Innovative Human Resources Ideas

The human resource department in any company is a central hub of activity. It's where management connects with labor and labor airs its grief about management. Its where recruiting, hiring, and terminations are done, where benefits are administrated, and where innovative ideas come from. They didn't mention that last part when you were hired into human resources, did they? Yes, the innovative recruiting and management ideas come from your department. Do you have any of them? Perhaps we can help. Here are a few things you might not have thought of yet.

Analyze past advertising and create more targeted ads. This is Creative Writing 101. Take a look at previous ad campaigns and pick the ones that were most effective. Use those ads to create new ones and target those new ones in mediums that brought you the best returns last time. Here's a tip: Readerships and circulations may go down for print publications, but internet numbers typically go up over time. Use online billboards whenever possible.

Scrap the stock hypothetical situations and create some real ones to test applicants with when interviewing. Every human resource department has these stock "hypothetical questions" they ask when interviewing job applicants. Get rid of them and use some real life situations. How would they handle the 2008 Wall Street crash if it happened today? What would their recession plan be for the company? Log the responses in your recruitment tracking system and compare them with performance when they're on the job.

Rotate HR jobs on a regular basis. No one wants to answer phones or enter data all the time. Rotate jobs and cross train every member of your human resource department. Teach everyone how to use your cloud based ATS applicant tracking so you'll never be stuck when someone calls in sick. This will make life easier for those in the department. They can actually take vacation time without having to worry about whether or not their job gets done. You can even train someone to do your job.

Innovative Human Resources Ideas

Plan company events to cultivate employee unity. Team building exercises are not used often enough. Barbecues, dances, and softball games are great ways to blow off steam and get to know each other in a casual environment. Companies that play together stay together. It's part of your job as a human resource professional to facilitate that. Take some time and work with other members of your department to put together some events where fun can be had by all. You'll see a big difference in morale if you do.

Invest in and use an applicant tracking system. If you're still managing your recruits and new hires with file folders, you're in the dark ages. Even if you upgraded to a computer database, if its not cloud based, you're still behind the times. Continuously adding more data to your hard drive will eventually lead to a crash. Store that data safely and securely online and your job applicant tracking will be more efficient.