When running a small business with only a few employees, it’s easy for HR processes to develop informally. You hire when you need someone, answer employee questions as they come up, and handle many situations based on what makes sense at the time.
As your team grows, those processes require more structure and consistency. You may not need a full-time HR person yet, but there are a few areas in which it is important to have clear processes in place.
Focusing on five HR essentials — hiring and onboarding, employee records, policies, performance management, and offboarding — can create consistency, reduce risk, and strengthen your business’s foundation.
1. Create a consistent hiring and onboarding process
A consistent hiring and onboarding process begins before you start interviewing and continues through an employee’s first few months. Before bringing someone new onto the team, make sure you have established:
- Who is responsible for approving new positions
- An accurate job description for the role
- Who will be involved in interviewing and making the hiring decision
- What equipment, system access, passwords, and other resources will be needed
- A clear plan for the employee’s first day, orientation, and training
It is also important to think beyond day one. We recommend scheduling 30-, 60-, and 90-day check-ins with new employees from the beginning. These are not formal performance evaluations but intentional opportunities to discuss what is going well, where the employee may be struggling, and whether they still need tools or resources.
We often see businesses do a great job of hiring and getting employees in the door, only to wait too long to address concerns that arise afterward. Building regular touchpoints into the onboarding process gives managers and employees an opportunity to address concerns early and maintain open communication during the first few months.
2. Organize employee records and compliance documentation
Establish where records will be stored, who should have access to them, and who is responsible for keeping them organized and up to date.
Depending on your business, employee records may include:
- Payroll records
- I-9 documentation
- Benefits information
- Emergency contact information
- Other required employment records and documentation
Having an established system makes it easier to stay organized day-to-day, and it also matters from a compliance standpoint. If the Department of Labor, Department of Homeland Security, or another agency requests records as part of an audit, you should be able to locate and provide the appropriate documentation.
Putting a recordkeeping process in place early can help prevent missing or misplaced information from becoming a larger compliance issue as your team grows.
3. Establish clear company policies
Clear workplace policies give employees a reliable place to find answers and help managers apply company expectations consistently. An employee handbook can bring those policies together in one place and make them easier to reference throughout the organization.
At a minimum, employees should understand:
- How to request time off
- What to do if they are going to be late or absent
- How and where to report a workplace concern or complaint
- What workplace expectations and procedures they are responsible for following
- Where company policies are located and how to access them
Each policy should explain the appropriate process, who needs to be notified, and any steps the employee is expected to take. Employees may also come to your organization accustomed to having these processes clearly defined in previous workplaces.
Taking the time to document your policies, fill in any gaps, and make that information accessible helps set expectations from the beginning and gives managers clear guidance when situations arise. As your business becomes more established, your policies and the way they are communicated should keep pace.
4. Build a repeatable performance management process
Your employees need to understand what is expected of them and how their performance will be measured. When those expectations are clearly defined for each position, managers have something concrete to refer back to when providing feedback or addressing concerns.
Think through what happens when an employee is not meeting those expectations. Managers should know how to document the issue, which forms to use, where that information is kept, and what steps come next. Having those resources readily available reduces the strain on supervisors and keeps them from creating a new process every time they encounter a performance issue.
Documentation should capture the concern, conversations with the employee, expectations for improvement, and any follow-up. That documentation gives the business a clear record of how the situation was handled.
When you integrate performance management into your company’s operations, managers and employees both know what is expected of them and what the process is for addressing concerns.
5. Prepare for employee changes and offboarding
With so much attention on hiring and getting employees in the door, it can be easy to overlook what needs to happen when someone leaves. Resignations and involuntary separations come with both operational and compliance responsibilities.
Your offboarding process should address:
- How the employee’s responsibilities will be reassigned
- Who will manage system access and company property
- How final pay and benefits notifications will be handled
- Whether an exit interview will be conducted and who will lead it
- Who is responsible for completing each step of the process
Employee changes can also include promotions and moves into new roles, which may require updates to responsibilities, records, and access. Establishing these processes ahead of time helps keep important details from being overlooked during a transition.
Build the HR processes your business needs
Take an honest look at how your business handles each of these five areas. You may already have strong processes in place, or you may find that some of the informal practices that worked with a smaller team could now use more structure.
Whether you are starting from scratch or have simply outgrown the way you have always handled HR, the whyHR team can help you get buttoned up and ready for what comes next. We work with growing businesses to evaluate their current HR practices, prioritize what needs attention, and put the right processes in place for their people and operations.
Contact us to learn how whyHR can help build the HR processes your business needs.