Human Resources, or HR, is essentially the heart of most companies. It is through HR that employees are hired, fired, and often trained. Hr handles or outsources payroll. Hr handles taxes, vacation and sick time, medical and maternity leave, and so much more. But if your HR office isn’t well-organized and able to operate smoothly and efficiently, the rest of the company may also suffer. Here are three things that your HR office needs to have in order.
Job Descriptions
Job descriptions are how people know what they’re supposed to do. It details the exact tasks, functions, duties, and responsibilities of a position, and usually includes details about who performs that kind of work (job title), how often and why that work is performed, and how the work should be done. This job description also influences things such as determining the education level required, salary levels, establishing pay grades and job titles, creating reasonable accommodations, and conducting performance reviews.
Without an accurate, thorough job description, hiring a qualified individual to fill a position and determining whether that person is doing their job well, is impossible. It leaves management, HR, and the person filling the position frustrated and confused, and can lead to high job turnover.
If there aren’t clear job descriptions already in place, HR should sit down with department managers and other senior staff to create them. These should then be kept together in an easily accessible location for easy reference during the creation of ads for open positions, interviews, and performance reviews.
Accessible Procedures
There’s nothing more frustrating to a new or longtime employee than being told five different ways to perform the same task by five different people. Beyond frustration, this can also lead to safety concerns and injuries or accidents in some jobs. Hr should have clear, concise procedures for different jobs and tasks throughout the company that are written down and easily accessible to all employees. Ideally, there should be a printed copy that each employee can use, as well as a digital copy that they can use to keyword search for specific information and teach them how to ensure compliance.
With procedures in writing, there is no room for doubt as to how to perform various tasks, and when two people disagree, there’s an easy resolution. It also makes it easier to see who is doing their jobs properly and who is not, and to reward those who do their jobs well while giving those who don’t a guide to improvement.
Organized Paperwork
Every time someone is hired, the same set of documents is required to be completed. When someone is fired or reprimanded, there’s a set of specific documents that will always need to be filled out. There are payroll documents, tax documents, medical leave and health insurance documents. Having a clear organization system that keeps all of this paperwork together and is easy to find will make for faster meetings to take care of paperwork.
You can create new hire packets that are stapled together with a checklist of included documents, and do the same for termination or disciplinary actions, as well as performance reviews, and benefits packages. Having all of this paperwork together and ready to go will not only move things along more quickly but ensure that nothing gets missed.
Human Resources has a lot of responsibility on their plate, handling a variety of matters for the entire company and all of its employees. Keeping some things in order and clearly organized will make things much easier and smoother and ensures that employees will feel happier and more confident about working for you.