There is no better feeling than when you’ve been involved in a project that you’re proud of and when you lead a team that’s been able to deliver and make a difference. It’s the reason that a lot of people end up in HR and it’s what keeps them going. HR professionals want to have that impact and they want to be able to feel that they’re making a difference. That’s an important thing to keep in mind when you’re building your HR team and when you’re building your company culture. You need to give people that sense of purpose and sense of impact. It’s going to drive their performance and it’s going to drive their feelings of fulfillment and satisfaction. If you can’t do that, then you may not be able to get the best out of your workforce. To get the best out of your workforce you need to give them a sense of purpose, a sense of impact and a sense of meaning. I think that HR is the most important group within a company because they influence the company culture.
How does an HR team find the motivation to keep going? One of our biggest challenges is staying motivated as a team. We work hard and long hours, but we also want to make sure we're not taking advantage of our employees' good will—and that means finding ways to stay focused on building our relationships with them. One way we do this is by creating opportunities for our team members to get together outside of work. For example, every year we host a holiday party in which employees bring food from their home countries and share stories about what makes them feel most at home. It's a great way for us all to get out of the office and into a space where we can relax—and bond over shared experiences. Another way we stay motivated is through training sessions on topics like communication skills and conflict resolution. These are important topics because they help everyone feel like they have an equal voice in the company—which can be especially challenging when you're working remotely.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when your department’s to-do list reads like a copy of War and Peace. That why it’s important to pause and appreciate the breadth and depth of impact thier work has on the company. Let’s face it. HR isn’t just HR anymore. It’s also marketing and communications and digital strategy with elements of IT, Legal, Finance, and Big Data-management sprinkled in. As an HR pro, what you do saves money, reduces risks, and propels the organization to increase both top-line value and bottom-line results. Want to motivate your HR team? Hand them a mirror.
Our HR Team finds the motivation to keep going, by having a good team that works well together and has fun at work. We take our work seriously but we also find the time to have fun every once in a while. This could be as simple as decorating our office and dressing up for Halloween or getting employees together to do a tour of our company while learning the history around it.
HR teams deal with people. While their work involves analyzing multiple processes and reporting HR data, the human resource department experiences an unfair reputation as the majority of employees do not trust their HR. Putting a human face on the data they report daily through an improved internal employee communication gives the HR team the motivation to keep going. Rather than spending time analyzing complex data, the HR can spend more time interacting with employees and putting a human face into the work that they do. I motivate my HR team to keep delivering its best by involving them in strategic plans. I ensure that the HR team plays an integral part in strategic workforce planning and recognizing their efforts when there is good performance. I also encourage them to communicate with the workforce and have healthy professional relationships.