In the article How to Build a Strong Human Resources Partner author Derek Carissimi (2006) talks about how human resources are managers of the people function and they deserve recognition as a business and strategic partner and not less than, but must step up and prove its understanding and connection to the business. The building blocks of a strong human resources function are (1) aggressive recruitment, (2) education; (3) communication and (4) recognition.
Aggressive recruitment today has boldly changed from the past. Recruitment strategies include an in-depth analysis of staffing needs in the future and are done by job classification. It needs to include anticipated turnover, retirement, growth of service lines, population growth, geographic shift of key competitors and future plans of the government. This tool can then be utilized to attract candidates by using on-line methodologies to recruit as well as cold-calling, direct mailings, recruitment events, employee referrals, internal career mobility programs and targeted professional journals. Recruitment must filter out to all managers who need to have an interest in keeping a low vacancy rate which can be used as an incentive to part of their performance measurements and pay adjustment. The goal is to hire valuable employees and keeping them.
Encourage employees to continuing their education by offering a reimbursement programs, salary increases for certifications and adjustment for earning a degree. Offer opportunities to participate in workshops, presenting at conferences and mentoring programs. These opportunities are proven to be invaluable to the employee as well as the company and little cost is involved.
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