Time, money, resources – they’re all limited when you work in a small business. Between juggling your need to keep up performance alongside staff job satisfaction, training and professional development has a habit of falling into the background, especially as your small company grows.

But training is a vital component for any business. It’s what keeps staff feeling refreshed, operations ‘on point’, and reputation high on the agenda. Fail to invest in professional and personal development, and you will quickly find both your employees and customers looking elsewhere.

Irish unemployment is at a crucial low of 4.5% - can your company compete for talent? Getting the most out of staff training and investment could be your key.
 
Top HR Department Tips for Staff Training

1. Research, Research, Research

There is nothing worse for a time-strapped employee than being asked to attend a workshop or conference that bears no relevance or key training that will help them with their jobs.

Between the earlier alarm call to catch a train or flight, the stress of finding the location and the boring, overestimated speaker, your employee can be left frustrated with the loss of time and lack of learning. Meanwhile, you have failed to improve employee skills and lost out financially.

Doing your research on the best courses or host associations is key. Implementing a mentoring scheme in work can help senior staff identify what skills their junior colleagues could benefit from, while e-learning courses give employees the option to develop more flexibly, avoiding the dreaded stress of commuting to courses, or juggling family commitments.

By taking the time to understand which skills you need to improve in your employees and the best training options available, you can get the most out of the resources, money and time that you use as a business to develop your workforce.

1. If In Doubt, Ask!

Even in a small business, it can be a struggle to understand what your staff desire; what training they want and what skills or equipment they feel they need to do their jobs better.

While you might have an idea of the needs of the overall organisation, some employees may be more experienced than others in different aspects of their jobs. Some may have received training in previous employment, while others may want to develop some skills associated more closely to their particular job title and role within the company.

As an employer, you can maximise training opportunities by evaluating what the business needs as a whole, as well as ask staff to request training that they are interested in and feel would improve their jobs. Whether it is a certain course or provider they have heard of or taking part in Personal Development Plans during their appraisals to voice their own training goals, your staff can help you to invest efficiently in development, so you can get more bang for your buck.

1. After-Training Feedback

If a training course or conference doesn’t deliver, staff may feel unable to share that with you, conscious of the money & resources you may have used up to send them.

Implementing a process through your HR team, whereby staff can share feedback on the courses they have attended and their recommendations for future training, will give you an insight into the quality of courses or conferences you are investing in, and help you evaluate your choices for future professional development.
 
Train Your Way to the Top
All companies, especially small businesses, struggle to give up the time, money and resources to provide employee development and training. Weeding out the useful from the irrelevant courses, as well as recognising staff training goals will help you to invest in the right training for the right person, at the right time.

​Make sure your resources aren’t wasted – research and use your HR team to ask staff the right questions, before and after you embark on your training journey. 

Whether it be reconnecting with old friends, sharing special family photos online or keeping in touch with loved ones who are abroad, it is hard to understate the impact of social media on our everyday lives. Importantly, social media isn’t only for personal use – it’s becoming more and more essential for businesses to master in order to reap the benefits of an online presence.

What’s more, having a clear and coherent social media strategy isn’t something that should be reserved for tech companies. In fact, there is a vast array of companies – and HR Professionals – that both can and should leverage the power of social media for business gains.

Of course, the wide range of social networking sites - from Linkedin to Facebook to Twitter – all have different uses to suit certain business needs. However, here at The HR Department we want to demonstrate 4 ways social media can benefit HR and prove that, as HR Professionals, you have no excuse not to be linkedin on social media.
 
1.Drastically Widens the Recruiting Market

There is no doubt that social networks are providing quicker and easier access to a diverse and highly skilled workforce than ever before – which is a huge positive for HR departments. Networks like Linkedin and Careerify allow employers and employees to seek out one another efficiently and effectively through online channels, while also facilitating a more continuous hiring process. In addition, employers can scrutinise candidates through their social networks before interviewing or hiring – a Facebook page or Linkedin profile can reveal a lot about a prospective employee.

On the other hand, employers need to be careful, as the chance of an employee being poached in this digital age is becoming more and more likely. With businesses and workers becoming highly interconnected through seamless social media communication, it’s never been easier to reach out to a prospective employee or employer. HR departments need to be aware of this and keep on top of their social media strategy to be sure they are not only hiring the best workers, but holding on to the cream of the crop too.  
 
2. Can Greatly Improve Employer Branding

Crucially, with online transparency, comes a great deal more visibility and therefore responsibility. This goes for both companies and employees. The important thing for HR departments to note is that social media is essential when it comes to harnessing continuity and professionalism in your employer brand. A strong employer brand that is regularly pushed out on social media improves online reputation and is central to hiring and retaining talent.

Equally, be careful what you post and where you post it. One wrong move on social media can be hugely detrimental to a company’s brand and, as we all know, mistakes have a tendency to go viral.
 
3. Analytics to Monitor Success

One of the big issues with social media is monitoring its success. HR departments may be sceptical as to how much of a positive influence their social media strategy is having on the overall business. Luckily, there are analytics available to provide insights into the success of your social media activity. Whether it be the number of views on a blog post, the ‘likes’ on a photograph or the number of comments on a shared research paper, there is a plethora of ways to analyse your social media activity and find out what social content suits your company best.
 
4. New Job Opportunities
 
Finally, something HR Professionals should be acutely aware of is that as social media becomes more popular and crucial for businesses, there also needs to be an increase in personnel to manage it. A successful social media strategy isn’t something that can be handled at lunchtime by one employee– it requires time, effort, and therefore staff, to oversee it. Hiring a social media expert can help a great deal for your business and it’s HR’s
responsibility to find someone suited to the job.

It’s also advisable to ensure that all members of staff who are engaged in social media on behalf of your company are adequately trained in how to use it effectively. It may only be 140 characters, but don’t underestimate the time and research that can go into a meaningful tweet that’s in line with your business ethos!

So, there’s no doubt that the social media age is bringing a great deal of opportunities to both businesses and HR departments alike. There is also no question that in order to meet the business needs of today, HR Professionals should be regularly updating their social media strategy. After all, the essence of HR is capitalising on new ways of communicating, networking and getting in touch with people – it would be foolish, therefore, to ignore social media.  
 
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The way companies are being managed is changing rapidly. As the need for greater transparency and customer centric business increases, many companies are restructuring their management system to meet these new demands. Couple this with the fact that the workplace has become more fast-paced than ever - not least due to the rise of digitisation – and it is easy to see why companies are rethinking the structure of the workplace.

One management style which some companies – especially those that are tech based - are adopting to meet the challenges of the global marketplace is known as agile. Agile management, championed by companies such as Google and music streaming giants Spotify, essentially divides a business into small teams of workers that act like start-ups in their own right. Agile centres on the idea that employees should be largely self-organised and collaborate on a level playing field for the benefit of the business.
 
Clearly these types of changes to management have vast implications for HR departments. It is important to note that agile management has many different facets. The focus here is to look at how HR Departments should adjust and adapt in a business switching to, or thinking of taking on aspects of, agile management.
 
So, here are 3 ways that agile management can influence HR:  
 
1. Making Everything Continuous/Ongoing
 
In this day and age, product and project cycles work on a month-to-month or even week-to-week basis, rather than year-to-year. Agile management stresses the need for ongoing, continuous feedback and review of company progress, as opposed to annual reports. Here are three main areas HR departments should be prepared to tackle on an ongoing basis:

- Talent Acquisition:

Instead of hiring once or twice a year, companies are much more likely to hire as and when they require skilled staff. This means HR departments should be constantly on the lookout for staff suited to their business and regularly sounding out areas of the business that might be understaffed.
 
- Feedback:

Rather than providing yearly feedback to staff, HR departments in an agile management structure should be much more ready to give regular feedback to employees. While this may be time consuming, it helps to encourage and motivate staff and make sure the business is as productive and efficient as it can be.

- Training:
 
Under agile management, HR departments should see training as a continuous process, rather than a one off thing. Making sure your employees are regularly well trained and up-to-date in their department will ensure your company is more effective. A key role of HR is also to monitor performance – providing regular training is one way to keep all employees performing to the best of their ability.
 
2. Demands a Concentrated Focus on Teamwork
 
With agile management there is much less importance placed on the individual employee - it’s all about teamwork and how employees collaborate with one another. This means that the HR department must move away from focusing on individual merit and instead hone in on how teams work together, helping to ensure the smooth running of the team as a whole.

Of course this also changes the role of the managers in a company. It is essential that HR departments encourage managers to be much more interactive, hands on, and engaged with their team. HR must preach the idea that employees are on a level-playing field – something which can be hard for many managers to handle. HR may even be required to come up with new roles and methods of assessment that promote cross-functionality between teams.

3. Changes in Company Culture
 
Clearly, with an agile management system, the company ethos will have changed greatly. Having a harmonized company culture is essential, especially when it comes to hiring new talent, and it’s an area where HR can lead the way.  HR should make sure there is a homogenised company culture that all employees understand and support.
 
In addition, current employees may not be used to organising themselves and being given more flexibility – HR can assist in these areas in order to make sure companies get the best out of their staff and ensure talent retention. The key here is for HR to demonstrate that with agile management, leadership takes much more of a bottom-up rather than top-down approach. Clearly this is unconventional and may take time for employees to get used to, however it has the potential to make a company more effective and efficient, while promoting equality in the workplace.
 
Of course, agile management isn’t suited to every business. Companies may well pick and choose the ‘best-bits’ of agile management and implement them as they see fit, or opt for entirely different systems. However, the reality is that as companies look to change their management structure to meet the every day pressures of a fast-paced and ever-changing working environment, HR needs to make sure it doesn’t get left behind. As different companies adopt different management styles, the HR department must be versatile and adapt to any changes in order to stay in line with the rest of the business and remain an integral part of its success.  
 

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