If you’re an HR manager, then it is important to be keeping up to date with your knowledge of how you can help to streamline HR processes within the company that you work for.
In the post we’ve created below, we’ll list some of the ways in which this can be achieved and how it will help to make your job easier too. Keep reading to learn more about how to streamline you’re HR practices.
Increasing lines of communication for employees
When dealing with employee grievances, it’s important to make sure there are plenty of opportunities for employees to contact yourself and the rest of the HR department if they need to. Having a designated platform your employees can use to contact HR and raise complaints as well as other HR queries will make it easier for both them and your team to handle.
From the same platform, they should also be able to find information regarding personal details, holiday entitlement, payroll information, and company policies and procedures. It’s important to make sure that staff feel able to contact the HR department face-to-face as well as using the online platform, to help build employee trust and rapport. When it comes to handling workplace grievances, they are often easier to manage when dealt with in person, and communication can be clearer.
Outsourcing tasks
Some HR tasks can be outsourced to external companies to help make workloads more manageable in your team’s department. Some examples of outsourcing HR work include payroll, administration work, or recruiting new employees. Outsourcing HR can help your company to save money and reduce admin work, as well as reduce the need for additional HR staff. Review your department’s processes and workloads to establish whether it might be necessary to begin outsourcing some areas of your HR department.
There is the option to outsource to independent HR consultants or HR consulting agencies. Independent HR consultants can come at a higher cost than agencies, but they do provide a more specialised and tailored service. Agencies are more cost-effective but operate on a more standard practice than independent consultants and don’t give tailored HR advice. Even small and medium-sized businesses can outsource their HR work and benefit from it, not just larger companies.
Automating payroll
So, what are the benefits to automating an area of HR? One of the most common areas to outsource is payroll. This is because when handled on spreadsheets manually, there is a lot of room for errors to be made with payroll and having to complete it every month or more frequently is a lot of admin work. When payroll is automated, it reduces the margin for error, makes sure payments are made on time and can offer benefits for employees too. Automated payroll platforms can provide more information for your employees about their salaries, tax deductions, and other information without them having to contact the HR department. Automated payroll also creates reports that allow HR to review processes and manage them more easily. Payroll platform systems also usually have high levels of security, making it less likely for there to be GDPR breaches for the company.
Automating customer service
Automating customer service can not only reduce the level of work for the HR admin department but also can improve the experience for customers too. Options such as automated telephone lines or chatbots on the company website will reduce the amount of traffic coming through to customer service. It also means that customers can have their queries dealt with more quickly, reducing the likelihood of complaints for the HR department to deal with.
Calculating holiday entitlement
Calculating holiday entitlement can be a tricky task and leaves room for error, especially when taking on a number of new employees with differing hours at the same time. However, it’s possible to receive help with how to work out holiday entitlement to avoid any mistakes being made. Using external advice for working out holiday entitlement will help to ensure all employees receive the correct amount of holiday that they are owed and improve employee satisfaction. When mistakes are made regarding areas of HR such as payroll and holiday entitlement, it can lead to employee dissatisfaction and potentially staff quitting their roles.
Creating a contented workplace
The importance of a happy workplace and team runs through all the processes of the business and affects all areas. It’s essential that your team works well together and that all individuals feel happy in their roles. If there is a high level of employees leaving their jobs because they’re not happy, this not only reflects badly on the business and HR department, but also massively increases the HR workload too as you will need to go through the time, admin, and expense of hiring new employees.
If staff don’t feel happy in their jobs or as part of a team, workplace grievances can lead to a lot of difficulties for the business. It’s the HR department’s job to ensure any grievances are dealt with thoroughly and promptly to avoid them becoming worse. Companies with a happier workforce have more efficient and smooth-running processes and more opportunities for success.
Giving staff opportunities for feedback
Staff feedback can be a valuable insight into the processes and efficiency of how the workplace is functioning. It’s important to give staff the opportunity to give feedback and opinions on the business and whether they feel happy with their role and workload. You can do this several ways. Performance review meetings are a good opportunity to gain feedback, but you could also do this through group meetings too. Sending round an email with a link to an online anonymous feedback form will help you to gain feedback that hasn’t been hindered by staff being scared to give their opinion face-to-face.
Using job search websites
When hiring new employees, advertising for job positions can be a time-consuming process. Advertising only on the company website or running adverts yourself can limit the potential to reach candidates and reduce the number of applications received. Using job search websites can increase this massively. Most people searching for jobs these days use job search websites to find jobs that are looking for the qualifications and qualities they possess.
Make sure to include all the qualities you’re searching for in potential candidates and the job specifications. This will help to filter out applications from those not right for the job. It also gives candidates an idea of what will be expected of them in the job role. Asking for a CV and a cover letter helps to give you an idea of candidates’ professional qualifications as well as who they are as a person. Making sure candidates have the personality traits to gel as part of the workforce is just as important as whether they have the experience to carry out the job.
HR policies
Having HR policies and procedures in place to follow will help to streamline processes for the business by outlining the steps to follow in different HR-related scenarios. Policies and procedures should give step-by-step instructions on what HR team members need to do if they face situations such as resignations, maternity leave, workplace grievances, and pay disputes.
