The Value of an HR Assessment

by Sophia Selivanoff, RGS Director of HR Services

One of the unique features of Regional Government Services (RGS) is a complete “hands-on” human resource management consulting service. This ongoing and interactive role includes much more than just providing expert studies or reports, or delivering one-time services such as training program or labor negotiation. RGS is the HR department of many partner agencies. This unique relationship presents unique challenges. RGS Advisors must strive to understand and act effectively within the relationships of the staff of the partner agency; and must be acutely aware of the interpersonal impacts of HR activities.

As a matter of policy, RGS intends that human resource management consulting services include an “HR assessment” early in the consulting relationship. The assessment is an internal environmental scan, intended to be broad rather than deep. This is generally done through a set of interviews with key stakeholders in the HR system, including employee groups. The findings can be reported in a number of ways.  The essential goals are to clarify the organization’s values and expectations regarding personnel issues, and to identify areas of HR system competence and need. This in turn allows RGS Advisors to further identify specific action plans that will support existing competence, mitigate weaknesses, and develop new organizational capabilities.

RGS’ intentional approach of analyzing and organizing delivers effective HR services providing significant benefits to both the client agency’s executive managers and the consulting Advisor team.  Benefits include:

• RGS ensures immediate correction of areas of high-risk non-compliance. Organizations may be unaware of compliance gaps, and a deliberate inquiry into compliance issues provides a comprehensive review and reduces risk for the partner agency.
• Because this is a whole-organization review, the partner agency is able to align top priorities with budget capability, and achieve maximum benefit for the whole organization.
• RGS designs a proactive system-building approach, extracting and addressing organizational themes and cross-departmental needs and recommending agency-wide systems, rather than simply problem-solving individual issues.
• RGS facilitates effective implementation of change efforts, by ensuring an up-front understanding of differences in expectations and values among the workforce, and crafting change communications and processes that address these different interests.
• An assessment assists the chief executive to identify specific HR management competence building strategies for the management team.
• An assessment ensures the best use of scarce administrative resources, as systems are developed and issues resolved in an organized way that builds a useful platform for effective ongoing personnel administration.
• By creating a clear work plan to track specific HR system and problem-solving accomplishments linked to the achievement of organizational objectives, an assessment allows the partner agency to oversee accountability of the whole team, both RGS and agency personnel.