Being an HR professional in a busy tech or professional services company can be really challenging. Having been there in the past and doing it in the present, I know the challenges first-hand.

Many managers think when the first HR role is appointed in a company that they now have an HR resource to do all the hiring for them and that they will deal with all those awkward team issues that just get in the way of real work!

Growing Culture and Tech

Some HR professionals accept this direction from their management colleagues and feel that their job is to be in service (and I use the term ‘in service’ on purpose) to the managers. If so, they are doing a disservice to themselves, their company and the HR profession.

Let’s face it, most growing tech and professional services companies see HR as a cost or in some cases, they see it as a necessary evil. But our job as HR business professionals is to prove them otherwise!

So how do we do this?

15 Ways to Grow Your Company Culture and Tech

1. You need to be able to influence and manage appropriately.

2. Take on business responsibility and ask for budget responsibility.

3. Don’t be afraid of technology and automate as many of the mundane everyday tasks that can bog you down – don’t hide behind admin!

4. Make sure you are invited and attend every team meeting of the departments you support.

5. Insist that you are involved in every strategic meeting so you can consider the people implications when the business direction and strategy are being developed.

6. Set out programmes to train your managers how to interview properly. Interviewing is a skill that should be learnt.

7. Work out how much the company and each department spend on recruitment each year. Uncover the average cost of hire and use this as a metric for you and your managers to be measured against.

8. Start measuring why people left.

9. Develop a behavioural framework for your company. Involve everyone in the process and train people on how to hire, manage and reward.

10. Ensure that each person knows your core behaviours to improve your company culture.

11. Get to understand the aspirations of the managers and employees in your business and out how they align with the company.

12. Always when communicating communicate the truth! This generates trust and trust is essential for success.

13. Never deal with difficult issues on behalf of the managers you support. Deal with these issues alongside the managers you support, that is the only way they will learn and recognise that their actions have human consequences.

14. Presume that the employee is innocent until proven guilty and that the manager is guilty until proven innocent. Remember, the manager has power and authority on their side and the employee has nothing only protective legislation.

15. Remember once the dialogue stops and the situation becomes legalistic in approach no one wins.

These are 15 pointers to help HR professionals to be able to contribute to a business and gradually move away from being seen as a cost. HR professionals should be seen as a cost reduction centre.

Too many HR professionals are compliance crazy and scare people which makes them terrified to manage and hire people. This must stop if HR wants to have a real impact on progressive business and thoroughly drive culture and employee productivity.