HR Function Setup and Optimisation
Congratulations, you’re the CEO of a small company. Maybe you’re the operations manager who wore the HR hat when necessary. Your team’s grown large enough that you’ll need to formalise the HR function and set up the necessary systems, processes, tech and people. This can be a daunting task if you’ve never done it before. Not to worry. We can do it for you and get it right the first time.
Learn about our HR Function Setup and Optimisation services here.
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How to Build a HR Department from Scratch
1. Step One: Assessment
The first thing you’ll want to do is to assess the need for a HR department. Clarify the purpose behind it, and identify decision-makers that are familiar with your company’s inner workings. Take a look at how HR activities have previously been handled.
If you’re a CEO running a startup, chances are you’ve been doing HR stuff out of necessity. If so, allow us to come in and take the pressure off.
If you’re a HR leader, let our team help you understand how and why your previous processes have been put in place, and assess what could be improved.
2. Step Two: Match Strategy to Business Goals
The second step is to establish a strategic framework. Find out the overall business objectives and ensure your HR strategy is going to align properly with them for a seamless integration into your organisation. Define short and long-term HR objectives to guide the department.
What’s your biggest problem right now? Is it attracting talent, or keeping high-performers on board? Do your employees seem to have a disconnect from existing HR policies? Do your employees feel valued enough to communicate their issues with you? Are key targets being reached, and if not, why? There are many ways to assess the effectiveness of a HR department that you need to be aware of before beginning your own build.
3. Step Three: Focus on Your Culture
With most companies it’s fair to ask “what culture?” when they talk about having a positive culture at work. But you’re not going to be one of those companies. Oh and by the way, ping pong tables and unlimited snacks are fun-to-have novelties, but that’s not culture.
Creating a strong culture is about promoting employee engagement, satisfaction and retention. Will your employees feel safe and valued enough to perform to the best of their ability? Will they bring you even more high-performers because they feel like they can *actually* recommend you as a place to work?
Culture starts from within. You’ll need to prioritise things like learning and development initiatives to foster ongoing employee growth, and give your employees the chance to build their skillset with your support.
4. Step Four: Document Everything
5. Step Five: Prepare for Audits
With a great HR department comes great responsibility, and with great responsibility comes audits. It doesn’t matter where you’re at in terms of business. One thing you can be sure of is that you need to be compliant when it comes to audits.
This is a long, and laborious process. And it doesn’t ever stop. You’ll need to continuously review the HR department’s growth and make necessary adjustments. You’ll need to be prepared for audits by maintaining accurate records and documentation. And last, but not least, you’ll need to regularly assess HR processes and adapt them to your business needs and compliance requirements.
Sound Like a Lot of Work? Consider Outsourcing
Building your HR department will require all of the following:
- Organise employee records and establish a record-keeping process
- Create a staffing plan
- Awareness of employment laws and other possible compliance issues
- HR budget planning
- Benefits cost projections
- Establish the projected turnover rate
- Anticipated legal expenses
- Recurring or new training needs
- Know your tax obligations
- Payroll
- Create job descriptions
- Establish a pay structure
- Data analysis
- Create an employee handbook
- Outline safety procedures and employment posters
- Outline hiring procedures
- Create personnel files
- Establish a performance evaluation process
- Review the departments growth and prepare for audits
And doing all of the above while focusing on people, not just the processes. It’s a tall order.
If you need help in outsourcing any of these parts of your build, reach out to us. We’ll build it all for you.
How Can You Optimise Your HR Processes?
Optimising HR processes involves visualising, streamlining, automating, and improving various activities. It can be difficult to take a step back and see what *really* needs to be done when you’re handling 100 other tasks at the same time.
We can help you optimise your processes by focusing on HR spend and workforce costs, helping you hire operational improvement specialists, offload low-end administrative tasks, and leverage technology to achieve business goals faster, without you losing momentum on building a positive workplace environment for your teams.
Benefits of Optimising HR Processes
The biggest benefit of optimising your HR processes will no doubt be in regards to time and expenditure savings. Optimising your HR processes gives you a strategic advantage while avoiding pitfalls such as reduced reporting capability, inconsistent reporting, payroll and benefits errors, and compliance mishaps, which can all slow you down in your function as a HR leader.
Next Steps
Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can help:
- Contact us for a free consultation
- Check out our case studies
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