Wednesday 4 April 2018

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Human Resources

Hi Dear Friends!
Welcome to my blog!

Today's article is for the HR team and those who want to take it up as a career option or understand what HR is all about. The main role of the HR department is to align human resources with the organisational goals and objectives.

Here are the HR functions at a glance:

 Recruitment/ Talent Acquisition:

The growth of an organisation depends on its human resources. Therefore recruitment is the most important function of HR.  The steps involved in the recruitment process are:
1. Head hunting- Searching for the the right candidate, using various online recruitment resources like naukri.com, monster. and others.
2. Lining up for interviews- Scan the Resumes for career progression, professional look, tenure a and line up for interviews
3. Interviewing- Ask open ended questions, encourage the candidates to speak about themselves, their previous organisations, what they liked, what they disliked, the most challenging situation they have handled, why do they want to leave that organisation etc.
4. Shortlisting- Out of hundreds of candidates only a few are shortlisted based on their performance in the interview. They are called for the final round.
5. Selecting- Ask close ended questions and short answer questions, discuss salary. Now, based on the over all evaluation of all previous interview rounds including the final round they are made an offer, which if they accept will complete the selection process.



Appointment:

Once the offer letter is signed and handed over to the HR specialist then the appointment letter is prepared with all the details, like designation, salary, and the terms of the job contract is mentioned.
1. Handover appointment letter- The appointment letter is handed over on the day of joining.
2. Allot Workstation- Arrangements for setting up the work area and other administration related setup like configuring the email Id, issuing ID cards, issuing Laptop with necessary software, company mobile etc are provided.

Payroll:

The salaries have to be calculated and disbursed on time. The process begins almost a week before the due date. Employees need to follow HR policies for leave, travel, medical etc. Payroll needs all employee details to calculate the salary for the month.
1. Calculate days present-After deducting the leaves for the month paid and unpaid, penalty for coming late 3 times a month or as per company hr policy, the actual days present is calculated. Salary is calculated based on the total number of days present plus paid leaves.
2. Other deductions/Tax/perks- All mandatory deductions and perks are calculated and the final salary is arrived at.
3. Disburse salary by the 30th or 5th of every month- Aim to payout salary on a given date every month to avoid inconvenience to the employees.

Performance Appraisal:

This is the most awaited and dreaded time for every employee. Those who work sincerely and well await it, and those who do not perform, dread it. Work reports have to be maintained by each employee, based on the Key Result Areas(KRA), which are given to them along with their confirmation letter. Employees must keep weekly, monthly and quarterly reports to ensure that a correct assessment of progress is done.
Steps involved:
1. Appraisal by immediate senior and the department head- The first round of appraisal is done by the reporting manager, who puts in the scores with comments and recommends a raise in salary or promotion or both or none depending on the performance.
2. Recommendation for promotions or increment in salary- All the completed appraisal forms are taken to the Head of the department, by the HR and in the presence of the employee, reporting manager and the department head, it is further verified by the top management, before they sign and give their final approval.
3. Issue promotion/ increment letter- A list of all employees recommended for raises and promotions prepared by the HR department.

Succession Planning:

Succession planning means to identify and develop a successor, for the position of top management, manager or team leader, from the respective teams. Every organisation should invest time and effort to create a second rung of people as stand by. Empowering employees is the best way to ensure that everyone is progressing. Many managers are so insecure about their own positions that they fail to create a second line of command. This becomes counter productive to their own growth. If there is no one to take over their position how can they move forward?

Training and Development:

This is the most ignored and undervalued function, especially by medium and small organisations. However most large and successful organisations invest and conduct timely training for their employees. Training and Development to be beneficial has to follow the steps below:
1. Identify the target audience and skill required-Training program is tailor made to address the skill set needs of the trainees.
2. Prepare relevant content- After Training Need Analysis (TNA) is done, the content is designed accordingly.
3. Arrange for training program- Coordinating and arranging for the training room, projectors, whiteboards, markers and note pads and pens etc..have to be done, by the HR training coordinator
4. Classroom Training Evaluation- At the end of the training each trainee is evaluated and the report and feedback is shared with the trainee and the also with the reporting manager.
5. On the job training evaluation- Quarterly on the job evaluation and a report handed over to immediate senior- On the job training is the second part of the training where the trainees are observed by the trainer for about 3 months and improvement in their skill set and evaluated.
6. ROI at the end of 6 months to be submitted to the top management by the senior and department head- Return on Investment report has to be prepared by the HR- Training and Development, stating how the performance of the trainee improved over a period of 6 months and how it has impacted the profits of the organisation.

Exit formalities:

People may come and people may go but the company goes on forever. Thus letting go of employees is not a pleasant duty, but it has to be done and someone has to complete due process to tie up all loose ends, that person is the HR. They have to:
1. Accept Resignation letter- The employee expresses his need to part ways with the organisation,by handing over a resignation letter to his manager. Which is signed and handed over to the HR department
2. Get the Exit formalities completed by the concerned employee and get it signed off by immediate senior and the IT Admin Department heads- The employee has to complete handing over his work pending, and done, to his successor. The employee has to fill in the Exit form where all the formalities are to be completed are listed, for handing over all official items given to him. The employee has to complete all formalities  and get a sign off by the respective departments, before getting a final sign off by his manager. The employee then hands the exit form over to the HR to move ahead with the next step.
3. Fill the PF and other forms-  Once the Exit form is received by the HR, they get into action and start getting all the legal forms filled.
4. Relieving and experience letter to be handed over to the employee- After all is done and the notice period is served, the HR issues the experience letter and the relieving letter, after which the employee is free to go and join his next workplace.

In a nutshell:

The ultimate cheat sheet to help you strategize HR is given below:
1. Make a list of the 10 best online and offline job search sites for talent acquisition.
2. Have a prepared list of "must ask" personality and work related questions for interviews.
3. Put together an employee manual as per HR policies.
3. Ensure that payroll, is submitted with all relevant information, to disburse salary on time.
4. Inform all Heads of departments to handover KRA to their team to enable fair performance appraisal.
5. Take stock of the major gaps in skill set requirement, for Training and Development of employees.
6. Keep a list of exit formalities and check them off as and when they get done.
7. Conduct employee engagement programs, cultural and family events to motivate employees.
8. Maintain employee information and HR files in order and in confidentiality.

In conclusion we can see that all the above functions of HR are governed by company rules and regulations and labour laws of the land. Thus, HR has to maintain proper documentation for all its processes, and also for, each and every employee of the organisation.

Hope you found this article useful.

Please like, share, comment, subscribe and follow if you liked the post and would like to read more such articles on more such topics.

That's all for now.  See you in my next post. Bye and take care!







No comments:

Post a Comment

If you liked the post please share. Please leave your comments!

Comments

Popular Posts