3 Game-Changing Questions Every HR Should Ask Their Team Right Now

The role of the Human Resources Manager and the team is often grossly underrated. After all, if it weren’t for The Human Resources Manager or department, you most likely wouldn’t have an organisation. However, as a Human Resources Manager, would you say that you are more proactive or reactive to what is happening around you? In this article, I suggest three questions you should be asking yourself and your team right now.

I’m not sure about you, but it seems like these days, both great and small organisations struggle with keeping their best people while trying to find brilliant new employees. It’s not so hard when you’re a large organisation and throw cash, benefits, and bonuses to keep your best people or bring new ones. On the other hand, when you’re a small to medium-sized organisation and every dollar counts, you most probably don’t have many things to give away to keep your best people or find new managers and employees.

So let me ask, is money the only reason people stay or join your organisation? Or do you think most people look for more than just a fatter paycheck?

For those who studied HR, you know that decades of research suggest that most people look for more than just money. They are looking for meaning.

So, for those in HR roles, I’d like you to think about three questions you should ask yourself and your team. 

If you have asked these questions since the start of the year, how about you sit down with your team one Friday afternoon and have a brainstorming session? While not suggesting you can come up with answers in an hour, you might be able to excite your HR cohort to understand the reason you are working together under the HR banner.

Question 01: As part of the Human Resources team, how can you create more purpose for your people?

Are your people coming to work to simply live and pay the bills, or are they looking forward to coming to work every day and feeling that what they do is making a difference? Is what you are doing giving your people meaning?

Question 02: As Human Resources Department, are we actively enabling the growth and development of our high-potential employees?

Now, I’m not talking about simply your managers, but who are the employees, even at the lower levels of your organisation, showing themselves as exceptional? Who do you see climbing the rungs and taking on a leadership role within the next six months or 12 months? Which of your people has the right attitude and heart?

What programs do you have to take care of these people and develop them? Does your HR team even list your high potential and high-value employees and managers? What could happen if you don’t develop this year?

According to a recent LinkedIn workforce learning report, 94% of employees said they would stay with the current organisation longer if it invested in helping them learn.

Question #3:. How, as an HR team, are we managing to encourage or promote the remote or hybrid working environment?

We know from the most recent research here in Australia and overseas that many employees having had a taste of working from home, an hour reluctant to return full-time back to the offices. This is especially true of employees who work far from their offices. Are you prepared to allow them to work from home two days a week? Does your organisation’s senior HR and leadership team see offering a hybrid work model as one way to keep your best people? And do you have processes and procedures to manage the new hybrid workplace?

Well, there you have it. You should ask yourself those three questions, push down your team, and get your HR advisors and partners to consider.