By the HR pros at Mineral
When you spend your day putting out fires, dealing with drama, and keeping up to speed on the latest compliance obligations affecting your business, it can be difficult to step back and assess the overall health of your HR. Fortunately, you don’t need to conduct an extensive audit or pore over detailed reports to confirm that your HR is in reasonable shape. A pulse check will do in most cases. Here are some signs to look for:
Employees Generally Adhere to Your Instructions
Getting people across an organization to follow policies, processes, and procedures is no easy task. “Herding cats” is an idiom for good reason! If for the most part your employees adhere to your instructions for timekeeping, requesting time off, enrolling in benefits, and the like, you’ve clearly communicated those instructions effectively. Kudos to you! And give yourself an extra pat on the back if you’ve successfully implemented new ways of doing things this year.
Employees Are Comfortable Asking Tough Questions
Are your employees willing to pose challenging questions to you or other members of leadership? Do they ask you to explain the reasons for your decisions, justify a change, or press you on why you don’t offer this or that benefit? You might think these sorts of questions indicate a workforce that’s unsatisfied with the way things are—and that could be the case—but the fact that employees are willing to probe for answers is a sign that they trust you. They feel safe. They don’t fear retaliation for seeking answers or admitting they’re not entirely satisfied. Trust and psychological safety are very difficult to build and easy to jeopardize. You’re doing a lot right!
Employees Provide Honest and Candid Feedback
If you solicit employee feedback, and they don’t hold back giving it to you, take heart. This is good. It means employees trust that you won’t retaliate in response to their candor. It also indicates that employees believe their taking time to opine on the state of their workplace has value. They understand you can’t please everyone and that not every insight or suggestion will lead to positive change. But they do believe that you take their thoughts and feelings seriously and will make good faith efforts to improve.
Employees Seek to Resolve Mistakes Internally
As we all know, mistakes can be costly, especially when lawyers and enforcement agencies get involved. But even the best employers make mistakes. When a mistake happens and affected employees seek to resolve the issue internally, it means they don’t feel any need for that extra layer of protection. They trust you’ll rectify the situation. As we noted earlier, that level of trust is not easy to come by.
Employees Share Your Job Postings
Do your employees share job openings with friends or post the link to your careers page on LinkedIn? If yes, awesome. You’re an employer they recommend!
Employees Take Advantage of Perks and Benefits
In some workplaces, people are hesitant to take vacation or personal days or devote time to employee groups, fun activities, or optional training during work hours. They fear they’ll fall behind or be judged less favorably during performance reviews. On paper, these workplaces may respect work-life balance, but in practice not so much. If your employees happily take advantage of the perks and benefits offered by your organization, that’s a sign you have a culture that truly respects your employees and treats them fairly. Congrats!
As always, reach out to the team at KMA for guidance!