Service Level Agreements

A service level agreement (SLA) is an agreement between the provider of a service and the customers who use the service on the level of service that should be provided. It sets out the nature of the service provided, the volume and quality to be achieved by the service, and the response times the provider must attain after receiving requests for help. The headings of the agreement can be drawn from the list of HR service level areas set out above. The agreement provides the basis for monitoring and evaluating the level of service.

Employee Satisfaction Measures 

The degree to which employees are satisfied with HR policies and practices can be measured by attitude surveys. These can obtain opinions on such matters as their work, their pay, how they are treated, their views about the company and their managers, how well they are kept informed, the opportunities for learning and career development, and their working environment and facilities.

Benchmarking

In addition to internal data it is desirable to benchmark HR services. This means comparing what the HR function is doing with what is happening in similar organizations. This may involve making direct comparisons using quantified performance data or exchanging information on ‘good practice’ that can be used to indicate where changes are required to existing HR practices or to provide guidance on HR innovations. Organizations such as Saratoga provide benchmarking data under standardized and therefore comparable headings for their clients.

Measuring Performance 

The following key points about measuring HR performance have been made by Likierrnan (2005):

● agree objectives against budget assumptions: this will ensure HR’s role reflects changes in strategy implementation; 

● use more sophisticated measures – get underneath the data and look not only at the figures but also at the reasons behind them; 

● use comparisons imaginatively, including internal and external benchmarking; 

● improve feedback through face-to-face discussion rather than relying on questionnaires; 

● be realistic about what performance measures can deliver – many measurement problems can be mitigated, not solved.