Another day, another LinkedIn post that’s getting me thinking. In short, Hebba Youssef (who I highly recommend that all HR professionals follow), posted a funny meme about how little support HR gets despite the amount of work they do, and asked why we think that is… with the caveat that “not being revenue-generating” is not an acceptable answer.
My take? Yeah, we may not be revenue-GENERATING, but I 100% believe that there is a significant ROI associated with having a well-funded and supported HR department.
The support and strategic planning we’re involved with on a daily basis, I feel, has a direct (though hard to measure) impact on the revenues and expenditures of an organization.
Building a positive culture to reduce turnover and increase engagement reduces expenditures on recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and training new staff.
Maintaining market-competitive rates, incentives, and benefits makes our employee’s lives outside of work better and less stressful (hopefully), so they can come to work refreshed and healthy.
Ensuring the organization is compliant with convoluted and ever-changing labor laws keeps us out of legal hot water.
We’re like shock absorbers on a car. When the organization hits a rough patch, HR is usually there taking the knocks and smoothing the ride so the company can still continue rolling onward. They may feel a little rattle, and say “oh, things are a bit bumpy.” Meanwhile, in the dark recesses of the company, where nobody even thinks about looking, there’s an entire team of folks going absolutely crazy trying to keep the wheels on.
