Is Your HR Strategy Missing a Human Touch?

Think back to why you chose a career in HR or business leadership. It probably had something to do with your love of people, right? Yet too often we can find ourselves saddled with traditional HR strategies that don’t put people at the centre.

The evidence is increasingly indicating that this needs to change. Adding a human touch to your HR strategy has a positive impact on employee engagement and retention. An HR approach that focuses on appreciation and empathy can create a stronger, more motivated workforce.

If you’re ready to start making changes, here’s how to start improving your company culture by humanising your HR processes.

The Evolving Role of HR

HR has traditionally been seen as a functional and administrative department. While that’s still a significant component of HR today, we’re also seeing a shift towards HR playing a more strategic role. HR departments are being aligned with overall business objectives, with a greater focus on employee engagement and wellbeing, as well as improving company culture. This makes it an exciting time to be an HR professional, as they’re being given an increasingly influential seat at the table when it comes to organisational goal-setting and decision-making.

What Does a ‘Human Touch’ in HR Mean?

You would think that a department titled ‘Human Relations’ would inherently put humans at the centre, but that isn’t always the case. A human-centred HR strategy incorporates empathy, appreciation, active listening to employees across all levels of the company, and recognising each worker as an individual.

As part of this much-needed shift towards human-centred practices, HR departments are engaging in far more than just keeping the company ticking from an administrative perspective. They’re now focusing on fostering emotional intelligence, building employee trust in the company and its leadership, and creating the conditions for meaningful and productive relationships to blossom within the workforce.

Key Benefits of a Human Touch in HR

Putting people at the heart of your HR practice doesn’t just benefit the employees who are finally getting their needs heard and prioritised. The organisation will reap the rewards too.

Improved employee engagement

Employees who feel heard, respected, and valued are more likely to be motivated and productive. Studies show that satisfied employees are a whopping 200% more productive than their unsatisfied counterparts!

Enhanced employee retention

A personalised HR approach that makes employees feel valued will also improve your retention rate. McKinsey research has shown that ‘organisation in which HR facilitates a positive employee experience are 1.3 times more likely to report organisational outperformance’, and Amba’s ‘Generation Gap: Understanding the Priorities of the Gen-Z Workforce’ 2022 report stated that 58% of those surveyed would leave a job if the employer didn’t share the same values as them. You might find that people are more forthcoming with their feedback and grievances, which means you can address them before they cause enough discontent for your employees to leave - and it’ll help you further personalise your approach, leading to better employee retention rates.

Stronger company culture

Human-centred HR strategies inevitably lead to a more positive, inclusive, and collaborative workplace culture. The ‘Gallup State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report’ states, “if managers could increase the number of employees who believed their opinions counted, organizations could reduce turnover by as much as 27%, safety incidents by 40%, and increase productivity by 12%.” Whatever your organisation’s core mission is – that essence that drives whatever it is that you do – you can adapt your HR approach to amplify its impact across the company.

Better recruitment and onboarding

Bringing in new staff is a vital – and sometimes delicate – aspect of any HR department. Gallup found that only 29% of new hires feel prepared and supported adequately to perform well in their new role. A human-first approach will create a more welcoming recruitment and onboarding experience for new hires, meaning you’re more likely to find good fits for your company culture, and you’ll be setting them up for long-term success in the organisation.

How to Humanise Your HR Strategy

Is this all sounding amazing, but you have no idea where to start? It can take time to shift your company’s strategy, but here are some steps to get the ball rolling.

Personalisation in communication

Tailor your communication to meet individuals where they’re at. Personalised feedback goes a long way! One-on-one meetings are also essential, providing opportunities to create tailored development plans that will lay the groundwork for employees to thrive and contribute in the long term.

Employee recognition is also a vital part of personalised communication. There’s no better way to make an individual feel seen and valued than by celebrating their achievements. You can easily make this a part of your HR strategy with tools such as Thankbox, which make it so easy to show appreciation that it becomes business as usual.

Active listening and employee feedback

HR must gather and act on employee feedback on a regular basis. You can achieve this through surveys, one-on-one check-ins, and maintaining open communication. And remember, listening means taking on board both positive and negative feedback. Adopting a company culture of continuous improvement and innovation will encourage employees to come forward with their suggestions.

To help facilitate this, platforms like WorkBuzz can make a significant difference. A trusted partner of Thankbox, WorkBuzz enables organisations to collect real-time, anonymous employee feedback and turn those insights into meaningful action. By creating an open feedback loop, companies can improve transparency, identify potential issues early, and have a culture where employees feel truly heard and valued.

Employee well-being programs

A simple yet vital component of human-centred HR programs is implementing wellness initiatives that focus on mental, emotional, and physical health. In doing so, you’re supporting employees holistically and helping them to be their best selves both on and off the job.

And don’t forget about the recruitment stage: aligning well-being with hiring starts early. A people-first approach to recruitment ensures you’re building teams that are not only skilled but aligned with your culture from day one.

By combining well-being programs, effective leadership, and tech-enabled feedback loops, you create the foundation for a company culture where people genuinely flourish.

Leadership development

Sometimes, adopting a human-centric HR strategy can feel like you’re out at sea, with no one else in the company getting it. If that’s the case, encourage leadership to take on development in the areas of empathy, respect, and emotional intelligence. And if you’ve done your research and come prepared to back up your suggestions with evidence, you’re more likely to get buy-in.

Bringing in external support can also help to kick-start this shift. Partners like Step It Up HR can align well with this approach, offering leadership-focused solutions that reinforce a people-first culture from the top down.

Use of HR technology

While you’re humanising your HR strategy, you don’t need to do it on your own. These days, there is a range of HR tools and technologies that will help you to maintain a personal touch, including performance management systems, employee feedback platforms, recruitment support and tracking tools, and appreciation and recognition platforms like Thankbox.

Celebrating People, Not Just Processes

While personalisation is a vital element of a human-centred HR strategy, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. At Thankbox, we believe it’s equally important to focus on making your team feel truly seen, valued and appreciated – not just as employees, but as individuals with unique experiences, personalities, and contributions.

That’s why we champion the idea of celebrating all achievements-big and small–in ways that are fun, inclusive, and never feel corporate. Recognition doesn’t have to be formal to be meaningful. When your team feels celebrated for who they are and what they bring to the table, they’re more likely to feel a genuine connection to their work and the broader company culture.

We’ve seen first-hand how empowering employees to express themselves through different formats – whether that’s heartfelt messages, creative visuals, or humorous GIFs – fosters a sense of belonging and joy that can’t be manufactured through traditional recognition systems. It’s not just about saying thank you. It’s about saying, “We see you.”

So if you’re looking to build a culture that people genuinely love being part of, start by creating opportunities to make appreciation more personal, playful, and people-powered.

Challenges in Humanising Your HR Strategy

Adopting a human-centric HR approach in your organisation won’t happen overnight. As with any significant change, you’re bound to encounter challenges and setbacks along the way. Members of your team might be resistant to change, you might be constrained by budget, or you might lack the particular skills and expertise required to make the switch.

Taking it slowly can help with all of these potential challenges. Consider adopting a phased implementation, where changes are made gradually to give members of your organisation time to adjust and upskill. This can be far less confronting, costly and disruptive than attempting to overhaul your department in one fell swoop.

Leveraging existing HR technologies, software, and systems can also help you to streamline the process. There’s no point reinventing the wheel when there are great resources you could be drawing from already out there! Use an applicant tracking system - like HireData - to streamline your recruitment process; track your key company metrics using Google’s suite of collaboration tools; and leverage Thankbox to automate your employee appreciation and recognition program. Utilising automation to streamline your processes wherever possible can free up time for you to focus on the person-to-person interactions that technology cannot replace.

Examples of Successful Human-Centric HR Strategies

Adopting a human-centric HR strategy is by no means a fringe concept. Heavy-hitters across industries, from Salesforce to Zappos, are renowned for their people-first approaches.

Nissan prides itself on having an open-door culture and really values employee feedback, whether positive or negative. They don’t just use surveys; leadership ensures that they hear from a range of employees from all job functions. They’ve seen an 11-percentage-point gain in the share of employees who say their workplace is psychologically and emotionally safe, as reported in their most recent survey, and they aim to further this. They’ve seen that more employees say they want to stay with the company long-term, a 10 percentage point increase from its 2021 survey. 83% of employees are proud of where they work, a crucial factor in motivating them to recommend their workplace to others.

The Future of Human-Centred HR

If you work in HR, you’re probably aware of how much the field has changed over the years, and these days we’re in a period of even greater innovation. AI is being implemented in almost every department of organisations, and this will undoubtedly impact HR professionals as well. There may be opportunities to streamline bureaucracy and further personalise your approach to individual employees without increasing personnel hours, and those time savings can be channelled into optimising and expanding your human touch.

The growing emphasis on mental health from an HR perspective isn’t showing any signs of slowing down either, with the link between mental wellbeing and productivity increasingly evident. As we’ve discussed, companies that prioritise their employees’ wellbeing experience higher retention rates, which is a huge win from an HR perspective! While creating psychologically safe workplaces isn’t solely the responsibility of the HR department, HR leaders are well-positioned to be change leaders within their organisations.

Adopting a human-first approach is becoming essential for organisations wanting to stay competitive in today’s labour market, where employees increasingly have their pick of a range of cutting-edge employers to choose from.

Adding a human touch to your HR strategy doesn’t have to be complicated, and your business will quickly reap the rewards of a people-first approach. Now is the time to review your current HR strategies and start exploring ways to incorporate more empathy, communication, and personalisation into your processes.

While overhauling your company’s HR culture can take some time, you can begin to implement small changes towards a more human-centric approach today. Why not start with gifting some well-deserved recognition – and a morale boost – via a personalised Thankbox card?

Images: Cover | People Sitting Around a Table | Woman in White Dress in Front of Silver Macbook | Multiethnic Cheerful Colleagues