Home
The APQC Blog

5 Ways HR Makes a Difference

<span>5 Ways HR Makes a Difference </span>

On this International HR Day, I am sharing 5 ways that HR makes a difference and what recent APQC research shows HR functions are doing today to excel at each. While there are so many ways that HR makes a difference, these 5 are representative of key contributions that HR makes to employees’ lives and business performance. 

Five ways that HR makes a difference are: 

  1. Getting the right talent 
  2. Bringing new talent to full productivity, quickly 
  3. Developing employees so they can do the right things 
  4. Engaging and retaining employees 
  5. Delivering efficiency and cost effectiveness 

Following are snapshots into what recent APQC research shows HR functions are doing today to excel in each area. For more details, check out the hyperlinked infographics, articles, and white papers. 

5 Ways HR Makes a Difference 

#1 Getting the Right Talent in the Door 

HR makes a difference by getting the right talent into the organization. In our survey of 1,000 talent acquisition functions, we found a group that has achieved low recruiting costs, low recruiter headcount, fast time to hire, and high levels of new hire retention. The research showed that these recruiting top performers make greater use of technology compared to lower performing functions. For example, they are more likely to have fully implemented and optimized key recruiting technologies, they leverage technology across more recruiting processes, and they are more likely to use advanced versions of technologies like analytics and automation.  

Learn more about how recruiting top performers use technology from the following resources. 

#2 Bringing New Talent to Full Productivity, Quickly 

HR makes a difference by bringing new hires to full productivity quickly. In our survey, The Onboarding Experience of Today’s Workforce, we found that employees who received structured onboarding (a documented learning path for mastering the new role and responsibilities) were more likely to say that their onboarding effectively prepared them for their role and that they feel productive in that role. Compared to employees who had unstructured onboarding (learned their role more spontaneously, over the course of weeks and months, as the role required), employees who received structured onboarding were trained on a wider range of topics and needed less time to reach full productivity.  

Learn more about HR functions that provide structured onboarding from the following resources. 

#3 Developing Employees so They Can Do the Right Things 

HR makes a difference by providing employees with learning and development (L&D) that keeps their skills and competencies up to date so they can perform their roles well. In our Learning and Development Blueprint for Success report we introduce a group of L&D functions that have better learning outcomes: stronger talent pipelines, more internal promotions, and more internal transfers and hires. The research showed that, compared to other L&D functions that we surveyed, these best-in-class L&D functions, take a different approach to L&D. They do more with their L&D technologies, reporting higher rates of measurement, data analytics, and data consolidation. And, they are significantly more likely to develop future or emerging skills among employees.  

Learn more about HR functions that excel at L&D from the following resources. 

#4 Engaging and Retaining Employees 

HR makes a difference by engaging and retaining employees. In 2024, APQC carried out survey research with more than 600 workers to identify what motivates employees to perform their best work and whether they were currently receiving these things. In APQC’s Moments that Matter white paper, we compare the survey responses of employees who said it would take a lot for them to leave their current job (a group we call “likely to stay”) to the survey responses of employees who said it would not take a lot for them to leave their current job (“likely to leave”). We found that “likely to stay” employees were much more likely to have had positive experiences with six key “moments that matter:” being onboarded, receiving feedback, being rewarded, receiving recognition, developing, and balancing. 

Learn more about HR functions that excel in delivering these “moments that matter” from the following resources. 

#5 Delivering with Efficiency and Cost Effectiveness 

HR makes a difference by leveraging the latest technology to increase efficiency and effectiveness while managing costs. In our AI in the HR function research, more AI-mature HR functions reported better HR performance outcomes, including lower cycle times, smaller workforces, and lower costs. With less spending and fewer full-time HR employees, HR leaders in highly AI-mature HR functions reported higher internal fill rates, higher new-hire retention rates, and higher revenue per employee, compared with HR functions that were still “piloting” AI. These AI leaders were more likely to have taken specific initiatives to prepare their data and their people for AI. They were also more likely to have an integrated technology strategy and to have adopted AI end-to-end across HR process groups (i.e., adopted AI in all processes within a process group such as talent acquisition or L&D).  

Learn more about HR functions that are leading the way in their use of AI from the following resources. 

On this International HR Day, we want to recognize these 5 ways that HR makes a difference, acknowledging that this is just a sample and not an exhaustive list. APQC’s research findings, across these 5 areas, underscore that it’s not just what work HR does but also how HR goes about performing this work that makes the biggest difference for employees and the organizations that they work in.