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How do good HR team dynamics benefit your organisation?

In a lot of smaller organisations, and start-up companies, the owner and executive team deal with the majority of HR functions. 

Early in your company’s growth, this approach can make sense from a financial and practical perspective. However, as your team grows, so too will your need for a dedicated HR team. A growing business needs a capable team to tackle evolving tasks associated with hiring, employee engagement, training, team management, and more. 

Building the right team, and implementing the right team dynamics is crucial to success. In fact, 82% of HR leaders are already struggling with access to limited staff and technology. 

So, why are HR team dynamics so crucial, and how can you build the ideal team?

Why You Need a Dedicated HR Team

A dedicated HR team does a lot more than handle tasks like hiring and firing. Your HR staff will manage a range of critical duties, from administering benefits, to handling employee concerns, training personnel, and resolving workplace conflicts. 

They can even be instructive in establishing and maintaining a strong company culture, which boosts your company’s productivity, and helps to attract and retain critical relent. 

In recent years, the need for a dedicated HR team has grown, with 85% of companies saying their HR strategy needs to transform to address current workplace dynamics. Building the right HR team ensures you can adapt to shifts in technology, and employee preferences, while consistently creating an exceptional employee experience. 

Crucially, it’s not enough to simply hire the right HR specialists, you also need to structure your team effectively (implement the right dynamics), to unlock the biggest impact on employee morale and job satisfaction, process optimisation, and employer branding.

How to Optimise HR Team Dynamics

So, how do you assemble an effective HR team, with the skills and knowledge required to drive positive business growth? The process can be simpler than you’d think.

Step 1: Start with a Needs Assessment

First, you’ll need to determine what you need most from your HR team. This will depend on your overall goals related to crafting company culture, talent acquisition, retention, and more. Assess your current goals and priorities, and create a list of key responsibilities for your HR team. These responsibilities will help you to identify what kind of employees you need. 

For instance, you might be focusing on things like:

• Designing a performance review system for process improvements
• Working to improve employee benefits and remuneration
• Designing a thorough recruitment and onboarding process
• Delivering training to staff members
• Coaching managers on delivering performance reviews
• Addressing internal conflict and improving company culture

Step 2: Define Your HR Department Structure

This is where your HR team dynamics will come into play. There are various ways to structure your HR team. A common option is the “hierarchical” structure, which uses a pyramid-like setup to create a clear chain of demand, leading to role clarity and controlled decision making.

Another option is the “flat structure”, where most of your HR experts will be on equal footing, with less “defined” titles, and more collaboration. This can give you more flexibility and adaptability, and empower team members in an agile environment. 

Alternatively, you might choose to combine both strategies with a “matrix structure”, which combines some elements of hierarchy, with a greater focus on flexibility and collaboration. 

There’s no single approach that works best for every company. If you’re using outsourced staff members alongside internal teams, a hierarchical structure might make more sense. If you’re looking for agility and flexibility, a flatter structure might be ideal. 

Step 3: Start with a HR Manager

When you’re ready to build your team, it makes sense to start by hiring the person who will be responsible for guiding the rest of the team, and overseeing the entire operation. A HR manager will develop your HR strategy, establish specific initiatives, and oversee projects. 

If you’re using a “flatter” structure for your HR team, you may choose to hire multiple managers, or multiple HR directors that focus on specific tasks, such as relationship management, leadership and navigation, hiring and recruitment, and so on. 

Whatever your approach, the person or people at the top of your HR team should possess exceptional collaboration and communication skills, a talent for leadership, and an ability to rapidly adapt to changing workplace goals and priorities. 

Step 4: Move onto Additional HR Roles

Once you have your manager, and an idea of how your team dynamics or structure will work, the next step is to move onto additional HR roles. There’s no specific formula for calculating exactly how many HR staff members you need. Smaller organisations may need fewer people in their organisation to assist with hiring and culture management. 

Larger organisations may need to consider hiring a range of HR experts, focused on everything from consulting and advisory processes, to compensation and benefit management. Alongside your HR Manager, here are some of the additional employees you may need to hire:

• Compensation and benefits administrators: Responsible for payroll, analysing compensation trends, and overseeing benefits programs. 
• Learning and development specialists: Who guide the design and implementation of training programs, and identify skill gaps in your workplace.
• Chief diversity officers: Responsible for ensuring your recruitment practices and company culture adhere to inclusion and diversity goals.
• Data analysts: people who transform raw data about employee engagement and hiring trends into insights that can be used for decision making. 
• Recruitment and hiring experts: Specialists responsible for handling all of the aspects of attracting talent to your team, and hiring new staff. 
• HRIS specialists: Experts in using Human Resources Information Systems to support effective human capital management. 
• Employee relations managers: Who handle processes like dealing with internal conflicts, building teams, and preserving company culture.
• Compliance managers: Specialists who ensure your company remains compliant with hiring, recruitment, compensation, and other HR-related regulations.

Learn, Adapt, and Evolve

Notably, once you’ve built your HR team, and implemented the right structure, the work doesn’t end there. You’ll still need to gather feedback and insights from both your HR team, and your employees, to ensure your strategy is delivering the right results. 

Taking an iterative approach to building on your HR team, developing new structural strategies, and changing processes will ensure you can consistently improve your results over time. 

If you need help building the perfect HR team, reach out to the HR Talent Team, or check out our resources for HR talent acquisition.