WHAT IS THE HR DEPARTMENT ?
The Human Resource (HR) team is a division in a business in charge of hiring, training, and retaining employees, as well as mediating employee concerns and keeping track of their wellness. As the HR Manager, your responsibility is to form the organization’s basic structure and ensure that everyone is aligned with the company culture.
FUNCTIONS OF THE HR DEPARTMENT
RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING
Finding the right person for the job is one of the primary roles of HR. Apart from drafting the job descriptions and posting on job boards, they are tasked with finding, screening, interviewing, and hiring candidates. HR should also successfully onboard and train new employees into the organization.
PAYROLL AND COMPENSATION
HR drafts the compensation structure and prepares the monthly payroll. Additional pay such as salary raises, allowance, and 13th-month pay, taxes and hours collected: and reimbursements also fall under this.
COMPLIANCE
Complying with labor law and health and safety policies is an essential responsibility for HR. This helps keep the business running and avoid legal issues
EMPLOYEE-EMPLOYER RELATIONS
The HR team is responsible for creating company programs that foster a healthy employee-employer relationship and a positive culture, such as team-building activities and employee empowerment.
PEOPLE MANAGEMENT
As the business grows, HR will have to manage several people. Each employee will have their own needs and wants. something the HR team needs to account for. HR can draft conflict management and mediation to ensure employee satisfaction.
WORKPLACE POLICY MAKING
HR is also in charge of drafting policies that make the workplace safer, more inclusive, and compliant. They also lay out disciplinary actions toward erring employees.
A Step-by-step Guide on Starting an Hr Department From Scratch
DECIDE ON THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Whether hierarchical, flat. or functional the organizational structure will define the overall flow of HR work, so choose one that fits your company’s situation the most.
SET A BUDGET FOR YOUR DEPARTMENT
Use the plan you’ve drafted to justify the budget needed to start the department. As the manager, you need to include data, such as the number of employees projected for the year, benefits, turnover rate, etc.
CREATE A PLAN FOR HR STAFFING
Your HR team needs people who understand the kind of staffing your company needs for both the long and short-term. A staffing plan determines the workforce’s composition for current and future objectives, such as HR specialists, an outsourced team, an in-house team, and others.
OUTLINE REGULATIONS FOR TAX AND LABOR LAW COMPLIANCE, HEALTH, AND SAFETY
This is a vital step that prevents any legal issues from arising. Some regulations include mandatory retirement contributions, fire safety, tax forms, and other legal matters
ESTABLISH HIRING AND ONBOARDING PROCEDURES
You must provide a hiring and onboarding procedure to streamline the process. Things like an offer letter, onboarding forms, employee contracts, and others should be ready, and each HR member should know how they are routed.
CREATE JOB ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES FOR EACH DEPARTMENT
The HR department’s functions must be aligned with the company’s goals to help it eventually grow. It starts with creating the appropriate job post that will entice people.
DETERMINE YOUR COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS SCHEME
With the general structure of your organization now clear, your team should draft a competitive employee compensation scheme to attract candidates. Competitor analysis and salary guides will help you with this.
PLAN YOUR APPROACH TOWARDS EMPLOYEE RECORD KEEPING
You should plan how you’re going to store important employee data securely. While locking away documents in cabinets was the way to go these days, paperless cloud storage solutions and employee productivity monitoring tools are now the norm.
CREATE AN EMPLOYEE RELATIONS STRATEGY
Drafting a solid internal communication and conflict resolution policy will help employers and employees work better together. Proper internal communication leads to a strong relationship with your team, resulting in less conflict.
DRAFT YOUR PERFORMANCE EVALUATION PROCESS
Prepare the evaluation process that will be useful in determining the team’s performance. This may involve monthly 1-on-1 meetings, rating individual performances, and listing key performance indicator scores.
CAN YOU BUILD A FULLY REMOTE
HR DEPARTMENT?
It is possible to have a fully remote HR department. Not only is it imperative
considering the pandemic, but it also fosters work-life balance. However, there will be some challenges, including establishing company culture and
mediating conflict. Here’s how you can start a remote HR department.
ESTABLISH CLEAR COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
Having a remote HR team can be difficult if you do not have a communication channel. Messaging and video calling platforms like Google or Slack can help remote teams collaborate and engage with each other.
CREATE A BUSINESS PLAYBOOK
A business playbook includes tips, examples, strategies, and methods employees can refer to. It can also have new learnings other employees have gathered that may be relevant to the company. The playbook is helpful. especially for new hires.
EMPLOYEE MONITORING TOOLS
Monitoring tools can help evaluate employees and the remote HR team as a whole.
INVEST IN REMOTE WORK TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT
Aside from monitoring tools, the hardware and software requirements of the team should be provided.
