The HR Policies That May be Keeping Great Talent Away From Your Business

Social media and sites such as Glassdoor create greater transparency when it comes to your internal hiring practices. This can really complicate things for your business if it has HR policies that could potentially scare off top talent or are simply outdated. Here are some of these potential policies and ways to counteract them.

1. Excessive travel requirements

Many jobs require travel, and that is usually fine. However, there may come a point where business travel crosses from standard into overload territory. Employees have seen only snatches of their families here and there and they have traveled so much they are unsure which airport they are in at the moment. Extra monetary compensation is not necessarily the answer. Rather, aim for virtual policies where possible. Have video meetings instead of in-person meetings. Set up a standard that a person who has traveled for a certain number of days is not asked to travel again until at least two months or whatever reasonable time frame has passed.

2. Lack of trust

A lack of trust expresses itself via human resources policies that mandate accountability for everything, from an obituary notice for bereavement leave to counting keystrokes to overly strict attendance requirements. These attendance requirements may include tracking employees’ time at work down to a quarter hour or even per hour. A better approach is to trust employees to get their jobs done.

Another notorious example of lack of trust is requiring employees to get higher-up approval for many regular decisions or forcing them to wade into getting five signatures for a simple task. Again, employees should be trusted to make competent decisions. There is also no need for a dress code that goes into detail on skirt lengths and such.

3. Lack of respect for employees’ lives

A business that has a HR policy that work comes first is liable to send potential employees fleeing. A common practice in your business for supervisors to call employees on weekends or for employees to frequently give up weekend and holiday time warrants examination and adjustment. Business processes may need to become more efficient so employees can conserve their weekend time for personal matters.

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