Human resource management practice I also available by michael armstrong

Chapter 

3

  Delivering HRM – Systems and Roles

41

Evaluating the HR function

It is necessary to evaluate the contribution of the HR 

function to establish how effective it is at both the 

strategic level and in terms of service delivery and 

support. The prime criteria for evaluating the work 

of the function are its ability to operate strategic-

ally and its capacity to deliver the levels of services 

required.

Research conducted by the Institute for Employ-

ment Studies (Hirsh, 2008) discovered that the factors 

that  correlated  most  strongly  with  line  managers’ 

and employees’ satisfaction with HR were:

 

●

being well supported in times of change;

 

●

HR giving good advice to employees;

 

●

being well supported when dealing with 

difficult people or situations;

 

●

HR getting the basics right.

But the results showed that HR could do better in 

each of these areas. The conclusions reached were 

that HR must find out what its customers need and 

what their experiences of HR services are. HR has 

to be responsive – clear about what it is there for 

and what services it offers, and easy to contact.

The IRS 2012 survey of HR roles and responsi-

bilities established that the main measures used by 

respondents to assess HR effectiveness were:

 

●

absence management data – 79 per cent;

 

●

staff turnover data – 75 per cent;

 

●

exit interview feedback – 66 per cent;

 

●

discipline and grievance data – 60 per cent;

 

●

results of employee surveys – 60 per cent;

 

●

anecdotal/informal feedback – 59 per cent;

 

●

number of tribunal cases – 50 per cent;

 

●

benchmarking – 47 per cent;

 

●

spending against budget – 46 per cent;

 

●

time-to-fill vacancies data – 34 per cent;

 

●

cost per hire – 30 per cent.