Management actions to deal with HR issues at an operational level

Labour turnover

Labour turnover is the number of people who leave a business each year.

It can be calculated like this:

Number of people leaving the business in a year x 100
Total number of people employed

Some staff turnover is normal as people move for various reasons. A high percentage indicates that staff leave regularly and can affect workforce morale as well as leading to higher recruitment costs.

Productivity

Productivity is how much workers in a company, or even in a country, produce. As part of human resource planning, a company may analyse the productivity of their workforce to see if they are able to make improvements.

Skills shortage

An effective plan looks for skills gaps in a business. Once a shortage is discovered, it is possible to ensure that the business focuses on trying to recruit people with the relevant skills. For example, there is often a shortage of Welsh-speaking people in businesses in Wales, particularly in sectors such as education, health and social care and hospitality.

Workplace stress

Statistics from the Health and Safety Executive show that work-related stress, depression or anxiety was the cause of 17 million working days lost in 2021/22.

Human resource departments try to ensure that there is no excess stress in the workplace. In some workplaces, some stress is inevitable by its very nature. However, it is necessary to ensure that there is not too much stress on the workforce to ensure that it does not have a negative impact on employee attendance or staff turnover rate.

Pause for thought

Follow the link and read the article:

Workplace stress

How many employees say they have experienced stress?

What are the causes of the stress?

What do you think is the impact of this on the business?

Absenteeism

Workplace stress is one factor that can lead to absence from work. Absenteeism is a measure of how many working days employees lose in a period.

It is measured like this:

Total absence (hours/days) x 100
Total hours/days possible

A low percentage is better for businesses because a higher percentage means people are not at work. If the rate is too high, the human resources department will want to find out why people are missing working days.