The 8 HR Best Practices You Need To Follow In 2023

Gone are the days when the human resource department was only involved in hiring and retaining staff, with the constant update and evolution in hr tech Human resources have been working in a wide range of areas from managing the organization’s policy to the performance of the employee, they have become well adapted with the needs of the business. Modern-day Human resources are well versed with a new generation of job seekers and are aware of the meeting expectation of the organization and employees aided by HR tech.

What are HR Best Practices?

HR best practices are a standard set of universally accepted guidelines that represent the best and most efficient course of action for the organization in a given situation.

Although every company is different and has its own requirements, HR practices serve as a foundation and act as guidelines in defining the roles and responsibilities within the organization. This practice can be shaped into a newer form by combining different styles of human resource practices and incorporating them into today’s modern workforce.

COVID-19 has changed the way we work; with 83% of people opting for a hybrid workforce, working from home has become the new norm. The 2023 HR best practices need to incorporate these changes and set up a business plan to cater to the employees’ needs. These practices can help not only improve the quality of work but also help in increasing employee engagement, and retention.

Human Resources best practices checklist

Here’s a checklist of 8 HR best practices to consider implementing in 2023:

1: Recruitment and Selection:

Finding the right talent has become more difficult than ever. There has been an increase in competition in the job market, skills shortage, cost savings, and work around budget constraints. You have to put greater emphasis on the hiring process so that you won’t miss out on good candidates.

During the hiring process you need to ask yourself :

Are the current hiring processes in alignment with the current business goals and needs?
Have there been more than one bad hire last year? If yes, then review the source, the department affected, and the process that was followed.
What does the candidate’s experience look like? Is the time taken from submitting the resume to interviewing for the roles too long? Did you communicate properly the skillset you want in the candidate? Did you keep the candidate informed at each stage of the interview process? Did you make efforts to provide feedback to employees who were rejected?

Spend some time understanding the hiring process, checking for areas of improvement, and incorporating HR tech like an applicant tracking system (ATS) to track the employee journey.

2: Incorporating Talent Management in the organization:

You need to incorporate talent management practices in your organization by identifying the gap in your current workforce like understanding the training needs of the employee, how to measure success at each stage of the employee lifecycle, and providing proper feedback for growth.

The talent and performance management process include:

Identifying the employee needs such as voluntary turnover rate, motivation to perform, and policy changes in consideration with the structure of the organization.
Communicating the roles and responsibilities of the employees, setting up a goals tracker to monitor their progress, and garnering valuable performance feedback.
Creating an incentive program to motivate the employee and award the best performers.
Give proper feedback to the employee by setting up an annual or semi-annual employee performance review process where the employer can share positive and negative areas of improvement, and look for an opportunity to train and develop employees.
Provide proper training and development to new employees and an opportunity to upskill and reskill employees who have been with the company for a long period of time.

3: Training and Development:

Organizations nowadays are taking training and development initiatives to improve the job performance of the employees within the organization. These programs can be created in-house using a Learning Management System or LMS Software with a focus on learning practices like classroom lectures, job-related certification, role-playing, and e-learning.

The training and development should focus on:

Setting up peer-to-peer learning: Not only will this help in training new employees while working on the job but also helps during knowledge transfer when an employee leaves the company.
Setting up peer feedback: This is one of the most effective ways for encouraging employee engagement and setting up a healthy culture within the team. Feedback encourages learning from one another and motivates them to work towards common goals rather than just personal goals.
Setting up a learning path that is designed for the professional development of the employee helps boost productivity. You can implement blended learning along with synchronous learning to adapt your employee learning path to their needs.
Asking employees what they want to learn is also a way to improve learning and engagement in the organization. When training and development shifts from a bottom-up approach you can clearly understand their current skills and what type of training would benefit them most like managerial training for people in junior positions.

4: Engagement and Open Communication

By open communication we mean having transparency with your employees, HR should focus on creating an open communication channel where employees can be heard and feel motivated.

These practices include:

Setting up communication across the organization where employees can speak directly to senior leaders and deliver information to higher-ups whenever needed. In addition, having an open forum or all-hands-on meets where employees can introduce themselves and let existing employees ask questions or share inputs with the company.
Ensure employees are comfortable with the communication tools assigned to them and remote communication tools like Slack or Zoom are set up accordingly.

5: Maintaining Business Transparency:

Here transparency means how easy it is for the employees to access information about the organization they work for. This includes information like business successes and failures, new signings, etc. This process helps prevent rumors or stress within the organization which could lead to demotivation and lack of productivity.

6: Rewards and Recognition:

HR should work on recognizing talents and rewarding them with proper compensation. This creates a much better environment for the employees and builds a relationship of trust and boosts employee morale.

These practices include:

Reward high-performing employees with monetary benefits coupled with public appreciation. Creating a bonus structure that aligns the goals of the business with the performance of employees.
Other than cash rewards, HR can practice providing other benefits like setting up flexible work hours, remote work days, overtime pay, an “Employee of the Month” award, and other non-monetary incentives.

7: Prioritize Workplace Safety

The importance of workplace safety hasn’t changed, but there is undoubtedly a renewed emphasis on this crucial HR practice. While some individuals may have only ever associated workplace safety with factory work or using caution around large gear, this is not the case.

Regardless of the size of the business or activity, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted all organizations to prioritize employee safety more than ever. Employees may just quit showing up for work if they do not feel comfortable and cared for and this can be a serious cause of concern.

8: Conduct offboarding with care:

Employee offboarding is more than just an employee leaving the company, it is a full-fledged process of formal separation between an employee and the organization which can be due to several reasons like resignation, termination, or retirement. HR should follow a proper offboarding practice for the employee so that they have a smooth and positive experience before leaving the company.

This process includes:

Conducting a proper exit interview: The feedback provided by an employee who is moving on from the organization can be very helpful in planning out new HR policies as this feedback is free from any biases and often very honest. This can help gather information about why the employee is leaving and address any issues with the organization.
Having a proper knowledge transfer so that the replacement of the leaving employee is aware of his duties and job roles. You must also help the departing staff to properly document the responsibilities, and transfer business knowledge and project ownership.
Retrieving the asset given to the departing employee and in case of damage to property proper cost deduction can be made from their final pay.
Restricting access to company documents like client files, sales-related information, or other critical pieces of information.

Conclusion:

Unlike 2022, 2023 will be different for HR in terms of managing the organization. HR will still have to put a lot of effort into finding the finest candidates, developing them professionally, managing their performance, paying them fairly in terms of compensation and perks, and developing reliable procedures for raises and dismissal. These 8 HR best practices are intended to assist you with suggestions and insights to facilitate a high-functioning culture in your organization.