Whether your company has a dedicated HR department, getting this side of your business right is crucial.
Implementing the appropriate HR policies and processes will help your business develop and run smoothly.
But what areas do you need to target, and what’re the HR tools that could allow you to? Read our HR for small company guide to getting started.
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What is HR?
Human Resources, known more commonly as HR, covers many key aspects that are important to running a small business, such example:
- paying staff
- organising training
- monitoring compliance
- managing health and safety
HR includes all the processes and functions that look after employees and allow a business to use smoothly. Larger businesses will probably have their particular HR department, while small businesses should employ a minimum of one person to handle human resources.
A good HR process escalates experiencing efficient workflows and happy staff. Getting hired right can also help a business develop and win market share.
HR audit checklist
Below we’ve put together an HR checklist for businesses. It covers all the main areas of HR that your business needs to consider.
Recruitment and onboarding
This can be a key area for making certain you have the proper people in the proper roles and is particularly important if your business is expanding.
Please read our article on job descriptions to ensure that your adverts for new roles cover all the good areas.
Other areas of the recruitment process you will need to consider include:
- applications
- interviews
- job offers
Once recruits have accepted an employment offer, you will need an onboarding process set up to be sure they settle quickly.
An integral part of this will be sharing your staff handbook using them, alongside putting them through an induction, introducing them to stakeholders, and making certain they’ve all the apparatus and tools they should fulfil their duties.
Contracts and remuneration
Having the proper contracts set up and making certain employees’ payment runs smoothly should submit hand with your recruitment and onboarding process.
There are lots of employment laws that you need to comply with, while at once, having payroll software can allow you to pay staff on time.
Download our free employment contract template to help you create an agreement that works for your business and employees.
We also provide a selection of templates and guides covering other aspects of contracts and remuneration:
- Annual leave policy template
- Working time directive opt-out agreement template
- Zero hour contract template
- Maternity policy template
Disciplinary and redundancy
You won’t have issues like redundancy and employee discipline in mind when you hire staff. However, you must have clear processes set up, so you’re covered in the event things go wrong.
If you intend to create someone redundant, you will need to make sure you follow a selection of steps, including giving employees a right to appeal, serving them with a reasonable notice period, and sending out some letters.
Our comprehensive guide to the redundancy process explains all you need to learn and carries a free redundancy policy template.
At once, your company’s disciplinary and grievance procedure will outline the behaviour you expect from employees.
In addition to making certain you’re treating employees fairly, a strong disciplinary and grievance procedure lets you take action quickly if there exists a serious incident you need to deal with.
With this particular in your mind, we’ve partnered with Farillio to create a free disciplinary policy template, which includes the stages of disciplinary action, such for example informal warnings, hearings, and appeals.
Here are some more disciplinary and redundancy templates that might be helpful for your Human Resources team:
- Gross misconduct disciplinary meeting template
- Grievance policy template
- Termination of employment letter template
Employee benefits and workplace culture
Another important area of the HR process is keeping employees happy and encouraging them to keep them long-term.
This is recognised as employee retention. The more employees enjoy working at your company and feel it’s a place to develop the higher your employee retention rate.
Please read our guide to employee retention for some suggestions on how best to measure staff happiness and strategies to enhance job satisfaction.
