Mistakes involving the workforce can greatly impact the bottom line and cause even huge corporations to stumble. As HR professionals are responsible for the organisation’s overall well-being, the room for error is marginally reduced. Outdated HR policies and undocumented data can have costly consequences leading to the downfall of the organization. The HR staff needs to be proactive in managing crises and avoiding disruptive mistakes.

Mistake 1: Lack of formal documented policies

Well-established HR policies make it easier for employees to be aligned with organizational goals. The root of costly HR mistakes is not documenting clear policies and guidelines that ensure consistency across the organization. With the lack of clearly drafted strategies, employees become clueless and may commit offences detrimental to organizational goals. Create an employee handbook defining the workplace policies and guidelines. Leave and vacation policy, PTO, attendance policy, dress code, filing a complaint, reporting feedback, disaster and workplace violence, code of ethics, safety guidelines, reporting crisis events, etc. should be documented in the employee handbook. Ensure to update your policies with the changing times and communicate these to your employees regularly.

Mistake 2: Poor onboarding

A lot of time and money is invested in hiring candidates for a job role. From advertising for open positions to interviews, every step of the process costs money to the company. Despite the huge costs and time involved, many organizations are still involved in sloppy employee onboarding practices. A smooth and automated onboarding process has a positive impact on employee experience. Failing to do so increases employee discontent and makes alignment with workplace policies and ethics difficult. HR Managers need to devise a new-age onboarding process keeping in mind the preferences of the current workforce. Introduce new hires to the workplace, colleagues, and provide them with the right equipment to complete their jobs. Top-performing companies pay special attention to employee onboarding by giving them access to self-service tools, reducing paperwork, assigning a work buddy, and providing the relevant training programs needed to ace the role.

Mistake 3: No retention planning

Letting go of critical employees is always difficult for an organization. Getting high-performing employees to stay is one of the main prerogatives of the HR staff. Top employees go above and beyond their duties to deliver the best results for the organization. Losing such valuable talent is a humongous loss to the company. Companies must move beyond the customary surveys to ensure employee satisfaction. Organizations must learn what motivates their employees and create tailored solutions based on these learnings. Employees today value the ability to work from anywhere, job security, fair compensation, performance recognition, and a supportive environment. Initiatives to improve employee motivation and productivity can lead to increased employee retention rates in the organization.

Mistake 4: Not taking compliance seriously 

Adhering to compliance is mandatory for every business. Failing to do so can attract penalties and judicial intervention in extreme cases. Many global businesses have shut down due to their inability to meet compliance on time. HR managers must adhere to the laws of the land and comply with all federal and labour policies. Ensure that the workplace policies do not violate any laws and that employees are treated fairly. Study the necessary compliance to draft policies accordingly. Many companies assign separate people to manage compliance within the organization. Not meeting the necessary laws can result in persecution and the company suffers financially with a huge reputation damage. So, the HR staff must be proactive in managing compliance at all times.

Mistake 5: Hiring the wrong candidate

Hiring, onboarding, and training employees costs a hefty time and money. While retaining good employees is important, hiring the wrong people can cost businesses money. Training a new candidate and bringing them up to speed takes considerable time. Poorly performing employees drain the organization’s productivity, bring a bad attitude to the team, frequently miss deadlines, and fail to meet organizational goals. They bring down the entire team’s output, putting the onus on other employees to complete tasks. Therefore, not making the right hiring decision can prove to be a costly mistake. This can be due to a poor interview process, lack of concrete selection criteria, inadequate background checks, and unnecessary weightage on experience, overlooking other skilled employees in the market. 

Mistake 6: Not storing employee data

Employees, both past and present, are vital assets of the organization. However, storing and documenting employee data manually is a time-consuming process for the Human Resources department. Employee records involve sensitive information like Social Security numbers, Bank account numbers, medical records, contact information, passport, driver’s license, etc. Proper employee data recordkeeping keeps you compliant with regulatory authorities. Mishandling employee information can result in information landing in the wrong hands, thereby jeopardizing the career and life of an individual. Managing employee data and storing it digitally is the need of the hour. Maintain proper protocols for collecting, storing and maintaining sensitive employee information. So make sure you’re keeping track of changing details and updating employee records on time. Further, provide easy access to employees to their data and files.

Mistake 7: Disregarding performance reviews

Many organizations fail to conduct systematic performance reviews, resulting in employee disappointment and misalignment with company goals. Documenting performance reviews helps employee improve their work and is crucial in litigation cases. The absence of periodic performance reviews makes it difficult to plan salary hikes, identify top performers, and evaluate employee performance fairly. The lack of this system makes employee retention difficult. Irrespective of the size of the company, HR managers must formulate a plan to hold regular performance reviews. Ask managers to follow a 360-degree employee performance plan and give regular feedback to employees. This will help them improve their work and increase the productivity of the organization. Regular performance reviews and salary hikes motivate employees and help them drive better results. 

Don’t let these costly mistakes affect your organization.

Sloppy and error-prone HR practices hurt employee morale. Employees feel discouraged and fail to identify with organizational goals in the absence of a solid strategy. 

Paylite® Human Resource Management Software is an end-to-end HRMS system that meets the ever-growing needs of modern-day workplaces. It makes your HR process streamlined, smart, and swift, replacing the age-old legacy systems with system-driven workflows. It offers world-class security features that keep your valuable data safe and secure at all times. Paylite® uses state-of-the-art technology from Microsoft to make your organization run smoothly and save valuable resources.

Book a free Demo with our Consultants: https://www.paylitehr.com/request-demo.html