Leadership and sales training Australia

It is critically important for Human Resource Management that it has the credibility to be a voice at the table of the Executive and at Board level.  The fundamental purpose of HR strategies are to provide the organisation with the resourcing strategies that it needs to meet the demands of its business.  This extends from basic human resource management (the right number of staff with the right skills for the right roles to deliver on the organizations goals) through to professional development and staff engagement practices.

Building credibility in these tougher economic times has become even more critical as the actions taken in this area could be the difference between a company surviving or thriving.  Not to mention that HR functions are sometimes seen as an area that can take staffing cuts when costs need to be reduced as they are not part of front line delivery.

I have been impressed of late with the type of activities that some HR departments have implemented in order to save organizations from taking the drastic action of redundancies and significant downsizing.  For example, a large organisation in Australia looked at their annual leave bank and offered flexible leave arrangements to all staff.  Staff with significant leave accrued could choose to work four days a week and take the fifth day as annual leave for up to six months.  An additional category was added to their metrics, “inactive”, and the annual leave day allocated to this category as the monies for annual leave were expensed to a different line item.  Total FTEs were then calculated on “active” days so overall their FTEs were reduced when reporting to the Board.  This saved them a significant amount of money from their bottom line and enabled them to avoid deep staffing cuts.  They also have a skilled, full time workforce, ready to return to full time hours when they need it which is starting to happen as things are brightening in their industry sector.  This is only one of a number of innovative strategies that the HR department enacted.  I consider it an impressive action by the HR team and also by the CEO and Board who were willing to take on these initiatives rather than turning to traditional cost cutting responses.

This has prompted me to talk about my experience as an HR and Organisation Development practitioner and some of the things that I have learnt.  Over the next five days, I will be posting blogs that provide insight into actions that HR departments can take in order to build their credibility and change their thinking (or keep it fresh in their minds) about their role within organizations.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts too.

Rosalinda