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HR leaders play an important role in driving revenue growth for their organizations. Hiring and onboarding the right people can unlock significant value and optimize a company's overall performance to ensure it's well-equipped to meet future challenges.
Here, 20 Forbes Human Resources Council members discuss various strategies HR leaders can implement to transform their practices to achieve better financial outcomes. These strategies can improve your workforce’s productivity and encourage innovation while helping increase revenue.
1. Encourage Continuous Learning
HR Leaders can help by creating a culture of continuous learning that fosters growth and development leading to retainment. Leaders can also ensure roles and responsibilities are clearly defined, so functions have a strong understanding of objectives aligned with the larger business strategy to get the right work done efficiently. - Jamie Viramontes, Konnect
2. Provide Incentives To Motivate Employees
Developing competitive compensation and rewards programs is essential for attracting, retaining and motivating top talent. HR leaders can conduct market research to ensure that salary and benefits packages remain competitive, while also introducing performance-based incentives and recognition programs to incentivize exceptional contributions and drive revenue-focused behaviors. - Rachel Fletcher
3. Invest In Employees
Leaders can boost revenue by investing in employee development, aligning goals, fostering a positive culture and optimizing workforce planning while promoting diversity and inclusion. - Joana Oliveira
4. Prioritize And Empower Leadership
Leading other people is one of the most important drivers of growth. People teams should see it as their most critical task to empower managers to be great leaders of their teams. Cultivating a culture where leadership is accurately prioritized is tough, and giving leaders the guidance and support they need is crucial for success. Most managers aren't even good but have the capacity to be great. - Christian Møller, Zoios
5. Focus On Strengthening Your Workforce
The people of any organization—their collective spirit, thoughts, passions and experiences—are one of the main competitive advantages organizations have. Their collective work in creating a work environment can increase engagement, productivity, innovation and retention while minimizing workplace disruptions and creating a greater synergy that will translate to satisfied clients and more revenue. - Omar Alhadi, Adobe Population Health
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6. Create An Open And Safe Environment
Leaders can have an immense impact on the growth of an organization by nourishing a company culture that creates a safe space for everyone to share accountability and contribute to innovation. If leaders are intentional in creating psychological safety in the organization, then inclusiveness, humility and working towards a common goal come naturally and form the building blocks of growth. - Gonca Icoren, Energy Vault Inc.
7. Offer Opportunities For Employee Training
Leaders can enhance revenue by investing in employee training programs. For instance, a medical device company can boost revenue by offering in-depth product and competitive landscape training. This equips sales reps to better understand and address customer needs, leading to increased sales and revenue as the team becomes more effective at positioning and selling the company's products. - Cally Stanphill, PainTEQ LLC
8. Gain A Deep Understanding Of Your Business
Understand how your business operates; not just at face value—but deeply. Know how you go to market and how you generate demand and convert it to sales. Understand how your business supports its customers. This lets you unlock the power that comes from the HR/People knowledge you have and marry it to a strategic understanding of the business. This combination can make you unstoppable. - Corey Berkey, Garnet Bridge Consulting
9. Establish Trust With Your Team
One key to becoming a great leader and getting the best out of the people is building trust. When your team trusts you, they will give you honest feedback and go the extra mile. Too many leaders start with a focus on tasks (getting things done) and forget the importance of building relationships. Trust is critical, and you can earn trust by being reliable and having a high say/do ratio. - Mikaela Kiner, Reverb
10. Link Talent Development With Business Goals
Investing in employee development means more than just providing training. Leaders must ensure that their talent development strategies are intrinsically linked to the organization's strategic business goals. By doing so, they can create a symbiotic relationship where employee advancement and organizational success go together. - Tammy Harper, CAI
11. Know What Drives Your Organization
Depending on the organization, different factors can have the greatest impact on employee productivity. In our research, we have seen that in some cases, it can be access to the necessary tools and technologies to do one's work, while in others, it's a manageable workload and overall well-being. It's important for leaders to understand the main drivers in their organization and focus on those. - Sanja Licina, QuestionPro
12. Make Training A Necessary Evil
Many organizations do not appreciate the revenue benefits that training and mentoring provide. Employees who are well-trained and knowledgeable about the company and their responsibilities will increase their overall efficiency and productivity. Fostering an ongoing learning environment leads to increased revenue and, if managed correctly, increased profits. - Rosie Dominic, Century Martial Arts
13. Seek Input From Employees
Engage employees and create an environment where employees feel comfortable bringing new ideas forward. Hiring people who are forward thinkers, innovative and embrace new ideas is always a first start. Leaders should get their employees energized by little things such as sending out emails with the latest in technology or by seeking out their advice on how to improve areas of the organization. - Heather Smith, Flimp Communications
14. Encourage Risk-Taking
Encourage employees to be creative and take risks. How many times will people "fail" before they find the next great idea? If leaders encourage an environment where people feel comfortable failing, then they may have more innovation and new ideas that are successful than if people were not given the chance to create. If the ideas are successful, they can lead to increased revenue. - Erin ImHof, CertiK
15. Promote Growth Opportunities
From an HR perspective, leaders can add value and grow revenue by investing in employee development and engagement. By creating growth opportunities, recognizing achievements and fostering a positive work environment, they enhance job satisfaction and productivity. Engaged employees are more likely to innovate, exceed customer expectations and contribute to the organization's bottom line. - Karina Bernacki, VSCO
16. Engage Your Employees
In a service company, where the product is its people, investing in your employees is investing in your revenue strategy. Recruitment, employee development, performance management and employee engagement all become revenue drivers. Investing in your people is essential to maximizing employee potential and driving business success. - MJ Vigil, DispatchHealth
17. Champion Equitable Hiring And Growth
Become the person who pushes for more equitable hiring practices and development opportunities. Employees want to feel heard, supported and like their leaders are invested in their success. These are drivers of engagement and retention, not to mention hallmarks of good leadership. Be vocal about your support of a better workplace for all. - Ursula Mead, InHerSight
18. Challenge Silos To Improve Organizational Efficiency
HR leadership has the ability to look across the organization and see past departmental and divisional silos. Challenging the organization to think outside the conventional span of control with regard to synergies, secondary value creation and goal alignment can yield improvements in resource usage efficiency, EBDA objectives and revenue optimization. - Jon Lowe, DailyPay
19. Set Employees Up For The Future
Leaders need to focus on building a legacy of future leaders. This involves proper mentoring and departmental succession planning. When leaders practice this, efficiency is increased. There is invested ownership of processes, colleague support in achieving goals and productivity is maximized as team members assume leadership qualities well before being promoted—adding value to the overall output. - Tiersa Smith-Hall, Impactful Imprints, Training & Consulting
20. Embrace Holistic Management
Leaders should embrace a multifaceted approach to corporate and operational management that prioritizes ongoing enhancement in all areas of the organization, including HR management. In this scenario, achieving stable results in operational and people excellence would significantly impact fostering a diverse culture that empowers employees, ultimately leading to a rise in revenue. - Dr. Nara Ringrose, Cyclife Aquila Nuclear
