The 5 most common HR problems in the workplace and tips for dealing with them

As an HR professional, you face new challenges every day, and that's a good thing. After all, the only constant in life is change. Still, there are issues that keep coming up: Sensitive employee issues, employee turnover, productivity problems, health, safety and employee recruitment. Precisely because these issues affect us all, we need to talk about them, and as we talk, we may find a solution.


After all, every organization lives through the people who organize within it. Most companies are not distinguished by a magic product, a special machine, or anything else. They are distinguished by the people employed in them and by the culture lived there.

For this lived culture and the people themselves, HR employees are absolutely crucial. This is because they mediate between the nameless corporate organization and the employees. They make sure that the gears can mesh.

That's why no one in the know ever said HR would be easy. But who are you telling, since you work in HR, of course you know that every day is a new challenge.

In the daily hustle and bustle of an HR professional, there's always something else vying for your attention, so every day feels like a constant battle to keep yourself productive. That's why you should deal effectively with recurring issues.

To help you do this, we've listed the most common HR problems in the workplace, and together we're now considering how best to deal with them.

Sensitive employee topics

Let's face it, no one can really predict what employees will ask next. No one can, because people just say the strangest things - we are mysterious beings.

But if we can't predict what people will ask next on a case-by-case basis, what can we do? The second best thing we can do is explain how best to generally handle the tricky questions your employees will eventually ask. This is not so much about rules and more about meta-rules.

An HR department acts as an interface between employees and the company.

Therefore, all employment or dispute issues are also resolved through the HR department. A lot is hoped for from the HR department in the course of disputes, firstly absolute fairness and secondly a quick solution.

The key to this is quick access to meaningful data. With the right HR system, companies can quickly access the information that matters when a concern or issue arises. Contract changes, salary information, or previous disciplinary reports should always be at your fingertips to make handling requests as easy as possible.

Therefore, remember: you can answer any question if you have the right data at hand. On the other hand, you should never go into a development interview or a performance review unprepared.

Employee turnover

There is nothing worse than spending months (sometimes years) training an employee, only to see them leave without a glance over their shoulder.

Nothing kills your budget faster and prevents your success more sustainably than too high turnover rates.

If many employees leave, the HR team is contacted and the same questions are always asked: Why did they leave? Why were they allowed to leave? How do we prevent this from happening in the future?

There is no doubt that it is the HR department's job to maintain the employee base. After all, good employees are a company's most valuable asset.

Therefore, elements such as compensation, various incentives and the overall culture should be used to increase employee retention. Salaries need to be fair, consistent and in line with the market, incentives should be inventive (an unexpected trip to the movies is often more appreciated than a bonus gobbled up by the IRS) and the culture needs to foster a genuine love for the company.

The more an employee feels wanted, the more likely they are to build an emotional connection to the company, and such feelings multiply visibly.

Productivity issues

It's time to tackle a less obvious problem. Many business owners believe that productivity is either there or it's not. Unfortunately, though, what keeps us from being productive isn't always so obvious. So, unconsciously, things can creep in that threaten your business productivity and, before you realize it, your organization has already been set back.

For example, your company's employees are probably already suffering from low productivity, but you are simply unaware of this fact.

Therefore, the first step to fixing productivity problems is always to identify them. It's about which departments are suffering from low productivity and ultimately which employees or group of employees this is attributable to.

Once productivity issues are identified, HR managers can set out to fix them. A simple "time and motion" study can be conducted to examine how tasks are performed and who is responsible for completing them. Inefficiencies quickly become apparent in this process, as do any remaining staffing problems.

Often, increased motivation or additional training is enough to increase productivity, but a thorough review will also reveal areas where additional investment or new hires are needed.

Health and safety

If there's one thing that puts people off, it's "health and safety." Combine that with "documentation" and you have a surefire way to ensure your employees have little or no interest in the safety of their workplace.

This is a recurring problem for HR teams, but it can be solved. The answer lies in creating fair and - most importantly - engaging health and safety rules, regulations and supporting documentation.

Therefore, try to exchange lengthy policy documents for more visual matters and eliminate rules that simply should not apply in the modern age.

In this way, the workplace should become much safer and even without boring anyone to death.

Recruiting

Finding the right people is incredibly difficult. With more and more workers choosing to work independently and freelance, and the digital marketplace offering numerous recruitment channels, competition for top talent is intensifying even further.

If you're still relying on older recruitment methods (such as newspaper ads), you need to start spreading your wings a little further right away. Fortunately, the rise of social networks like LinkedIn has created a dynamic, always-accessible and - most importantly - free platform for finding new employees.

Therefore, be social. If you are looking for new employees, you should advertise their positions on services like LinkedIn, forums and scouting groups.

This method of recruiting is not only more time efficient, but also very convenient. The best people are out there, and sniffing them out yourself will save you a lot of time otherwise spent interviewing the wrong people.

In future articles we will go into more detail on each of the problem areas. So be sure to check back.

If you want to improve your job ads, I recommend our article: How to Write a Job Ad the Right Way - 8 Practical Tips.

On the other hand, if you want to learn more about the benefits of a talent pool, I recommend this article: The Benefits of a Talent Pool

If you are interested in what makes a leader, you might find answers in this article: 10 Leadership Qualities of Real Leaders.

 

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