3 Innovative Ways to Structure Your HR Department

Nikki has recently been hired as the new human resources director for a budding tech startup that is scaling up rapidly. It’s an exciting time: What started as just a few dots on a tiny organizational chart has quickly ballooned into multiple sections and departments.

As the startup grows, so does its need for a designated HR department. That’s where Nikki comes in. She must determine how activities within the HR department will be organized, controlled and coordinated.

Sound like a fun challenge? It certainly is. For startup owners and HR decision-makers like Nikki, here are three innovative ways to structure a successful HR department from the ground up:

1. Hire for people operations.

When people think “people operations,” Google usually comes to mind. The tech giant pioneered this data-based approach to human resources, and today’s most cutting-edge startups are following suit (as is the case with many things Google does).

What makes people operations different from traditional HR? For starters, people operations is more than just human resources — it’s a data-based approach to understanding a company’s most valuable asset: its people. Most importantly, this approach to HR is based on retaning employees by understanding what drives them.

When it comes to employees, eliminate the guesswork from employee satisfaction surveys, team assessments and social media. By having a dedicated team to solicit employee-related data, HR can more accurately identify issues that lead to disengagement and attrition, and thereby prevent it.

Read the complete blog post here: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246483