Human resources have a lot to take care of on a day to day basis, from ensuring your employees are happy and thriving to keeping all workflows in order. So here are 5 ways to help your HR team be more efficient.
1. Be Clear And Upfront About Your Policies
You’d be surprised at how much you can improve your HR team’s efficiency just by being clear and upfront about your policies with company employees. Unclear or opaque policies lead to misunderstandings, which leads to discourse and lack of organization.
Put this information down in writing and make sure it’s easily accessible. Also, make sure to avoid complex jargon wherever possible. The more straightforward your HR policies are, the simpler they’ll be to understand and execute (and the easier your life will be).
2. Involve Your Staff
Some employees may have HR issues that you won’t know about unless you make them feel comfortable enough to speak freely. By periodically asking your employees what they struggle with, you can nip the issues in the bud. And ask staff for their ideas on how to improve their work process. This affects everyone, and you’ll be surprised at how much information the staff will share.
Staff can also do more to make work easier. You can easily hand over some aspects of HR management—expensing, overtime, and vacation leave, for instance—to employees. Your staff probably submits overtime sheets, vacation leave requests and expense reports anyway, so getting them to input the data directly into the HR software can save a lot of time and eliminate duplicate work.
Handing over these processes shouldn’t be too complex if you choose the right HR software, either. Some HR softwares even have dedicated employee portals which grant your staff restricted access so they can input and update their personal details.
3. Set Up A Calendar
Streamlining data entry is only half the battle. Unless the data reaches you on time, it can derail even the best of work processes. This is where a calendar comes in handy.
A calendar is a visual reminder of the dates by which your staff need to submit critical information; and it’s invaluable for keeping everyone on track.
Creating a calendar shouldn’t be too difficult or time-consuming. Even an excel spreadsheet will do. Some HR softwares let you do this natively inside the program.
4. Integrate HR Tasks With Your Other Systems
Because HR tasks depend on a lot of other business processes, processing can leave you feeling like you’re spread all over the place. It can be tough (and incredibly time-consuming), to gather all the information you need in one place.
This is where your HR software integration comes in handy.
The best HR software systems have powerful integration features available for your convenience. At the very least, look for a system that integrates with your accounting software and attendance monitoring equipment, so you can view all this information in one place.
5. Audit Your HR Software Regularly
Last but not least, don’t get complacent. An HR audit should be a regular part of your workflow, not something you do only if you’re inundated with staff complaints.
Start with your HR policies, looking out for any rules that might create confusion and simplifying them as much as possible. Your staff’s feedback will be invaluable in helping you identify particularly problematic areas. Revisit regularly to make sure you’ve addressed them effectively.
