Does the Human Resources department add value to your organisation? — Lionesses of Africa

by Sonya Skipp

Sadly, in many discussions, dreadful terms are used to define the HR department and their role in a company. HR Dive recently conducted a survey and found that according to the HR leaders, 58% considered their department to be highly valued while 8% said they were not valued at all. At iFacts, we believe that one of the ways HR can add immense value to the organisation is to ensure that they employ the right person and minimize the insider threat in the business.

Some of the issues that we face with clients are:

HOW ARE LEARNING SKILLS ASSESSED?

As most companies want their employees to grow with the company, they want to know the candidate’s ability to learn and be assured that their CV reveals what the candidate has learnt. Apart from verifying the qualifications presented in the CV, we recommend that our clients conduct cognitive or behavioural profile assessments.

• A cognitive assessment measures the candidate’s cognitive function comprehensively. It provides a profile of the six most critical cognitive constructions, including analytical, original and figurative thinking in problem solving and accuracy.

• The Personal Development Analysis tool uses a simple, precise and scientific methodology, to discover and analyse peoples’ behaviour and competency requirements of a job, thereby ensuring you select and develop the right people into the correct position. This assessment does not qualify behavioural profiles as “good or bad? It describes the evaluated individual’s behavioural characteristics.

CHECK CULTURE COMPATIBILITY

The benefits of hiring people that are a good cultural fit are clear. Research has found that it leads to improved job performance, reduced staff turnover, and increased respect for the company. Again a mere criminal record check in your employee screening process will certainly not confirm that a candidate is the right culture fit for your company. One of the very effective tools used to assess company culture initially is an online interview; it minimizes actual time and allows the candidate to tell you a little about themselves. This would be followed by the relevant psychometric assessment that needed to be done.

SOCIAL MEDIA RISK ASSESSMENT

Asking personal questions of a candidate often won’t get you anywhere and could be awkward and uncomfortable for both parties. We strongly recommend a social media risk assessment. This simple assessment gives a glimpse into the person that will enter your workplace and provide states whether they will fit your organisation’s corporate culture and if they could pose a possible risk to your organisation.

ENSURE YOUR VETTING AND BACKGROUND CHECKING PROCESS IS UP TO DATE AND ADDRESSES YOUR RISK

Sadly this is one of the very elementary recruitment tools that becomes a mere HR administrative process. The actual checks conducted on candidates are seldom directly related to the risk that an individual could bring to the position. Many companies merely have a list of basic checks conducted on ALL candidates; the risks of the position are not considered. This is not effective and is merely one step up from simply doing nothing.

Sadly CV fraud is real, and internationally it is said to cost companies $600 billion annually. To help HR understand the actual cost of a bad hire we have created a calculator to see what it would cost if a new recruit does not work out properly.

Cost of a bad hire calculator

Human Resources can be a valuable department in a company; employee screening is one area where the company risk can be minimized.