How to Keep Your HR Department Organized
The HR team of any company or business deals with a high-volume of sensitive employee information daily. They oversee the management of this information effectively and in a structured way that both keeps it safe and easy to navigate. HR professionals need to have incredible organizational skills, but the department can become chaotic without solid systems in place.
Here are some ways to keep your HR department efficient and organized:
Invest in HR Software
The first thing every business should do for their HR department is investing in HR Software. A comprehensive HR software can dramatically increase the efficiency and structure of everything related to HR. It not only keeps everything in one place but reduces the chance of human error with lots of automation and integration features. Some of the features you can expect from HR software include:
- Hiring and onboarding features like offer letters, background checks, digital signatures, self-onboarding for employees and digital tax documents
- Employee management including employee directory, automated workflows, and real-time data syncing
- Time off tracking with request management and direct payroll integration
- Reporting features
- Document management such as tax documents, company privacy policies and employee handbooks
Optimize Online Calendars
Human Resources involves many responsibilities and job tasks. Your HR staff are pros at multi-tasking but rely on online calendars to keep track of everything that they need to get done each day. One of the ways to ensure online calendars are optimized is by integrating them with your email clients since events and deadlines will auto-input into the calendar.
Your team can setup up reminders and push notifications that will alert them to daily tasks, meetings, and deadlines so they can stay on track. It’s also essential that your online calendars will also send alerts to tablets and smartphones. Meeting critical deadlines such as payroll is an integral part of the job role, and many employees are relying on HR for everything to be on time.
Records and File Management
An HR software can take care of your document and record management for you, but it’s essential to understand which types of records your HR department deals with and how to organize them. No files relating to employees should ever be deleted or discarded. Instead, storing them efficiency and with other similar filetypes will keep them secure, but easy to access if you need to. Here are some of the records and files you must keep and how they should be organized:
Personal Files
All personal files should be kept together, separate from everything else. Personal files will include anything from the hiring process such as resumes, references, applications, and the original job description.
Medical Files
Medical files are confidential and very important to store securely. It is also the law that they must be stored separately from everything else.
Workplace Injury Records
If an employee has been injured on the job, these records must be kept secure and again, separate from everything else. These records include Worker’s Compensation claims, anything to do with the injury, and any company safety training provided regarding the scenario.
Payroll records
Payroll records must be maintained and stored for a length that is subject to specific state laws. These records can include days off, such as vacation or sick days.