HR Checklist: Are You Missing Out?

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If you’re a small business or charitable organization, you’ve no doubt got a lot on your plate when it comes to managing your operations, ensuring future growth, and managing your team. While many small to medium businesses find the expense of developing and sustaining an internal HR team to be infeasible, the reality is that forgoing HR practices simply isn’t an option. Partnering with an external HR consultancy can help you to fill the gaps while also ensuring you have the guidance you need to move forward, especially if you’re endeavouring to grow.

Pivot HR is a Vancouver-based HR consultancy that proudly partners with small and medium businesses, as well as charitable organizations across Canada to offer leading HR assistance for a multitude of applications including hiring, onboarding, conflict resolution, executive coaching, and more. Below we’ll take a look at our essential HR checklist, designed to make sure you have the basics in place when it comes to covering human resources within your organization. Read on to make sure you’re not missing any!

What Does HR Deal With?

Despite being most commonly associated with hiring, firing, and conflict management, the reality is, human resources professionals deal with an incredibly wide range of details when it comes to making sure your organization runs smoothly. Anything from onboarding and retention to termination, benefits, pay, disputes and culture fall within the realm of HR. This means that if you neglect to set a solid foundation when it comes to human resources, you’re putting yourself, and your team, at a significant disadvantage.

When it comes to ensuring you’re on the up and up for HR practices, you’ll want to look at the following areas:

Foundations

Do your HR goals align with the overall vision of your organization? Do you have a clear layout of who reports to whom, and how you plan to continue to grow/add roles as your company expands? Do you have a succession plan in place if you intend to leave the business at any point in the future?

It’s easy to gloss over these basics and think you have the details in place, but if it’s been a while since you’ve sat down and thoroughly reviewed them, it’s time to take a closer look and see if everything matches where you are today, as well as where you’re headed in the future.

Records & Procedures

Documentation is one of the biggest gifts you can give your business on all fronts, but it’s extra vital where HR is concerned. You need to make sure you have an information system for recording HR data and employee files in a safe and confidential matter, and to ensure that you update all files as needed.

It’s also a best practice to have an employee handbook that clearly lays out all policies and expectations (which should be in accordance with all employment standards, human rights and local regulations) and to make sure that such policies and procedures are regularly reviewed and communicated to staff.

Hiring, Onboarding, & Benefits

Team management, as we’ve mentioned, is no small feat. To ensure your HR practices are up to speed, you need to have a hiring strategy that involves clear job descriptions for all positions (and future positions) within the organization, ensure that hiring is unbiased and non-discriminatory, and know what documents must be signed prior to day 1, etc.

From a compensation and benefits standpoint, you’ll want to ensure that you have a payroll system, have documentation of a formal pay structure, and outline any and all benefits available.

Performance, Training, and Culture

Once you’ve got the dream team on your side, you need to know how to keep them there, and to help them grow within their roles. Performance management is one of the biggest parts of HR and involves setting clear assessment guidelines, making sure you have a way to track goals and development and have set parameters as to when compensation will be reviewed and updated.

Training is a fantastic way to grow your team and helps to secure better retention as a whole. Make sure your team members are set up for success by giving detailed, relevant training for all job positions, setting up peer mentorship where possible, and providing opportunities for professional growth and development.

Culturally, you’ll want to make sure you have a valid way to incorporate your employee’s voices into consideration and ensure that new hires feel just as welcome when they join on. If you have remote team members, you need to make sure you have ways to keep them involved and engaged, and to close the distance gap wherever possible.

Partner With Pivot HR Today

Need help navigating the HR world and growing your organization? Pivot HR has you covered. We offer a wide range of HR services including hiring support, conflict resolution, coaching and more. Contact us today to learn how we can partner with your team and secure your success for the future!

What Our Clients say about us

“Robin and Mia were both exceptionally professional and responsive and understood our needs. Their work was of great quality. We are a small non-profit organization and we found them very easy and wonderful to work with. Great value and highly recommend.”

~ Joy Masuhara , Co-Chair Women Transforming Cities International Society

“Cindy is a remarkable professional coach, who goes well beyond expectations in supporting her clients’ development. She knows how to ask the right questions and uncover the real and deep issues that contribute to the limitations we put on ourselves. This type of personal exploration is tough work to do alone and remain committed to necessary change. Cindy’s approach and support made this process one of the most impactful experiences of my life, professionally and personally.”

~ Monique Cotton, Firm Administrator, JFK Law Corporation

“As a medium size business with over 100 employees working in very different areas of our operation, Pivot was able to quickly understand our HR needs and offer practical solutions. Robin and the Pivot team worked closely with our Leadership group to implement effective turnkey solutions on time and on budget. We will continue to use Pivot for our ongoing HR needs and would highly recommend their services.”

~ Adam Zubek, General Manager, Point Grey Golf & Country Club

Pivot HR Services provides personalized solutions for our organization’s human resources needs. By engaging their services, we have been able to successfully outsource our HR function, as the Pivot team has demonstrated their ability to understand the HR priorities of our workplace culture and industry.

~ Areef Abraham, Chief Executive Officer Community Power

“Robin developed our employee policy manual with the goal of engaging and retaining our current staff as well as attracting new ones in this highly competitive marketplace. Her in depth knowledge of current legislation and HR policies proved to be of significant benefit. I would highly recommend Robin and the team at Pivot HR Services.”

~ Christopher Soles, President, Nextgen Technologies Ltd.

“Robin has been and continues to be an outstanding resource for our organization to navigate HR issues as we grow. She always approaches problems with professionalism and a keen eye for our best interest. I’d certainly recommend Robin to anyone looking to elevate their HR processes.”

~ Karim Abraham, CEO, Kambo Energy Solutions

“Our firm turned to Robin for advice and guidance at a time when we faced a period of serious difficulty in managing our human resources. She assisted us through the process of putting our relationship with our staff on a stronger, more stable footing and helped us implement a complete overhaul of our human resources policies. We could not be more pleased with the work she has done and continues to do with us.”

~ Robert Janes, QC, Managing Principal JFK Law Corporation

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