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6 focus areas for HR leaders in new roles
01 January 2023 Leadership Sponsored
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Sympa A complete and fully customisable HR solution
If it is your first time in an HR leadership position, or you recently moved to a new company, we feel you.
HR right now feels like a game of 3D chess being played on top of a moving train. How are you supposed to develop your company’s HR function when there are so many global and local forces affecting the world of work? In fact, HR years are like dog years right now. It usually takes 6 months to kick off any meaningful initiatives in the HR space, but life today feels like it’s moving at 7 times normal speed. How can we be strategic when we’ve spent the last couple of years in firefighting mode.
Start with the reasonable assumption that your new employer is also feeling the effects of rapid change. They’re looking for someone to steady the ship through positive, consistent improvements. That’s you – you’re needed. By stepping up to the plate, you can cash in your good will with employers likely be more receptive to your ideas. We want to help you make the first 6 months of your employment count. If you’re in need of a gameplan that’ll help you ace your probation, make a real difference to your people, and build a strategic HR base for future planning, then this is the cheat sheet for you.
This cheat sheet covers 6 areas you can focus on in your first 6 months in the job, with an added 7th that looks to the future:
- Understand the trends shaping your industry
- Identify your organisation’s top business priorities
- Get to know all your employees
- List your people pain points
- Map out your HR processes
- Build better people data reporting
- Create an HR roadmap for the future
These recommendations are focus areas you can use to guide your work. However, your organisation is as unique as the people that work in it, and you will come to know it better than anyone else. So, only apply what makes sense to you, and feel free to skip the parts that don’t fit with your needs. Want to read more?