Human resources: planning weekly meetings

HR management involves complex areas of administration such as coordinating and planning recruitment practices, managing change, addressing employee concerns and more.

Many businesses recognise that this high-volume, fast-paced department needs weekly meetings to ensure everything is running efficiently. Although the most effective HR meetings work to a framework, there also needs to be an element of flexibility to respond to continually changing business needs.

One of the most important aspects of human resources meetings is the platform they provide for attendees to reflect on their own performance, as well as their peers’ work, during the past week. Fostering a culture of feedback within the team, the meeting provides a place for dialogue about performance.

While weekly meetings ensure that any potential issues are nipped in the bud before they become a major challenge, they also minimise the feeling employees may have of being kept “in the dark” about how their manager thinks they are performing.

The top triggers of workplace stress include unclear expectations from management, the introduction of new processes requiring different operating rules and skills, confusion and miscommunication between co-workers and fears that workloads will increase, leading to uncertainty about the future, according to a survey by ComPsych.

These triggers can be alleviated by the frequent communication and transparency that weekly meetings can provide. Multiple areas must be considered when managing the HR department to ensure its wide remit is covered effectively.

Departmental housekeeping

Weekly HR meetings can address any housekeeping issues and keep the department under control. Topics such as employee file maintenance, adherence to regulatory compliance, important paperwork and processing timelines can be addressed as a group.

Weekly meetings are a timely way of developing controls for standardising or automating the department’s processes and procedures.

Team building

The human resources team handles stressful, confidential and sensitive issues on a regular basis. Members must work well together to produce the best results. This can be achieved with weekly team building meetings to increase trust, encourage co-operation and improve communication.

Team building activities can include exercises to encourage good communication and listening skills, led by the HR manager or supervisor.

Project management

Hosting weekly meetings provides an ideal forum to discuss project management. It enables attendees to talk about status updates, budget assignments, information sharing and deadlines to keep the busy HR staff on track. It gives team members a regular, scheduled time to collaborate, co-ordinate their work and keep track of progress.

Education and information sharing

Weekly meetings give human resources managers the chance to carry out peer-to-peer training. Team members can share information and education about topics including health and safety standards, company procedures and policies, any HR issues, organising webinars and future training sessions.

What happens without weekly meetings?

Many HR departments have found weekly meetings to be extremely effective in running their department and to the company as a whole. Nothing compares with face-to-face meetings!

While group-sharing software can enable departmental members to log into online status reports or information can be sent out by email, nothing is as productive as a weekly collaboration in person with other team members.

A study by Great Business Schools found 84% of respondents still preferred in-person meetings, despite the advances in modern technology. This view was supported by iPhone inventor, the late Steve Jobs, who was quoted as saying that people had to be in a room together to get the ideas flowing.

Sitting down around a conference table can help people to stay focused and alert, concentrating on the meeting’s subject matter. Many companies today prefer organising meetings in external meeting rooms, away from the interruptions of the regular workplace, to help attendees stay truly focused.