Enhancing HR department’s image: Challenging but Not Impossible
On August 18th, in the framework of the HAPPY YOU, HAPPY WORKPLACE workshop series organized by Metta, the seminar brought the topic “Enhancing HR department’s image” to leaders and HR professionals.
The Human Resources department is always considered as a ‘mediator’ – a place that harmonizes the interests of the business owners and the employees. Simultaneously, it nurtures mutual trust between both parties to create a favorable working environment.
Therefore, building a strong human resources image is crucial, not only does it help the management board and other departments within the company understand the HR’s work, but also enhances the collaboration among different teams, which eventually improves overall operational efficiency.
Nowadays, the concept of the human resources profession is being upgraded. In some corporations, the term ‘Human Capital’ (HC) has started to be incorporated into operations. According to the speaker – Mr. Từ Quốc Đạt, compared to ‘Human Resource,’ Human Capital emphasizes the importance of investing in personnel to develop the enterprise. It is not just about using labor to create values, but nowadays, people value talents more than ever. Business leaders have begun to invest more in stimulating the potential and tapping into the abilities of employees, thereby driving working attitude and company dedication.
That’s why the role of human resources in a business needs to be objectively evaluated. During the process of investing in and developing the human capital of the company, HR professionals play a crucial role in motivating and engaging all employees. They will be the ones who carefully elicit the strengths of each employee in the company. Moreover, this department also serves as a connection between employees and the managers.
Therefore, positioning the Human Resources department is a crucial task for HR professionals to ensure that the rest of the business and the leadership understand the importance of this department, as highlighted by Mr. Từ Quốc Đạt during the workshop.
Positioning the Human Resources department should be more noticed by HR staffs
Many questions were raised for HR staff, among which stands out the question: “How to enhance the image of the Human Resources department?”. Mr. Từ Quốc Đạt also shared two key factors:
- First, ensuring HR role: Personnel department must acknowledge the entire business strategy in order to align staff with suitable functions and roles for various projects.
- Second, building HR Brand, which includes the above steps:
- Define target segment and audience
- Define each group’s needs
- Build or enhance employee experience
- Build or perform effective internal communication
As a result, through the workshop, internal communication is recognized as a method to help HR professionals and business leaders build an effective working environment.
So, how can communications be effective to avoid falling into the trap of ‘ritual storytelling’? Mr. Từ Quốc Đạt has also presented some solutions to reconcile the ‘non-dual’ nature of HR. We all understand that each department heads up its own tasks. One noticeable fact is that building a brand has never been a professional duty or strength of the HR department, because this concept is relatively new to HR employees.
Meanwhile, marketers or the marketing department are more familiar with communications. In fact, internal communication is quite similar to the communication work of marketers. Instead of communicating with external customers, internal communication targets the organizational audience.
Therefore, given the current workload of HR staff, utilizing internal communication solutions from external services would be a more optimal choice. Follow and subscribe to METTA’s newsletters to stay updated on the latest news and upcoming workshops specialized in this topic.
Some taken media at the workshop: