evaluating quantity, quality & cost via appropriate metrics)

Evaluation and measurement have become a central HR issue. Yet, HR Professionals typically misunderstand the subject. If you attend out course: Leading Strategic HR Transformation – Enhancing the future of Human Resources as a Valued Strategic Partner you will learn how to evaluate and transform your HR function based on best-practice and proven methods.

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