Addressing people-related concerns is one of the key areas where HR lags behind, considerably and which needs immediate attention along with improved time management in acting on employee concerns, reveals the latest TimesJobs study.
“While organizational structures and employee attitudes have undergone a paradigm shift, the HR function has been slow to adapt to this change. Most HR functions are still structured for an industrial economy rather than a people economy. For most businesses the biggest value lies in the people of the organisation rather than machines or patents.”
“To deal with this new generation of employees, HR leaders need to make concerted efforts to improve their employee engagement, HRM practices, policies and procedures in order to bridge the perceptual gap revealed in this study.” says Nilanjan Roy, Head of Strategy, Times Business Solutions.
Inaccessible HR
The majority of employees say they do not have good access to HR for advice and assistance. 60 percent employees say they face problems in finding and obtaining access to right person in HR department to get their problems addressed. In addition, 15 percent further say that their problems are never resolved.
In most cases, when there is a resolution, 45 percent employees state that it takes their HR over a month, 30 percent state it takes at least a week and only 10 percent state that it takes 2-3 days.
HR plagued by poor response time
The majority of employees (55 percent) blame the poor turn-around-time of HR on insufficient skills in the department. Employees say getting HR information is more difficult because of lack of sufficient skills of the HR staff. Another 45 percent blame it on the lack of enough HR staff and resources in the department.
About 65 percent employees feel that their HR function can do better as they don’t make sincere attempts to resolve their issues.
See: Monetize HR Functions for HR Analytics to Pay Off
Poor People Orientation
While 65 percent employees rated their HR as ‘Good’ to ‘Excellent’ in handling process related issues – another problem is revealed in the poor handling of people-related matters by HR. Nearly 60 percent employees say their HR department fares poorly in acting on and managing people-related issues reported to them.
Silver Linings
While timeliness and approachability are the biggest concerns and aspects where employees think the HR department needs immediate attention. Nearly 30 percent employees rate their interactions with their HR department as good, 52 percent rate it as satisfactory and only 18 percent rate it as poor.
HR is also highly rated in the area of recruitment and placement with 90 percent giving good or excellent rating in sourcing, screening, recruiting candidates, induction of staff and payroll management.
HR in a Spot
The quality of HR services in their organization is rated as poor by 55 percent employees, since 60 percent employees are not promptly informed about important changes in HR rules or policies, 70 percent are not satisfied with the rewards and recognition policy of their HR.
Only 30 percent employees say, they get the training necessary to do their job effectively and 40 percent would like to recommend their company to others basis the current HR policies, while 60 percent will not recommend it.
There is nothing worse than having unhappy employees for any organisation. While there are many factors that can trigger employee dissatisfaction – disconnect with HR is a critical one that must be addressed urgently.
Also read: Top 11 Predictions Transforming the World of Work, HRM and People Practices in 2017
