HR consultancy services: how can they help?

If you’re thinking about contracting external professionals to ease your department’s workload, your first step should be to find out what services HR consultancies offer. This will give you an idea of what you can outsource and what you will need to keep in house.

In this article we’ll explain what these services are and the benefits of outsourcing. 

Staff training

An HR consultancy can be a godsend for companies struggling to keep up with staff training needs. Generally, an external company will provide the necessary tools or courses to ensure the employees’ expertise is sufficiently up to scratch for them to carry out their jobs effectively. Training can also be related to other work areas, such as professional development, safety, etc.

Facilitating and providing staff training has well-established benefits for the company. When we target training on weak areas identified during performance reviews, it is likely to improve the organisation’s general productivity. Alternatively, by running courses to update workers’ expertise in their respective areas, the company benefits by becoming more competitive. 

For employees, training signals that the organisation is invested in them, which, more often than not, makes them more willing and content to stay with the company. It also provides them with the tools they need to improve and grow as professionals. 

So why should you subcontract this service? Finding experts in certain areas within an organisation can be practically impossible. Sometimes, therefore, you need to look for this expertise externally. The many specialist companies out there possess the means and necessary know-how to provide effective training and advice.

Recruitment

Another HR function often delegated to a specialist consultancy is recruitment and selection. In fact, this is one of the services that companies most often outsource, especially when they require a continual supply of candidates. In these cases, the provider takes charge of receiving CVs, reviewing and screening them, and holding interviews with the most interesting applicants.

Many companies opt to subcontract this element as the hiring process consumes significant resources, which can adversely affect performance and results in other areas of HR.

Furthermore, most departments do not have specialist internal recruiters. That is not to say that a department manager cannot make a good hire; however, someone specialised in this area will have the expertise and tools to (in general) help them find the best candidates. 

Payroll

Outsourcing payroll is also very common in all types and sizes of companies. This job takes the HR team a great deal of time, and normally requires someone with specific understanding. However, external providers can take on full responsibility for payroll management and ensure the organisation’s employees are paid on time. 

Outsourcing payroll can help:

• Save the HR department time, which they can invest in other, more important areas. 
• Guarantee standards compliance (data protection, etc.).
• Eliminate or reduce as much as possible the risk of errors that affect employees. 
• Guarantee data security, as providers must have a robust and secure system.  

Employees also benefit from this system as they know they will always be paid on time without any errors creeping in. 

In general, outsourcing payroll management to an external provider pays off. The savings relating to time and money, not to mention the hassle, are substantial. 

Remuneration

For the human resources team, remuneration is more than just wages. It is a management tool to attract talent, engage employees and improve business results. With all these implications, it is probably one of the department’s most important duties. It encompasses the design and implementation of pay policies, incentives, and equality plans, etc.

Why should you consider outsourcing remuneration? As well as reducing the department’s workload, allowing external experts to handle salaries and internal policies helps ensure these are more in line with market values and employees’ interests. In turn, this will make the organisation much more attractive and competitive from a salary point of view. 

Employee performance reviews and promotions 

HR consultancies usually include employee performance reviews and promotions in their service offering. In this case, they take charge of the review process and create policies for promotions and salary increases in line with results. 

Using external reviewers is worth considering as:

• They have professional performance review tools and methods, that will give us more realistic results.  
• They can identify shortcomings or requirements, analyse exactly what is lacking, and find solutions to these problems. 
• It eliminates potential bias on the part of internal reviewers, who know the people they are assessing. 

For companies, therefore, the impact is clearly positive. Not only do they obtain more trustworthy results, but they also benefit from important time savings for the HR team. 

Workplace environment

We can also use external professionals to evaluate a company’s work environment. They will usually take care of sending out anonymous surveys to employees, putting together reports based on the key results and making recommendations for improvements. 

Similar to performance reviews, outsourcing this service can prove extremely useful to obtain a subjective perspective on the state of a company, and of any changes required to improve the working atmosphere. 

Nurturing employee relations and guaranteeing their wellbeing is fundamental for business growth. A happy employee will be much more productive and engaged with the company. 

Other related services

What other services do HR consultancies offer? We found these options in addition to those we’ve already mentioned:

• Occupational health and safety: all employees should take a health and safety course and renew it periodically.
• Internal communications: one way to strengthen company culture and improve the atmosphere is to work on internal communications. Many companies hire experts for this matter.
• Employer branding or brand image: another key element for HR departments. Enhancing the brand image and cultivating a good reputation as an employer can be key to attracting talent.