Role of HR in improving Employee Productivity

With an accelerating competition in the business world, it isn’t an easy task for organisations to glide smoothly with their employees.But competition is also good as organisations will do all that is required to improve their systems and procedures to meet the challenges and retain their talent pool. It is wrong to believe that all the employees experience great job satisfaction all the time.

Employees join an organisation with a pre-conceived notion of what ‘should be’ and what ‘should not be’ along with what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. It is therefore imperative to understand these ideas and ensure the organisational values are clear right from the start.

Values and Attitude:Organisational values play an important part as they form the base of organisational understanding of attitudes and motivation. When an employee aligns their attitude with the values of the organisation there is a lesser chance of the employee facing job dissatisfaction. Sometimes the employees may feel that the management is not working towards the welfare of the employees. It is here that the management should change their thinking and attitude. It may not be an easy task because the employees thinking may be because of certain obstacles like – ego or demotivation due to unfair treatment by the superiors. These obstacles can be dealt with differently depending on the situations and the level of change required. For example if employees are not happy with a certain approach applied by the organisation, the management/HR needs to take their help and get them involved in changing the approach. With this, the employees may start understanding the reason behind the organisations approach and may start accepting it positively.

Goals and Practices:The HR needs to pen down goals which should specify the accomplishments to be achieved in order to realise the organisations vision. All activities should be incorporated towards achieving those goals. The employee’s roles should be clear and should be aligned to the organisation’s strategy. Every goal/practice made should have a positive approach to it and designed in a manner that is achievable.

Performance agreements:Performance agreements should be in place with questionnaires defining the work to be done, competence level required, performance levels and results to be achieved. It should be reviewed every quarterly/annually or as and when required. Reviewing the employee’s performance will help the manager and the employee know what steps need to be taken to improve the performance level, the resources required, skills sharpened, and any kind of coaching or training required from the manager.

Compensation and Rewards:Linking performance with compensation is a sure shot way of attracting performers, retaining them and motivating them. Rewards are always well accepted but sticking to the traditional way of rewarding by paying the performer a little more than the average performer isn’t the right way to go. The organisation needs to build human capital and ensuring that the skills and competencies are used to improve the business of the organisations. The skills and knowledge that the employees bring to the organisation should be rewarded rather than just the fact that the employee is doing his job well. Performance linked rewards will motivate the employees and make them feel self-worthy. They start to feel that their contribution towards the organisation is not taken for granted but is appreciated. This will motivate the employees to take that initiative or go the extra mile for the organisation.

Break the Monotony:It is also important for the HR to break the monotony that the employees may face at work. Doing the same work day in and day out could bring in boredom which may lead to poor performance and have a rippling effect on the productivity. But the HR also needs to make sure that while in the effort of breaking the monotony, the employees are not asked to perform certain assignments that may not be as per their skill or knowledge. Because that would mean opening up to a lot of problems resulting in the organisation failing. Therefore in order to create a sense of accomplishment in the employee, the HR should allocate the right kind of resources to perform the said assignment. Timely training and coaching will help the employees broaden their skill and be able to perform different assignments.