From the author: A. G. Belyaev, NLP practitioner, coach, highly qualified manager (MBA), director of the consulting company “El-Consul” When reprinting, a link to the link is required! Often, along with purely “business” and technological problems, an enterprise may have human resource problems. From our experience in consulting work, it follows that at many enterprises of the Altai Territory, and in particular the city of Barnaul, personnel often “do not take their places”; someone creates an atmosphere of “interpersonal friction”; someone performs unnecessary, far-fetched functions, while an important area of ​​work remains bare. Identifying a problem related to the human resources of an enterprise and finding ways to solve this problem is the main task of a personnel audit - an independent (external) assessment of the enterprise’s human resources and its potential .A personnel audit can be part of a set of measures designed to evaluate the economic and financial activities of an enterprise (organizational and managerial audit), and can be carried out independently. During a personnel audit, the level of compliance of employees with their positions is determined, personal qualities are assessed, and characteristics of individual employees are given. In addition, by conducting such an audit, it is possible to identify formal and informal groups existing in the team, their leaders, diagnose the socio-psychological climate in the organization, check the correctness of personnel documentation, create job passports, etc. As a result, the manager can receive a lot of useful information, for example: who is the source of tension in the team, whether the employees’ capabilities are used to the maximum extent, and in general, whether their work is worth the money they are paid. How to choose the right auditors In an enterprise, especially a small one, it is difficult to conduct a personnel audit on its own, because this requires qualified specialists, who are not advisable to “keep at work all the time”, using them from time to time. It is almost impossible to figure out for yourself what is preventing the team from working effectively - there can be many reasons for the occurrence of “problems” related to personnel: from stuffiness in the room to loss of motivation among employees. Therefore, external specialists are usually brought in to conduct personnel assessments. If the decision on the need to conduct a personnel audit has been made, the purpose of this event has been determined, you can begin to select the specialists who will do this. In order for the upcoming event to bring the desired effect, and the money invested in the “improvement” of the enterprise does not turn out to be a waste, it is important not to make a mistake when choosing consultants. There are several recommendations that you can follow to minimize the likelihood of errors when choosing auditors: call at least four to five specialized firms (preferably at different levels) and try to get as much information as possible about the range of services provided, compare the information received and try to choose the best option in terms of prices and quality; take an interest in working methods and previous experience in conducting personnel audits; try to find out the opinions of clients about the chosen company; find out how many people will be in the group that will audit your company, making sure to find out exactly which specialists will conduct the audit. When is it appropriate If desired, you can adjust the work of the enterprise using personnel assessment as often as the financial capabilities of the owners allow. Personnel audit is especially useful in: preparing for organizational changes of the entire enterprise; purchasing an enterprise; merging companies; reconstructing the personnel management system; injecting a large number of new personnel; desires optimize the work of the company's branches; resolving the issue of improving the qualifications of “old” employees or attracting “new” employees; the need to reduce the number of employees; lack of enthusiasm among employees who chronically perform their dutiesresponsibilities “carelessly”; conflict situation within the enterprise that negatively affects the business. After the audit, “good HR auditors” should provide the customer with a clear list of necessary measures and methods of working with personnel, the implementation of which is likely to lead to the resolution of the problem. Who conducts a personnel auditPersonnel assessment is carried out by a group of experts with appropriate qualifications and experience in conducting personnel audits. The number of specialists in a group can vary from three to five people, depending on the planned scope of work and its duration. The group performing the personnel audit should, at a minimum, include: A personnel management specialist is the leading specialist in conducting a personnel audit, and he most often heads this group. Typically, this is a qualified manager and/or an HR manager with experience. He will be responsible for studying and analyzing the structure of personnel management, assessing the effectiveness of employees, assessing the qualifications of personnel. Specialist in social psychology. Typically, this is a sociologist and/or marketer with experience in internal marketing. He develops information collection tools, conducts in-depth interviews, gives expert assessments, and analyzes statistical data. Finance specialist. Typically, this is a qualified economist and/or “planner” with work experience. His competence includes assessing the “cost” of a particular employee, analyzing organizational processes, and comparing them with the financial resources of the organization. His responsibilities include developing a program to optimize the staff, taking into account their functions relative to the cost of their maintenance; development of a material motivational system. Psychologist. It solves many problems: from compiling the psychological characteristics of individual employees to studying the motivation of personnel and the general psychological climate at the enterprise. If the activity of the enterprise has a pronounced specificity, then the auditors should include a specialist who understands it. Sometimes, this issue is resolved by selecting an expert or expert group from among the employees of the organization in which the audit is being conducted. But to comply with the principle of independence, it is better to invite a specialist from another company. With his (their) help, tests and case studies are compiled to determine the professional suitability of employees. It is very important when choosing specialists to take into account that an incompetently conducted personnel audit can harm the enterprise and the people who work at it. Employees may get the wrong impression that they are going to be laid off, that they are being spied on, that they are getting into their souls. The alarming situation created by an incorrectly conducted personnel audit has never benefited anyone. Before evaluating the work of staff, you should check whether the enterprise management system is properly organized. For this purpose, a comprehensive diagnostic is carried out, which includes marketing, financial, and management audits, since often the reason for the ineffective work of employees is the incorrect organization of the production process and an incorrectly organized enterprise management structure. When conducting a personnel audit, an individual approach to the problem should be used in each specific case. Specialists develop individual programs, combining methods of questioning, observation, testing, and use interviews and focus groups. But a personnel audit is also possible as an independent unit of research, when, for example, it is necessary to evaluate the work of salespeople, dispatchers, and operators. How is an audit carried out? A single “recipe” » there is no staff audit. Subjects of the consulting market for this complex service can be divided into two groups: “innovator” firms and “conservative” firms. The former try to use non-standard approaches to completing tasks set by the customer. Therefore, the techniques used by specialists to obtain information about personnel may vary.from traditional “paper” tests and questionnaires to seminars and focus groups, developed in accordance with the latest “squeak” of consulting fashion. However, most clients prefer that consultants use techniques that are more understandable to them. “Conservative” firms usually use a standard set of methods for conducting personnel audits. The list of tools used includes tests, individual interviews, observation, questionnaires, and focus groups. It is impossible to say for sure which method is preferable, since two auditors can use completely different technologies to conduct the same study, and the data obtained will ultimately be the same. As a rule, when choosing tools for collecting information, the customer has to trust specialists. What is the result? If for enterprises in the Altai Territory, personnel audit is still a curiosity, then for Western companies operating in Altai with many branches it is a common procedure. The fact is that for the head office, personnel audit is perhaps the only way to monitor the work of branches scattered in other countries. The main function of audit in such organizations is control. Reports on audits conducted in the same Barnaul branch for Western top managers are the main source of information about the local personnel. Therefore, personnel audits are carried out regularly, usually at least once a year. Employees prepare for it ahead of time, knowing for sure that after this procedure 40-50% of specialists will be transferred to other positions, and the new position will not necessarily be equivalent to the previous one. Based on the results of a personnel audit, any head of a department can become an ordinary employee (with the appropriate salary), and the director of a department or, for example, a deputy. the director of the entire branch will be appointed to the “honorary” position of head of the economic support department. Imagine how a person feels who, based on the results of an audit, to put it mildly, was transferred to another position, and he began to receive not $1,500, but $300. It is quite possible that at his previous job he took out a loan for an apartment, car, etc. It’s not far from the hospital because of stress-related health problems. Therefore, it is important to prepare staff in advance for the possibility of personnel movements. To make it easier for employees to endure such stress, Western companies regularly conduct special training. In most cases, the professional suitability of employees is determined through testing. We practice testing using computerized techniques. If a company invests money in personnel training (pays for foreign language courses, orders expensive trainings, teaches professional skills abroad, etc.), HR auditors may be given another task - they must find out whether the investment in personnel development was in vain money or not. For this purpose, during a personnel audit, employees are given a test of their acquired knowledge and skills. If the results of the “exam” do not satisfy the managers, the employee will have to reimburse the organization for the cost of his training at trainings, seminars, foreign language courses (however, if this is allowed by the terms of the employment contract, which has already been signed with the employee and is valid). It is quite possible that in the future the employee will be marinated in insignificant positions for life, as unpromising and incapable of learning, unless he proves otherwise. According to employees of one organization in which personnel audits are carried out regularly, they are afraid of personnel audits, but admit that the awareness of the inevitability of the audit and its regularity forces them to keep themselves “in good shape” and improve their skills. Moreover, business owners can conduct a personnel audit completely unexpectedly, in order to take the staff by surprise and assess the real state of affairs in the organization. Customer experience The General Director of the company in which the personnel audit was carried out tells: “In our company».