6 HR tasks that are easier to run online

HR is a complex, demanding part of every business, often involving jobs that nobody wants to do. From detailed admin and constant organisation, to creating policies and solving staff disputes, there’s a lot on your plate. And many HR personnel make life even harder by trying to manage all these tasks manually.

While dealing with people’s needs is always going to be challenging, you can make the practical side of HR so much easier by managing core tasks online. Letting digital HR management software do the hard work, so you can (rightly) focus on employee wellbeing.

Want to know more? Here are six HR tasks that are easier to run online with the right software support in place:

1. New starter onboarding and inductions

Helping new recruits start on the right foot and integrate with team members is critical to their long-term success. And online HR management technology makes this process much easier to coordinate.

Digital software allows you to create workflows and checklists for your onboarding process, so you’re working to the same blueprint every time. You can assign tasks to colleagues – for example, getting IT requirements and logins set up – so that everything is in place before day one.

HR software also helps you to coordinate new starter introductions, as you can create a welcome programme and allocate sessions to your team members. Once each person has completed their session they can update you online, so you know when a new recruit’s induction period is complete.

2. Professional development and career progression

Nurturing progress is key to keeping team members happy, motivated and committed to your business; employees want to know there’s room for them to grow and thrive. But without a formal system in place, professional development can become quite haphazard – leaving staff unsure as to what their future holds.

Online HR management tools enable you to create a framework for checking-in with team members and supporting their career progression. For example, you can schedule quarterly or bi-annual performance reviews from their start date, sharing preparation documents beforehand and following up with both the employee and their line manager afterwards.

You can also use HR software to document next steps, so colleagues focus their energy between appraisals.

3. Employee grievances

It would be great if everyone got along and performed to expected standards all the time, but occasionally professional problems arise – and it’s HR’s job to work them out.

Your main priority is to ensure that both your company policies and legal protocols are followed correctly, to resolve problems quickly and make sure the business is acting appropriately. And HR software can help you achieve this.

By managing all employee communications centrally, you can log any grievances or disputes to provide written evidence of staff conduct. Every step taken can be individually recorded and date/time stamped, along with who completed each action, for a detailed information trail that can be recalled at a later date if needed.

If conflict resolution is required following an employee grievance, you can set meetings with those involved, using your online HR platform to schedule follow-up tasks and document feedback. This way, everyone feels that the situation has been managed effectively and you are able to move forward productively where possible.

4. Skills, certifications and qualifications

We’ve already talked about nurturing progression, and skill-building is key to helping your colleagues climb the career ladder. With HR software, you can create a complete list of the qualifications each team member holds, building on those credentials to support future promotions.

From an HR perspective, accurately documenting employee certifications is important from a planning and compliance point of view as well. For example, the HSE recommends that companies with 5-50 members of staff have at least one first aid trained person on duty at all times (more for larger organisations).

By recording colleague skills online, you can see exactly who has first aid training, and make sure you have enough qualified team members to meet HSE guidance. The same goes for industry qualifications; if certain technical capabilities are required to operate in your sector, you can record this centrally too – along with the dates that those certificates expire, so you know when further training is required.

5. Data compliance

HR is primarily a people role, but there are certain box-ticking exercises that fall onto your shoulders as well. Creating and enforcing company policies is a core function of business HR, and making sure your team complies with these policies is a legal requirement in some cases.

For example, if new health and safety requirements are passed by law, it’s often HR’s job to put those changes into action. The same goes for changing employment rights.

If you’re using online HR software, you can easily update and save company policies, before sharing them with the whole workforce in a group message. And if further actions are required to remain compliant, you can request that team members tick to confirm when their part of the task has been completed – so you can see at a glance who you need to follow up with.

6. Target setting and performance tracking

We mentioned earlier how digital tools support employees’ career progression, and you can use HR software to set personal targets and track people’s progress. But taking your HR management online can also help you set goals as a company.

Managing your data centrally doesn’t just make it easier to find information and keep it up-to-date; it allows you to analyse your credentials and track your progress, so you can work to meaningful metrics.

For example, with WhosOffice HR and document storage, you get access to an online dashboard that shows you the status of open HR cases and workflows in real-time.

Our dashboard also shows you key employee metrics – such as average length of service, age, diversity and annual leave trends – so you can set KPIs and demonstrate to senior colleagues how you’re moving towards those targets.

Let HR software do the heavy lifting

A huge amount of work goes into building a strong company culture within a smooth-running, compliant business, and much of the heavy lifting is done by HR. Online human resources software helps to ease this burden by streamlining admin, making tasks and follow-ups easy to manage, and giving you the reporting tools to demonstrate success.

WhosOffice understands the critical role that HR plays in a high functioning business, which is why we’ve launched an HR management and document storage module. This optional new feature allows you to do all the things we’ve mentioned above in one place, so you can meet legal and admin requirements at the same time as focusing on people’s wellbeing and success.