HR is more than an administrative support function — it plays an increasingly strategic role in any business. An effective HR department utilizes the latest technology to attract, hire and retain the best personnel for the company.

Managing and measuring performance reliably help managers ensure that the workforce operates at peak efficiency. All of this has to be done in a cost-effective manner. To be successful, understanding innovation in HR is important. If you are an HR manager, then you must know innovative trends in the HR field.   There  are many websites such as HR Resource Guide that educate and equip HR professionals with the critical skills that matter the most in their everyday work.

Here are some of the important HR innovative practices you should try:

• Career Development

Maintaining a highly-trained workforce benefits both employee and employer. Employees develop their skills and knowledge and employers ensure they have individual contributors who are ready to move into management positions when they become available.

According to the Center for Creative Leadership, a successful leadership development model consists of 70 percent on-the-job experience, 20 percent relationship building and 10 percent of formal course work. Innovative alternatives to expensive traditional higher education typically include free self-paced training course materials made available by leading colleges and universities.

Additionally, an HR department can promote learning and development by creating posters, brochures and tip sheets about career development. This might also include designating one or two days a year for employees to focus on their career planning.

Career development might also involve job rotations that enable vertical, lateral, realignment, relocation, enrichment or exploratory job moves.

• Employee Surveys

Conducting annual employee surveys gives an HR department the knowledge needed to build a positive employee-employer relationship and a productive work environment.

An anonymous survey enables employees to speak freely and candidly about working conditions. This helps determine employee satisfaction, attitudes, loyalty and potential issues.

Responding to these issues results in higher employee satisfaction, retention and productivity. Use a free survey template or create a customized format.

• New Employee Orientation

When businesses are short on staff, they might be tempted to put new employees right to work. However, successful companies offer a comprehensive orientation program to introduce employees to the company’s culture, operations and policies.

This gets employees off to a solid start and up and running quickly. Ideally, effective orientation for new employees actually starts during the recruitment process and conveys a consistent message about the company’s values, procedures and mission using multiple techniques.

For example, an HR function can produce videos that feature company leaders, employees and customers. These describe the commitment and role each plays in the business. This tends to inspire and motivates new employees. It contributes to the sense of belonging and connectedness necessary for feeling productive and useful, as well. Additionally, creating checklists helps new employees navigate through their first few weeks on the job.

• Team Building

HR functions may seem to focus only on the day-to-day administrative tasks that ensure employees are fairly compensated for their work. Innovative strategies for promoting the proper use of key programs, such as health care, ensure that the company gets the highest best value for its investment in its people.

Conducting regular team-building activities, such as contests, events and games, allows an HR department to communicate its initiatives and allow participants to have some fun at the same time. In addition to newsletters and brochures, HR leaders can produce podcasts and use social media technology, including wikis, blogs and forums, to engage employees and build relationships and connections.

They promote interdepartmental best practices such as improving productivity, prioritizing work, delegating appropriately, managing stress and working within time and budget constraints. This makes the company stronger as a whole.