Step 5: Human Resources

Don't Forget Your People

Why a Human Resources Diagnostic?
In today's marketplace, every organization is under pressure to outperform an increasingly sophisticated group of competitors. Leaders have been diligent in learning from other's successes and failures. It is rare to find an organization that has not been affected by the latest quality initiatives, customer service programs, and administrative improvements so prevalent in the last decade.

Many experts suggest that the last major area in which a company can make significant improvements is in Human Resources. Using this resource to its best advantage is a means to maximize the effectiveness of all of the other systems and procedures already in place.

Every organization wants to have an adequate number of competent employees with the skills, knowledge, experience and desire needed to further its goals. But, making efficient use of the employees in a company is, of course, a complex process. The first step is to pinpoint exactly where your strengths and weaknesses lie in this area of the business.

Applicable to both small and medium sized companies in a variety of industry sectors, this diagnostic will benefit executives and managers who are responsible for:

• ensuring Human Resource strategies are integrated "with business plans
• establishing improvement activities for the Human "Resource department
• monitoring the effectiveness of Human Resource "initiatives

This Diagnostic has been developed to assist you in auditing your organization's Human Resource practices and procedures. It consists of:

• Interactive Diagnostic Questionnaire: a comprehensive series of questions covering best practices in all aspects of human resources management.
• Reference Section: Bibliography on literature related to the questionnaire, hot links to other web sites dealing with similar topics, and references to innovative solutions/best practices which other service and manufacturing organizations have engaged in.