Whether you’re an established business or your fledgeling business is going from strength to strength, having a HR department or representative to take care of all your employee relations and the image of your company is essential.
Working in HR means you’re passionate about people and you’re an avid problem solver. However, despite good intentions, years of training and relevant experience, it doesn’t make your HR department immune to mistakes. Sadly, when your human resources department is making these errors it can cost your business in more ways than one.
Here we’ll look at the biggest mistakes your HR department could be making.
They’re completely disorganised
It’s easy to make a mistake here or delete another file there, but when you’re in HR those mistakes can be costly. One of the most common mistakes that HR departments face is being completely disorganised. In most cases, it’s no one’s fault, it’s just a constant uphill struggle to manage large volumes of paperwork and handle data properly. Issues with employees details is one thing, but problems and mistakes with payroll are serious – check out these payroll software solutions, here.
Consider upgrading your HR software as soon as possible to lighten the load on your HR reps.
They’re sharing confidential information
It’s easy to overshare in the workplace. But sharing the contents of a disciplinary with another employee is certainly more severe than being told a piece of gossip by the watercooler. Sometimes it’s not always obvious who needs to know what in business, so accidentally revealing certain pieces of information can be done unintentionally.
Keeping information confidential is one of the biggest responsibilities of any HR department, if someone is willingly revealing information to better their own employment prospects, or to negatively impact the employee in question, then this shouldn’t be tolerated.
Close relationships with employees
Getting the right balance between employee advocate and work friendships is difficult. Of course, friendships naturally evolve in the workplace, but HR reps should exercise caution. A common mistake made by HR reps is the blurring of lines between themselves and their friends in the workplace. It’s scenarios like these when confidential information is revealed, and it’s difficult to be professional and talk candidly about compliance and health and safety for example if your friends believe these things don’t apply to them simply because they know you.
Therefore, regular training in this area is essential for your HR department.
And finally, data mismanagement
If your HR department isn’t taking the handling of business data seriously, then they could be jeopardising your entire company, your employees and your clients. HR handle large volumes of data, from employee details to bank and finance information, sensitive data regarding your accounts and your clients and product information. Failing to take this seriously could have dangerous repercussions.
Data security, network security and being careful with items like laptops and smart devices outside of the office is crucial. You can avoid these kinds of mistakes with constant training in this area.
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