8.1 Purpose
The aim of the HR toolkit is to provide you with a working solution that you can use and share to ensure effective day to day management within the company. You can use the toolkit as your own resource or you can provide it to managers, helping them identify how to manage certain situations and what to do if they find themselves in a human resource disaster. The information you put in the toolkit should be designed to support and provide guidance to help the company grow and achieve success with the right employees.
What should the toolkit provide?
-Resources.
-Contacts.
-Links.
-Processes.
-FAQ.
What to include
There is a high volume of information which should be included in the HR toolkit. Each section should provide the HR department and managers with the tools they need to manage their teams effectively now and moving forward.
HR planning (strategic)
This is a very important part of HR management and is linked between the plan and the company. Mid to large sized companies need to have a strategic plan in place to guide them towards meeting their objectives.
Purpose
-Adequate HR resources to meet goals and plans of the company. Ensure you have the right people using the right skills to achieve success.
-Stay updated with economic, technological, and social trends to ensure success.
-Embrace flexibility within the company using strategic HR planning and management by analysing current resources and the labour market and using this information to identify where the company is going, how it is going to develop, and what skills are needed.
8.2 Four step process
Ensure the HR toolkit includes a four step process when it comes to strategic planning:
1. Assess current capacity.
2. Forecast requirements.
3. Analyse the gap.
4. Develop HR strategies in order to support company strategies.
Assessing current capacity should be included based on the company's strategic plans and the steps of the HR process. This will involve a full breakdown of the knowledge, skill, and abilities needed to ensure the right development solution is put in place moving forward. This can be used by managers to identify performance and ensure that they have the right applicant in the right position. Forecasting requirements means predicting needs based on the goals of the company and being realistic in the process regarding supply and demand.
Ensure the following are answered:
-Number of staff needed to achieve goals.
-Jobs that need to be filled.
Skills of applicants.
Next, you want to cover analysing the gap between where the company is right now and where they want to be. The gap will identify how many staff members are needed and what their skills need to be.
The gap should include the following:
-What new jobs are needed?
-What skills are needed?
-Do current staff members have the necessary skills required?
-Are there enough supervisors and managers?
Development of HR strategies should include restructuring, training, and development, recruitment, outsourcing, collaboration, and more. The focus of this section of the HR toolkit should be to retain staff and reduce turnover, create well- designed jobs, and reorganize employees to ensure optimum efficiency at all times.
Training and development should ensure effective training programmes and provide current team members with training opportunities to boost their knowledge and help them develop within their current position. The recruitment strategy needs to cover the recruitment of new staff and identify the skills and abilities that meet the needs of the company. It should also be used when it comes to promotions to ensure that the job openings are given to the best applicants who are able to do the job to the highest standard.
Collaboration strategies include indirect strategies beyond the company. For example, collaborating with other companies to ensure you find the right applicants who are going to push the company forward. You may work with another company in order to secure the best training, you may share the costs of training, or you may give your employees the ability to visit other companies to gain knowledge and skills.
8.3 HR Planning (operational)
All companies use HR planning at operational levels.
This includes those that don't have a strategic plan in place. The planning involves thinking that one step ahead of the company, putting practices in place to ensure management is supported at all times and that the company can achieve daily goals without issue. This can include anything from identifying how many staff members are needed to achieve goals to how to monitor performance.
The HR toolkit should provide valuable information on operational plans for human resources including employment legislation, developing a HR policy, securing the right people, training and development, benefits and retention. The toolkit should also cover reviewing the current HR management practices to ensure that they continue to meet the company's needs and that they continue to comply with legislations moving forward.
8.4 Employment standards
The employment standards should be the minimum requirements as stated by law. In the United Kingdom, every position has a minimum wage legislation that must be met at all times.
Some of the areas to cover in the toolkit include:
-Minimum wage
-Daily wage
-Lunch breaks
-Salary payments
-Hours of work each week
-Payment of overtime
-Holidays and how they are paid
-Annual leave
-Sick leave
-Employing anyone under 18
-Dispute resolution
-Contract termination
-Maternity leave
-Any deductions
-Record keeping
-Harassment policies and procedures
-Probation
HR policies should be developed focusing on the above topics and made available in the HR toolkit. This needs to cover employment standards and must provide the minimum requirements under the law. This section needs to cover minimum standards, policies and procedures, and jurisdiction.
8.5 Developing a policy
The HR toolkit should cover all the practical information the company will require on developing an effective HR policy. It should be used when developing policies and updating existing policies. This particular section of the toolkit should be brimming with templates and handbooks to make your life that bit easier when providing a full HR function for a team of employees.
Why policies are important
Policies should be included in the HR toolkit because they communicate the expectation on how things should be completed within the company. They ensure compliance with legislation and reduce the risk of employee claims. They provide documentation and help implement practices which enhance the company. Furthermore, the policy will ensure consistent, transparent, and fair treatment of staff along with helping managers make uniform, predictable, and consistent decisions.
Policies to include in the toolkit:
-Confidentiality
-Conflict of interest policies
-Policies regarding working conditions
-Code of conduct regarding attendance and hours of operation
-Voluntary and involuntary termination
-Recruitment policies
-Compensation and overtime
-Learning and development
-Performance management
-Benefits
-Privacy
-Leave - compassionate, holiday, sick, and bereavement leave
-Employee information
-Maternity leave, unpaid leave, jury duty
-Conflict resolution
-Formal complaints process
-Disciplinary action
-Harassment, respect, and discrimination within the work place
-Health and safety
-Accident reports
-Violence within the work place
-Alcohol and drug use at work
-Company equipment
Policy template
A policy template must be part of your HR toolkit, to help you focus on important sections which should be included in all policies written for the company.
These include:
-The purpose of the policy and what it is meant to accomplish
-Who the policy applies to
-A statement on the standard of the policy
-Responsibilities of management and staff relating to the policy
-Definitions of terms used in the policy
-Who employees must approach if they have any questions regarding the policy
-References to other policies, legislation, or documents
-A review date for the policy
-Who approved the policy
8.6 Recruitment
Process
The first step to recruitment is to have a process in place. This should be identified in the HR toolkit covering who will search and hire for a new employee, who will be responsible for handling conflict of interests by the managers and supervisors, and how to ensure you get the best candidate for the position.
Review company needs
The toolkit should provide you with insight into how to review the company requirements and then the skills and experience of applicants. Get input from supervisors and management and put a plan together to help you identify a job profile, salary structure, and minimum requirements for the position.
Advertising
The toolkit should provide clear outlines of job advertisements and examples of previous adverts. It should also have a list on where to advertise to achieve the best results. It is important that you focus on the advertising budget you have been given and then identify which job boards and newspapers to use, ensuring you stay within budget.
Screening process
The HR toolkit should provide you with the ability to screen all the applicants based on the company's minimum requirements. Anyone not meeting the requirements should be placed in the rejected pile, while those that meet the requirements should be called in for interviews.
Interviews
The toolkit should provide you with insight into how interviews are conducted within the company. This may be that you conduct all initial interviews on your own and then second interviews are carried out with a manager or the owner. It may be that a panel is part of the interview process from beginning to end. A list of interview questions should be present in the HR toolkit, saving you time and energy, and ensuring that all the questions are legally allowed to be asked.
Orientation
Once an applicant is chosen, then orientation should begin. Again, this needs to be outlined in the HR toolkit. This should include everything from appointing the new staff member to providing them with valuable information on the company. It will provide them with everything they need to make them more comfortable from day one and help them blend into their new team with ease and confidence.
FACT
While the average length of an interview is 40 minutes, 33% of 2000 surveyed bosses indicated they know within the first 90 seconds if they will hire that candidate.
Source: business2community.com
8.7 Training and development
There are numerous factors which influence training and development.
Companies will see the rewards and benefits, which include:
-Attracting and retaining the right employees.
-Providing additional skills to help employees grow within the company.
-Job security.
-Advancement opportunities.
Reasons training and development may be implemented include:
-Employee performance results.
-Employees request further training.
-Development plans.
-Regulation changes.
-New employee being hired.
-New equipment being implemented.
-New technology being implemented.
-Health and safety.
What to remember and include when creating training and development HR toolkit Learning is essential to the company's success and, therefore, providing employees with the ability to improve and develop their knowledge and skills will enhance the company as a whole, making it easier to reach goals and ensure a productive team. This will also reduce the risk of high staff turnover moving forward. When putting together the training and development section of the HR toolkit, it is important to bear in mind that the senior staff set the tone of the company and they need to lead by example at all times. Their actions and decisions and how they view learning and improvement will help employees embrace learning and improve their own performance within the company.
Understand learning is part of the company. Learning should be ongoing and the company should ensure that it provides employees with the opportunities to improve their skills and boost their career development. The budget should be clearly identified in the HR toolkit for training and development. This means you have an annual budget to work within to enhance employees and help the company reach its goals.
Learning should always be encouraged at all levels and, therefore, made available to everyone. A simple spreadsheet should be available listing each employee`s name and the courses available, linking each employee to the course that will benefit them moving forward. Focus on the urgent courses that are going to make an immediate impact on the company first. The policy regarding training and development should be readily available and should provide guidance on how often employees should have formal training, the types of developmental programmes available, and how off the job programmes are managed.
A schedule should be in place to manage time off for learning. Sometimes, employees need to study in-class, which means they are off-site for a few days. This should be accommodated for in the schedule to ensure their duties are handled by another team member during their absence. Allow employees to put their new skills to the test in the working environment, even if it is outside of their department.
Implementation checklist
The implementation of the training and development programme should be clearly identified in the toolkit, along with a checklist you should focus on:
-Employee training and development goals.
-Skills, knowledge, and abilities employees will learn.
-Will employees participate in learning activities during the process?
-Work experience.
-Use of real life examples.
-Material based on past learning experiences and work experience.
-Informal, supportive, and safe learning environment.
-All employees shown respect during training.
Planning process
1. Employee should identify their own skills, values, strengths, and weaknesses using the self- assessment tool offered in the HR toolkit. This can then be compared to their job description, performance assessments, and more.
2. Current position is assessed based on present conditions and requirements. This involves identifying job requirements of the current position along with performance expectations. It identifies if the employee has the knowledge and experience to perform their jobs to the best possible standard and the impact change has had on their working environment.
3. Development goals should be identified based on methods used and resources required.
4. Plan needs to be put into action after being reviewed and approved.
8.8 List of on the job training and development opportunities
The toolkit needs to include a full list of cost effective, on the job training opportunities for you to look at and focus on before using up your training and development budget.
Committees
Committees form part of all companies and are effective when it comes to learning. They comprise of staff from all departments which focus on issues coming from different perspectives. This can be useful in a training environment, giving employees insight into the latest trends and the impact they have on the company.
Conferences
Setting up conferences for employees based on certain topics is a great way to encourage onsite learning and it doesn't have to drain your training budget.
Incident notes
Learning is a daily activity and, as such, you can make use of incident notes as a learning opportunity. Complaints from clients is one of the incident notes that will enhance customer service levels by understanding the best way to handle the situation to ensure the customer is happy with their experience. The notes should be shared throughout the department and discussed in detail.
Field trips
If your company is based in more than one location, enable teams to visit the other branches as a learning opportunity. In some instances, certain programmes may only be carried out in one branch and, therefore, an employee visiting that branch can get a good understanding of that particular task. Give them a list of questions that they can ask and follow up on their experience.
Job aids
Employees can be given certain tools which can assist them in performing their duties to the higheststandard. These can be check lists, phone lists, manuals, guidelines, and more. They are very useful, especially for new employees or those who are moving from one department to another.
Job expansion
Sometimes, employees get bored in their positions, and carrying out the same duties day in and day out can be tedious, monotonous, and leave them wanting more. They will start looking for challenges and if you cannot provide them with any, then they are going to move on to the next company.
Job rotation
Job rotation, even if only temporary, provides employees with the chance to work within various areas of the company and try new things. They remain in their current position, but fill in for another employee or assist a colleague with a certain task or project to give them diversity and something different to work on for a while.
Shadowing
Shadowing is used extensively in companies where employees will be carrying out identical duties. This can be used when a new recruit comes in to take over from an existing team member. They may work with the team member for a week or more to learn the process. It is also done when someone is promoted. It is regularly seen in the hospitality industry to speed up the induction process. The experienced employee will carry out their duties as normal and the other will follow them around, take notes, and learn from their experience, but they will not assist at any stage. They are purely there to learn and shadow.
Peer to peer learning
This is when two employees help each other on various tasks. They are both experts in certain areas, which the other can learn from.
Classroom training
The HR toolkit should contain valuable information on classroom training that has been used by the company in the past. It should provide formal training opportunities employees can take advantage of, along with the trainer's name and contact details and a full list of the courses on offer. A full list of universities or colleges where employees can go to get relevant training should be listed. This includes classes that are recommended and costs. It is important to note that while the company may pay for this training, employees will need to attend on their own time.
Self-study courses are often preferred and you may have a list of online colleges and training facilities you want to use. This enables employees to study at their own pace and in their own time while still working full time. It is an effective and affordable option for the company and also provides the employee with a certificate on successful completion.
8.9 Compensation and Benefits
Every toolkit needs to include compensation and benefits information. This focuses on the salary to attract and retain staff, along with the various benefits which may be offered by the company. Many companies these days will provide employee benefits of some kind. This may include being part of a pension or provident fund, or it may even include private medical.
With the government pension drying up faster than it takes laundry to dry in the United Kingdom, a company offering added benefits such as a pension plan is a big draw to hardworking employees who want to plan for their future. Other benefits may include a housing or vehicle allowance. Depending on the industry, some companies provide employees with accommodation, both permanent and temporary. This ensures they get the right people for the job by encouraging them to move from one area to another.
Assessing compensation
It is imperative when it comes to reviewing salaries that you compare information that is very similar. Look at the salaries and benefits of different levels within the company.
Things you are going to want to look for include:
-Reviewing job descriptions, duties, and responsibilities.
-Comparisons with agencies offering similar positions in the area.
-Working within the given budget which should be defined in the toolkit.
-Identifying salary assessment based on educational level.
The information in the HR toolkit should be easy to understand and to use. It should include comprehensive reports with easy to understand salary surveys that you can use. Remember to focus on total compensation. This means set salary with benefits, a complete package that the employee will benefit from by joining the company.
8.10 Benefits of a HR Toolkit
Whether the toolkit is already in place or you have to set it up, you will notice it provides a wealth of benefits which are going to make your job that bit easier.
The benefits of a HR toolkit include:
-Improved productivity on your behalf.
-Having everything you need at your fingertips.
-Access to surveys, reports, and resources.
-Valuable information and insight into recruitment processes.
-Ability to identify the best training facilities and costs.
-Performance management and reporting.
-Interview processes and questions.
-Full list of employee benefits and compensation breakdowns.
-Contact information.
Module summary
This module has provided you with the information you need to develop a human resources toolkit to help you perform better within your role as HR manager. The module provided information on the purpose of the HR toolkit and what this kit provides. It also gave you advice on what to include in the HR toolkit and the benefits of having it in place to make your daily duties more effective and efficient moving forward.
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