5 best HR practices for high-performing teams in 2025

At Charlie, we know our people are the heart of our success. That's why we're constantly innovating our HR practices to build high-performing teams.

As HR leaders, it's our responsibility to champion a people-centric approach. Here at Charlie, I've seen firsthand the power of these 5 HR Best Practices, and that's what we decided to carry forward into 2025:

Include EDI in the way you run your business
Develop managers and leaders for fair assessment
Establish clear company values
Give autonomy to your team and foster engagement
Make room for transparency

In this article, I'll share how Charlie uses these HR practices to foster a thriving work environment and empower our teams to do their best.

What are HR best practices?

HR best practices refer to the most effective strategies, policies, and processes for an organisation's HR team to achieve organisational goals and support employee well-being. These practices are often aligned with legal requirements, industry standards, and the organisation's culture and values.

Companies focus on optimising their HR best practices for two major reasons: to create a strong workforce and build a positive work environment.

They both aim to optimise the recruitment, retention, and productivity of employees while promoting a positive workplace.

HR best practices vs. HR activities

It's very easy to confuse HR best practices with HR activities because both involve tasks related to managing human resources within an organisation.

HR activities refer to the specific processes that HR professionals carry out, such as recruitment, training, performance management, and employee relations.

On the other hand, HR best practices include the strategies, policies, and approaches that are considered most effective in managing human capital to achieve organisational goals.

Examples of HR activities:

Recruitment and selection
Training and development
Performance management
Compensation and benefits administration
Talent management
Employee engagement

Example of HR practices:

Recruitment strategy
Continuous learning and development
Performance feedback and recognition
Transparent communication
Work-life balance support
Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives

How have HR best practices evolved?

Trends shaping the world of work included employee well-being, flexible working arrangements, change management, and DEI initiatives. To stay afloat, organisations had to remain flexible and evolve with the workplace landscape.

Here are the two highlights from the most recent research in HR practices and how best practices have evolved:

According to Harvard Business Review, and based on a Gartner study, most organisations will focus on what can be done to make diverse employees feel included, rather than focusing on hiring a more diverse workforce.
The same magazine, based on a similar set of data, also highlights loneliness becoming a risk with only 29% of employees globally feeling satisfied with the conversations and interactions they have with coworkers. Remote work is not pinpointed as the issue, as most office workers still suffer from the same issue.

5 HR best practices to transform your workplace

Below, I’ll give you a run down of the 5 best HR practices that our in house expert in HR believe companies should focus on.

1 – Include EDI in your HR strategy

EDI is not just about hiring anymore, but more about ensuring your diverse workforce feels at home within your business.

Putting this into place includes adopting an HR strategy that takes diversity into account, and that puts measure in place to safeguard and protect employees.

So think ahead, and have:

A strong diversity policy in place
Measures to tackle workplace harassment and bullying (these are required by UK law)
Education materials for your teams and your managers when it comes to diversity
Non-mixity groups where members of different communities can safely share their experiences in the workplace
Wellbeing initiatives and mental health support that specialises in EDI

2 – Establish clear company values

Clear company values serve as guiding principles for individuals within a company, shaping behaviours, decisions, and interactions. They're the foundation upon which a strong company culture can be built.

At Charlie, our values include:

Get uncomfortable
Give energy
Drive for results
Be humble

Right from day one, these values have shaped a foundation for a high-performing and inclusive culture where our employees are empowered to excel, collaborate, and grow both personally and professionally.

Remember that when it comes to shaping your company's values, they remain unique because they are determined by various factors such as the company's mission, vision, history, industry, leadership style, and the collective beliefs and priorities of its employees.

3 – Give autonomy to your team and foster engagement

Autonomy as an HR best practice is all about promoting an environment where employees have the autonomy to manage their time and work arrangements effectively, which directly relates to remote working and flexible hours.

According to recent statistics, 78% of workers reported an increase in work/life balance when working from home, and although only 14% of people in 2024 reported only working from home, and never going to the office, we shouldn't dismiss it.

Giving autonomy to your team is something we truly think is important at Charlie, and it's also allowed us to hire all over the UK, with a very diverse workforce. Remember that, although it might look like it, being in the office may not foster engagement for your people, and some of them might even resent you if you force them to go in.

We suggest finding other ways to connect – for example, we have four mandatory meet ups per year – two with the whole company, and two for each function. This allows people to create meaningful moment of connection, where nothing is forced, and when everything is laid out on the table. The rest of the time, we conduct our meetings online, and we have an office in London and a coworking space we hire sometimes in Manchester for people in the North.

One last thing, and this is very simple: by designing tasks and assignments that stretch each individual and push them outside their comfort zone, you can help them to learn new skills and improve existing ones. Remember that it’s crucial that, during this process, your team isn’t overworked, as burnout can hinder productivity and satisfaction.

Once you have the right people on board, empower them with autonomy. Allow them the freedom to make decisions and explore solutions independently –, it's also essential to offer guidance and support when needed, without micromanaging their every move, whilst having competent managers on hand for help when needed.

4 – Develop managers to provide fair performance feedback

Getting managers to provide fair feedback can be a problem for your team members – if a team member feels unfairly treated or assessed by their manager, you have to listen to what's going on and understand where it comes from.

In this case, it's not just about dismissing the employee's claim or assuming the manager did it consciously, but about bringing some clarity to the situation, and training your managers to give fair assessments.

How do you do that?

Send your managers on training programmes where they can develop, especially it's their first time managing someone else.
Developing your own handbook for training managers, to make sure it's standardised across the business and all managers follow the same processes.
Sensitise managers about EDI issues, and get them to bring their unconscious biases into awareness – this can often be done through a test, such as the Harvard Implicit test.
Integrating a 360 review to your performance reviews, which allows you to ask other team members about the performance of each employee, gathering more insights and a fuller picture of what's going on for the team.

7 – Become a very transparent employer

Transparency involves building a culture of trust among your workers. Organisations need to open and honest about significant decisions, such as salary changes or restructuring.

Employees appreciate transparency and feel more valued when they understand the reasoning behind decisions that affect them.

Another way managers and HR leaders can implement transparency in the workplace is to communicate openly about the company's challenges as well as its successes.

Do not attempt to conceal or downplay setbacks, instead, regularly provide your employees with updates on the company's performance, market conditions, and any potential risks on the horizon. When organisations are transparent about both successes and challenges, it demonstrates integrity and strengthens trust between leadership and the team.

One thing we do, for example, at Charlie is have a monthly meeting called Finance and Strategy update, where we report on our numbers including revenue. It's a good level of detail, where our leadership team also gives context around it. It's been a great way to let the team in, and has allowed us to make them feel closer to the impact they're having on company metrics and to help them understand why we make specific financial decisions. It's not a comfortable thing to do, but it has positive repercussions.

Hopefully, these HR best practices will help you understand the changes you need to make for upcoming year, and if you want more tips about HR, you can always subscribe to our newsletter or download our helpful guide below.