HR Training Best Practices

HR Training Best Practices

Damian Hehire-learning

HR Training Best Practices

The HR department plays a crucial role in the success of any organisation. That role covers everything from recruitment and retention to compliance and employee wellbeing. Despite the importance of HR, there often isn’t the same level of training focus for HR staff as there is for staff in other departments, particularly those that are customer-facing such as sales and customer service.

By implementing HR training and following best practices, you can improve the performance of your HR team. Those improvements will benefit the entire organisation, including helping achieve strategic goals.

Best Practices and Tips for Creating and Implementing HR Training

HR training should be aligned with business needs and objectives. For example, a business might be dealing with compliance challenges or suffering from skills shortages in certain areas. HR training should be aligned with those organisational priorities.

The following best practices will ensure you develop HR training that meets the requirements of your business.

Best Practice 1: Assess the Organisation’s Training Needs

The first step is to understand the level of training that is required based on the skills and knowledge gaps that exist. What areas are weak and where can improvements be made? What HR topics represent the highest level of risk to the organisation because of insufficient skills or knowledge?

With answers to the above questions, you can decide on the training topics that will be most beneficial and that will deliver the best returns. Examples of effective HR training topics are below.

Common HR Training Topics

  • Labour laws – training on employment laws will ensure your team understands the regulations that apply to your organisation. Employment law training is particularly important if you have staff in multiple jurisdictions, such as employees in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. It’s essential that HR staff are aware of the employment laws in both localities. Training on this topic should also be regularly updated and HR staff should complete refresher courses to keep them up to date with any changes that are made in employment law.
  • HR policies – all organisations have HR policies that cover everything from recruitment to sickness to disciplinary processes. HR staff should be experts in the organisation’s HR policies and procedures to ensure they follow the correct processes and give colleagues the right advice and information.
  • Compliance training – HR staff play an important role in many areas of compliance, so training on topics such as health and safety, discrimination, and harassment is beneficial.
  • Recruitment skills – finding and hiring the best talent is a skill that should be constantly refined and improved. This applies to all organisations, but it is especially important in organisations facing skills shortages. Recruitment skills training can cover everything from CV assessment to interviewing skills.
  • Onboarding – onboarding processes are crucial for getting new employees up to speed quickly and keeping attrition rates low. After all, if a new employee has a bad onboarding experience, they could resign within weeks or months. HR staff can refine their onboarding skills through effective training.
  • HR systems and technologies – software platforms are commonplace in modern HR departments. As HR staff will need to use these platforms, they should be trained to ensure a high level of proficiency.
  • Conflict resolution – conflicts can arise between employees in any organisation. HR staff can help to resolve these situations, not least because they are generally detached from the source of the conflict, so can be impartial facilitators. As a result, training in conflict resolution can be highly beneficial.
  • Time management – like other employees, HR staff often have a lot of responsibilities and duties they need to perform. Time management skills are invaluable.

Best Practice 2: Set Clear Learning Objectives

Define the skills and knowledge HR staff should have once they complete the training. This will help ensure the training has been effective.

Best Practice 3: Make Sure the Training is Relevant and Practical

The training you provide to HR employees should be directly relevant to their day-to-day experience, with real-world examples that apply to your organisation.

Best Practice 4: Use a Variety of Training Methods

E-learning can be a central pillar of your HR training, but other methods should also be used to keep learners engaged and interested. Examples include blended learning that includes both e-learning and instructor-led content, as well as mentorship programmes where HR staff can learn on the job.

With e-learning content, you should use various forms of media to present the information, from scenarios to video to text.

Best Practice 5: Provide Continuous Learning Opportunities

HR industry best practices, HR technologies, and employment laws are constantly changing. Therefore, it is important that continuous learning opportunities are provided to your HR team so they can stay up to date.

Best Practice 6: Provide Regular Feedback and Evaluation

As with staff in other departments, it is important to provide feedback to HR employees so they have a better understanding of the areas where they are strong and those where they can improve.

Don’t Neglect HR Training

In the hustle and bustle of meeting sales targets, achieving customer service KPIs, and staying on top of the latest technologies, it is easy for departments like HR to be forgotten about when it comes to training and development. You should avoid this as much as possible using the best practices outlined above, not least because of the influence HR has across all other departments in your organisation.