Organizations are unknowingly harming their own growth and success with these three outdated ... [+] practices.

Despite having a seat at the table, most organizations still see HR as a cost center instead of a value-added business partner. Consequently, the fight for an increase in budget remains their next big battle. An organization that fails to invest in their HR department hinders the growth and success while diminishing its overall attractiveness. Whether organizations realize it or not, HR is a reflection of the company as a whole.

In order for HR to be successful in their role, they need to be supported. Investing in HR goes beyond their personal development. It includes the resources they use to recruit, develop and retain talent. A high-performing HR team brings a wealth of benefits to an organization with a key function focused on developing leaders from within.

Unlike HR, most hiring managers lack formal interview training and management skills. As a result, they make poor hires and contribute to employee turnover. HR is largely responsible for shaping a companys culture, promoting innovation and introducing new ideas to invigorate current practices. However, if an organization doesnt see value in investing in their development to broaden their knowledge, they perpetuate outdated practices.

Here are three outdated human resource practices that are holding companies back from achieving their highest level of success.

Limiting Diversity In Recruiting

Culture fit is a buzzword that has become outdated and is used as an excuse for hiring managers to hire people most similar to them. Since the new generation of workers entered the workforce, companies have been prioritizing a culture-driven workplace. Their goals is to hire candidates who buy into their vision and fit into their current culture.

Catie Brand, senior director, international HR & talent acquisition at General Assembly, believes culture fit is outdated and promotes inequality and bias in the workplace. She adds, organizations that promote diversity, equality and inclusion focus on culture add, not culture fit.

Cultural fit not only contributes to organizational monoculture, but it can create a toxic environment for those who dont fit in. Furthermore, it prevents organizations from being innovative, disruptive and creative. Diversity is what helps organizations thrive and outperform their competitors. According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), organizations with diverse leadership teams are more innovative and have 19% higher revenue.

To measure the current teams behavior and understand blind spots, organizations can conduct a team assessment such as Predictive Index or TTI Success Insights to understand for which skills they need to hire. During the interview process, hiring managers should focus on how a candidates individuality and differences will add to the company and make it stronger. This will help them to hire the right people to close the skills gap and complement the team instead of resemble them.

Measuring Employees On Their Past

The value of reference checks remains a hotly debated topic across business. Most employers rely on them to make their final decision before hiring a candidate while some have them in place for no other reason than protocol and others believe theyre a waste of time. According to the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), four out of five employers use reference checks as a formality in their recruitment process. Therefore, this results in them eliminating 21% of candidates after speaking with their professional contacts.

Monster, the global employment website, broke this down to see what information hiring managers hope to gain when conducting a reference check. They found:

36% of hiring managers want to learn more about a candidates past duties and responsibilities

31% are interested in learning about their strengths and weaknesses

11% want confirmation of dates of employment and job title

8% want to know about workplace accomplishments

7% want a sense of their preferred work culture

7% are unsure of what theyre looking for

This indicates a majority of employers use reference checks to find out information they should be asking during the interview. An interview is the time when hiring managers should dig deeper into a candidates background, experience and character to evaluate if they would be a good fit for each other.

When done correctly, reference checks uncover caveats about a candidates skills and background. If a candidate seems hesitant to release information, provide references or maintain a consistent story, reaching out to references can be a valuable asset that helps reveal the pieces theyre not telling. However, due to labor laws becoming more restrictive, most companies will only verify employment and provide the dates the candidate was employed.

Many organizations have restructured their interview process to thoroughly test if a candidate can do the job, how they interact with others, whether they have a positive or negative attitude and their eagerness to learn. Today, a typical interview process consists of a pre-employment assessment, a mix of behavioral and situational based questions and a case interview. Some organizations incorporate an all day onsite interview where the candidate interacts and works with the team.

A Not-So-Progressive Discipline Plan

The once effective progressive discipline policy has become one of the most relied upon tactics to push an employee out of an organization. The reality of someone surviving a performance improvement plan (PIP) is little to none.

Patty McCord, former chief talent officer for Netflix, spoke at Ceridians Womens Network Summit last month and declared its time to retire the PIP. She says, nothing is more crueler than putting someone on a performance improvement plan with the goal of getting rid of them. McCord went on to say organizations use PIPs as a way to signal to people theyre employment is coming to an end instead of working with them to figure out the root cause of their performance.

At that point, organizations commit themselves to creating a paper trail of evidence to prove their case and prevent potential litigation against them. Not only is this demotivating, but it instills fear in the employee making them cautious about their every move. McCord says this canhave negative consequences on the overall morale of a team.

Kevin Darn, relationship advisor and author, agrees and believes PIPs are used as a warning that an employee will be let go. He said very few employees are of the belief that performance plans are instituted for their benefit. When a performance improvement plan is genuine and used to help someone grow and succeed, the impact can be overwhelmingly positive.

Instead of relying on PIPs, Ben Crudo, CEO and founder of Diff Agency, suggests managers help employees work through failures and turn setbacks into stepping stones. Managers who invest in nurturing their current talent help transform them into loyal and engaged employees. While this isnt always the case, most times when employees are struggling its due to poor leadership or a bad hire.

Employees arent receiving the feedback, development and coaching they crave. Managers should be having difficult conversations on a real-time basis and working with HR to provide resources that help employees understand what they need to improve with an action plan on the results they expect. Its vital managers and HR come together with a strategy that best utilizes their tools and resources so they can best support the people they hire and set them up for success.

Read the rest here:
Why Culture Fit And These 2 Other HR Practices Are Hurting Your Business - Forbes