Human resources (HR) departments are a critical function within any organization. It is responsible for managing the organization’s workforce, including hiring, training, and retaining employees. To ensure that their HR departments are helping employees have their best work experiences, it is essential for teams to set impactful HR goals that are aligned with the organization’s overall objectives. Take a look at these nine ideas for HR goals to set for your team.

1. Improve Employee Retention

Employee retention is an essential goal for HR departments as it can have a significant impact on the organization’s success. High employee turnover can lead to increased recruitment costs, reduced productivity, and a negative effect on employee morale. Additionally, studies show that employee turnover currently is 50 to 75 percent higher than in previous years. And if employers want to reduce costs, improve productivity, and build a solid and dynamic workforce, employee retention is vital.

Some goals and strategies that HR teams can implement include examining and facilitating what it means to have a positive work environment, looking at current salary and benefits offerings, and researching and providing training and development opportunities. Teams can also create programs that recognize and reward employee performance.

2. Streamline HR processes

HR processes are meant to increase efficiency and reduce the administrative burden on employees and HR staff. However, many systems are stuck in the past, and employees have trouble finding benefits or getting paid on time. With these goals, HR teams can identify areas of the HR function that could benefit from automation or standardization. For example, implementing an applicant tracking system to streamline recruitment or creating a standardized onboarding process could make HR utilities easier to navigate.

3. Develop leadership and management skills

Leadership and management skills are critical for any organization that wants to cultivate a culture of alacrity. As such, it’s up to HR teams to focus on developing their employees’ leadership and management skills by providing training and development opportunities. A study from Gartner notes that human-centric leadership, empathy, and adaptability are the future of management. To create a future-proof HR department, teams should be on board with empowering those ideas.

HR teams can set personal development goals that revolve around leadership training programs, offering coaching and mentoring programs, or creating opportunities for employees to take on leadership roles.

4. Improve employee engagement

While employee retention is necessary, employee engagement is just as vital for a company to stay on track. Engaged employees are more productive, have higher job satisfaction, and are likelier to stay with the organization. Some strategies for creating goals around employee engagement include conducting employee engagement surveys, providing employee feedback and input opportunities, and recognizing and rewarding employee performance. With goals like these, organizations can improve their productivity, reduce absenteeism and turnover, and build a motivated, collaborative workforce.

5. Implement effective performance management

Performance management is the backbone of any team’s development, as managers with the framework to direct and advise employees create productive teams. HR departments should focus on implementing effective performance management systems to ensure that employees meet performance expectations and contribute to the organization’s success. Goals around performance management include creating and distributing clear performance expectations, creating regular feedback and coaching techniques, conducting or reworking performance evaluations, and making programs that reward high performers.

6. Enhance recruitment and selection processes

Recruitment and selection are critical functions within any HR department, as a company cannot expand without new employees. Attracting and retaining top talent should be a focus of your HR team, especially in a job climate where employee retention is at an all-time low. When the job landscape indicates that new employees are your company’s future, you’ve got to invest in them accordingly.

These goals involve systematically clarifying job descriptions, finding ways to establish a positive employer brand, strategically utilizing effective recruitment channels, and ensuring that candidate assessments are thorough.

7. Cross-departmental collaboration

In an attempt to improve communication and collaboration between employees and departments, HR teams can craft goals that enhance productivity and teamwork. First, they can make a point to identify any communication barriers or gaps between teams or departments. Then, they can take steps to improve collaboration. This could include implementing tools like project management software such as Hive (including Hive Goals, which can help the goal itself come to life) or improving internal communication channels. The ultimate aim here is to create better problem-solving capabilities and a more cohesive company culture, and there are numerous ways to achieve it.

8. Enhance employee wellness initiatives

One last impactful HR goal you can set for your team is to enhance employee wellness initiatives. This goal involves promoting healthy behaviors and offering resources to support employees’ physical and mental well-being. When employees feel supported and valued, they are more likely to be active and constructive, leading to a positive impact on the company on the whole. Additionally, wellness initiatives can help reduce healthcare costs and improve employee retention rates, making it a win-win for both the company and its employees.

Some initiatives your team could consider include offering on-site fitness classes, implementing a mental health program, or providing healthy meals options in the workplace.

9. Foster Diversity and Inclusion

Embracing diversity brings unique perspectives and ideas to the table while enhancing employee engagement and innovation. HR teams should focus on implementing strategies that promote diversity in recruitment practices, such as expanding the talent pool by partnering with diverse organizations and creating inclusive job descriptions. Additionally, they can develop training programs to raise awareness about unconscious biases and foster a culture that values and respects differences. Create a work environment where every employee feels valued, heard, and empowered to contribute their best!

Use Hive to reach your HR goals

Are you ready to start setting some human resources goals with your team? You’re in luck — Hive’s newest (and most exciting) feature is Goals. Everyone wants to know how they’re moving their organization forward, and your team is more than just a project. With Goals, you can set various goals, visualize progress, and keep everyone aligned in one centralized dashboard. You can also:

• Create one, ten, twenty, or more goals for your team, so everyone understands what they’re contributing to.
• Centralize and automate your goal tracking and reporting.
• Pull data from other systems into Hive to streamline operations and reporting.
• Share your goal or goals, assign the goal to relevant teammates, track activity, and give yourselves a deadline.
• Understand how your team and organization are pacing towards an individual goal or a set of goals.
• Color-coded designations allow an easy understanding of “on-track” items.
• When it’s time to review progress, accomplishments, and achievements, easily export all relevant information.

Want to get started? Start your free trial of Hive Goals today!