Traditionally, HR has been responsible for enhancing the performance and productivity of the workforce. However, since coronavirus (COVID-19), human resources has significantly evolved and has been redefined to best support businesses navigate a broad range of interrelated issues ranging from ensuring the safety of team members and clients, scaling up working from home capacity, providing mental health support, redefining operations and deciphering complex government financial assistance programs. Furthermore, there is now an opportunity for HR Consulting services in Melbourne to engage, support and inspire through various methods further discussed below.
The challenges that businesses faced prior to coronavirus (COVID-19) haven’t been disseminated and more have presented themselves for businesses to overcome. Now more than ever, finding and partnering with the most fitting human resources consulting firm is critical for businesses, as the insights and latest thinking that the firm has to offer could significantly help businesses be decisive with their decision-making and seize opportunities.
Business owners and leaders are facing accelerating changes in technology, client expectations and more broadly society. These changes require enhanced strategies and reinvention of businesses in order to deliver long-lasting quality results. HR Consulting firms in Melbourne have an important role to play in steering businesses in the appropriate direction with input in strategy and workforce structures required to achieve continuous results for all stakeholders.
Emerging trends
Undeniably, our world as we knew it has changed and in a similar fashion our workforce has also. The way we work, where we work and how we conduct our work has changed since COVID-19. Therefore, to be effective, businesses need to address the most urgent forces they face with the latest thinking. To best serve businesses, HR Consulting firms ought to understand emerging trends spanning from reskilling of workforces, working from home (WFH) protocols, promoting engagement and inclusivity, and mental health support. Focusing on these emerging trends, enables HR Consulting services to transition from being perceived as an administrative and risk-mitigating partner to working with the business owners and leaders towards achieving business objectives through improved people practices.
Innovation and collaboration
They have definitely been tested with WFH becoming the new normal. However, with HR taking a proactive approach to engagement and deploying relevant strategies including learning & development, clarifying expectations, ensuring regular feedback and sharing individual’s contribution to the mission and vision of the organisation, it will in turn have a positive impact on collaboration and innovation. HR Consulting firms can assist ensure that team members are in the right roles, that they are trained, that there is an established process for regular feedback and that the workforce is surveyed annually.
Data Analytics
In this new age of disruption, HR data represents significant value for businesses and HR Consulting firms ought to be able to provide valuable data-driven insights on turnover, compensation benchmarking, engagement and wellbeing, and employee experience. These insights should in turn empower business owners and leaders to make informed choices for their workforce strategy.
Mental Health Support
Managing mental health has always been an important part of human resources, however it has been accentuated in most recent times with COVID-19 and multiple rounds of lockdowns. This has resulted in reduced team members’ morale and productivity. HR Consulting services play a critical role in ensuring that businesses destigmatise mental health issues, have a mental health program, provide access to internal/external mental health training, provide/promote mental health resources and encourage flexible working options to avoid burnout. A happier and healthier workforce will always produce better results.
New ways of working
Nowadays, team members work in different ways including a combination of working from home, onsite and hybrid. HR Consulting firms can help businesses assess the right balance for each individual team member and review performance against business objectives over time. This newfound flexibility allows businesses to access the talent they normally wouldn’t be able to and talent can be a competitive advantage when appropriately lead/managed. Additionally, there can be cost benefits to downsizing head office space.
Learning & Development
The necessity for new and improved ways of learning has been expediated by COVID-19 and HR Consulting firms play a pivotal role in that transition from the more traditional learning and development (L&D) methods. L&D is an effective talent attraction tool, is integral to onboarding and inducting new team members, and is essential for reskilling and upskilling the workforce. L&D is evolving to open-source learning, where knowledge is shared amongst the workforce and capability increased to lead in time of change. HR Consulting firms can help ready your business for changing environments and equip your workforce with the skills needed for the future.
The above is not inclusive of all the services that a HR Consulting firm in Melbourne can and should offer your business, however some of the above services are quite prevalent in current times and is a good starting point for what to look out for when seeking for HR Consulting services in Melbourne.
Cedric has 13+ years of demonstrated experience as a senior HR generalist with a broad commercial and project-driven background within leading global organisations across a range of industries. He is qualified with an MBA from the Australian Institute of Business (AIB), an Advanced Diploma of Management specialising in Human Resources and an HR Consulting – Business Partnering course from the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI).