Improving professional HR standards in the industry – and minimising risks – can happen through talent management and standards compliance

It might even help when pitching for business or making a sale.

Increasingly, outsourcing operations are subject to personal and corporate accountability, to ensure standards are complied with and the project or ongoing work completed to maximum client satisfaction.

With some professional standards in the industry in a state of immaturity relative to those in long established sectors such as manufacturing, retail, financial services and IT, what can the owner of a business in outsourcing do to in order to minimise the risks posed by staff being unprepared or by insufficient investment in HR and staff development?

Easy to learn and use online tools are a new way to manage all aspects of the performance of staff, including board members, line managers and employees at the coal face/on the shop floor.

Competencies and job roles

The tools can link each employee’s competencies with their job roles, allowing a picture to quickly emerge showing who is best at what and which employees are best placed to handle compliance-sensitive work.

The manager of the tools can use the job roles function to ensure that employees have all mandatory competencies within their annual [or more regular, e.g. three or six monthly] performance appraisal. Staff can also be measured for their knowledge of, and performance in, non-mandatory competencies.

In some situations, e.g. where the project is complex or fast moving, appraisals may need to be carried out weekly, or more frequently where staff are tasked with adapting quickly and meeting objectives.

Identify

Administrators can identify the competency or competencies required for a specific role and then develop the skills of the person who is in that job role. In many cases, the job role will represent what the employer organisation wants the employee to develop into; for that to happen, the employer will need to have a degree of sophistication within its HR function, which may be quite basic or outsourced to an individual who may be too busy fire fighting to do much else.

In conclusion, the business will have different options available if it wants to improve standards compliance and performance. It may need to take a step back to review its HR function and seek advice on how to improve it if that function has been neglected in the drive for growth. It may have an FD on board who is responsible for HR and could include compliance. The MD or FD may feel comfortable about managing, or authorising the use of, online compliance and employee performance management tools.

Managing talent and complying with standards does have a spin off business benefit. It may be easier to close a sale – or generate interest, pre-sale – because the business can demonstrate that it has given a high priority to compliance, talent management and risk reduction.