Benchmarking in Human Resources

Benchmarking in Human Resources
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Human Resources (HR) benchmarking is the process of searching for and implementing best practices in human resource management. The concept is to study a better organization and to adopt some concepts to achieve sustained improvement. The initial step of benchmarking involves an audit of the current state of affairs of the HR processes in the organization. This makes it easy to plan for the process and focus on the critical areas. HR benchmarking helps an organization enhance its HR performance since it allows HR managers and employees to have a broader perspective and think out of the box regarding obstacles they face. Additionally, benchmarking offers insights on how other companies excelled in managing employees. It is also a good way of determining the efficiency of the current HR plan, hence plan for any required adjustments.
On the flipside, benchmarking if not used properly may have short-lived benefits, needless mention the loss of time and money invested. This is likely to happen when organizations emulate others instead of enhancing their performance. In this respect, Zhang & Fan (2009) argue that the information sought after should be analyzed critically as opposed to applying raw information. In other words, benchmarking is not just about copying. Having said this, when selecting an organization for benchmarking it is recommended to select organizations that are closely related to your organization with regards to size, business environment, and industry.

It is also critical to analyze the performance indices and prizes won by the selected companies. Moreover, benchmarking comparison information can be obtained from research studies, publications, online HR services and much more. For instance, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) website provides useful information for benchmarking, which I highly recommend to the organization.
The concept of benchmarking can also be altered to help me in my personal job search. In this case, as a job seeker, my aim is to improve my personal effectiveness and eventually land a job. To achieve this, I need to benchmark myself against the job market. Perhaps the best way to do this is to regularly look out for job adverts and personal skills and requirements for jobs that I am looking for. Such skills and requirements will then serve as the benchmark standards. In this regard, it would be wise to ask oneself: Do I have the academic qualifications they are looking for? Are my personal skills suitable for the role? The answers to these questions will help me discover areas that I need to improve on. For instance, if my soft skills such as communication skills are not up-to-date, I will initiate measures to improve them. This will apply to all the other areas until I have developed all the competencies, thus securing a job.
Also, benchmarking could be a useful tool for creating goals and improving my performance in my current position as an intake advocate at a hospital. Just like for an organization, it is prudent first to determine the areas that I am struggling with or want to change. Talking to my supervisor, fellow employees, HR managers or even reviewing my performance reports will give me an insight on what to work on. Consequently, I will be keen to learn and seek guidance from advocates who are better than me in those areas. Also, as rightly pointed out by Mills (2013), reading professional journals, joining professional bodies, attending workshops and networking will all go a long way in improving my performance.
References
Mills, C. (2013, May 3). Keeping your professional development continuous. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/careers/careers-blog/keeping-professional-development-continuous
Zhang, Z. J., & Fan, Q. M. (2009). Benchmarking in Human Resource Management. Canadian Social Science, 1(1), 57-61.