Best practice in business

Successful businesses are often those that attract, develop, motivate and retain the best people. Following HR and people management best practice can help you get the most benefit from your staff.

Examples of HR best practice

Key business strategies for embedding HR best practices in business include:

• involving employees in the development of the business
• communicating with employees
• adopting flexible working and policies that encourage equality and diversity
• setting targets and rewarding achievement
• offering employee development and training

See also what is best practice in business.

Use staff input to improve business practices

Employees can drive improvements across your business. They are often best placed to see what improvements to working methods you can make and where, or the first to notice market demands changing. For example, production staff will be aware of inefficient production processes, while customer service staff will know exactly what your customers think about your product or service and what they commonly complain about.

You can use this knowledge to involve employees in developing improved ways of working. This is likely to make your staff feel valued, as well as help you gain their trust, commitment and buy-in when implementing changes. Poor communication, on the other hand, can result in misunderstandings and mistrust from your staff. 

Read more about the advantages of good employee communication.

Improve people management

Good people management should extend across all areas of your business. Recruitment, training and people development, working practices and the working environment are all areas which you should continually review to see where you can make improvements.

People management systems such as performance appraisals, quality circles, cascade briefings, 360 degree feedback, and internal communications will help you to get the best from your employees. Learn more about managing staff performance.