The most valuable asset of any frontline business is its employees. HR plays a key role in these organisations, providing workers with the structure, support, tools and environment they need to carry out and achieve business goals, while also providing meaningful, rewarding work experiences. 

However, there are a few boxes to tick to ensure your HR department can function as efficiently as possible. The following checklist will discuss each functional area of HR and provide actionable steps on how processes can be enhanced with the help of a human capital management (HCM) software suite. 

HR Checklist: The 5 Pillars of Human Resources

1. Recruitment and selection 

Recruitment and selection are the most visible aspects of your business’ HRM process. It’s the first touchpoint for applicant and eventual employees alike and leaves a lasting impression for the rest of their tenure. 

It’s also an integral phase for businesses, acting as a filter against a sea of applicants. To hire the best talent, they need to first be identified, verified, and engaged from the get-go. This is imperative for frontline businesses, whose workers are often in customer- or public-facing roles. 

Without robust and considered recruitment and selection processes, businesses risk wasting valuable time and resources on interviewing and onboarding unqualified or subpar employees.  

For applicants and eventual employees, it’s the first touchpoint and provides valuable clues as to the workplace culture.

HR checklist actions: 

• Set recruitment objectives: For example, the type of positions to be filled, number of open positions, desired applicant qualifications in terms of education and work history 

• Develop a recruiting strategy: This involves a specific plan of action for reaching recruiting objectives. This includes a sourcing strategy, recruiting budget, recruitment messaging, employer branding to position the company as an attractive workplace; pre-selection tools such as assessments and background checks; how success will be assessed (e.g. metrics relating to time-to-hire, quality of hire, DEI, etc.), diversity and inclusion initiatives to foster a diverse talent pool and support their growth and development in the company. 

• Collaborate with hiring managers: Building a consultative partnership with hiring managers can result in a smooth-flowing hiring process. With many frontline businesses needing to undertake high volume hiring in the fastest time possible, especially during peak periods, recruiters should set expectations early in the process, providing a realistic timeframe and sourcing strategy.  

Software tip: 

Humanforce Talent is a modern hiring solution that simplifies the recruitment process from start to finish. It’s an all-in-one talent acquisition platform that pools pre-qualified candidates, contractors, internal staff, and alumni into a single Talent Community. Tap into demand forecasts, use AI-powered matching tools to find the best-suited candidates, contact pre-qualified candidates on-demand through the powerful recruitment CRM, and create visually stunning career websites to attract candidates. 

And there’s much more to Humanforce Talent. Discover it here.

2. Performance management

Performance management is the process of improving performance through feedback, reviews, goal setting and tracking. It’s important for management to clearly define performance expectations and collaboratively set goals with employees — after all, it’s difficult to hit an invisible target! 

Communicating expectations and providing constructive feedback can help build and maintain employee morale. This provides workers with the support they need, empowering them to reach their full potential. By the same token, identifying under-performers and taking steps to turn performance around (e.g. with further training), is also a key component of building a high performing team. In turn, your business will feel the impact of increased efficiency, higher work quality, and better margins across the board. 

HR checklist actions:

• Choose your performance management approach: This could be a continuous performance management model where the manager meets with employees on a regular needed basis; weekly one-on-ones; monthly reviews; group meetings; annual reviews, etc. One of the most effective methods of empowering employees is to assign a senior employee to mentor and coach new hires. This also provides the new hire with a source of support and a sense of inclusion. 

• Tools for performance management: Decide whether HR provides managers with a performance review template, or whether you’ll use your HR software or dedicated performance management tools to streamline the process. 

• Measure performance improvement: Consider how managers will monitor and measure improvement. This might be through goal achievement or a qualitative measure like management by objectives where the manager sets specific goals and reviews goal attainment during one-on-one meetings. For example, in Manufacturing, product defects are an observable and objective method of evaluating performance; in Retail or Hospitality, reducing customer complaints could be a measurable goal. 

Software tip: 

The automated performance summary reports created in Humanforce’s Performance Management solution provide a historical view of an employee’s achievements, goals and feedback. This can help you track their goal-based performance to help you build and retain high performing talent. Managers can also work with employees to set cascadable goals and OKRs, identify areas for skills development and career pathways, and gather 360-degree feedback.

3. Learning and Development 

Learning and Development (L&D) always ranks highly when workers are asked about what attracts them to a company. Almost everyone is looking to build their skillset and advance in their career. Just as critically, continuous L&D can support the needs of the business, helping to fill critical skills gaps to support strategic initiatives. L&D may also play an important compliance role, ensuring that vital qualifications and certifications are in place and up-to-date. 

Those responsible for L&D need to identify knowledge or skill gaps among employees (whether those gaps arise from a change in processes, new technology, or upcoming legal regulations) and develop and deliver training to close those gaps. In this way, L&D policies help employees to re-skill, cross-skill and up-skill, thereby offering opportunities for future company growth by keeping its workforce adaptable and change-ready. 

HR checklist actions: 

• Align L&D with overall business goals: Consider new company initiatives or changes to organisational strategy and ensure there is a strategy to accompany the change. For example, the industry regulator has mandated that all staff undertake training and complete a certificate relating to workplace health & safety (e.g. a first-aid course). This would be completed primarily with in-person training (provided at different times so that all shift workers can participate) and maybe some mobile-friendly eLearning pre- and post-training exercises. 

• Make L&D an organisational priority: One of the most frequently mentioned factors in new hires accepting an offer is the opportunity for professional development. This benefit is a significant factor in long-term employee retention. As such, you should consider making L&D an organisational priority by providing the department with adequate budget, resources, and support. In terms of resources, calculate whether it will be more cost-effective to facilitate in-house training and workshops or utilise external service providers. 

• Conduct internal needs assessments: To derive the most benefit from L&D programs, conduct an internal review of what employees require from your L&D strategy. In doing so, you spark interest and encourage them to buy into new L&D programs. Referring back to the above example about the new industry regulation, consider sending company-wide push notifications through a central platform such as the Humanforce Work App. Today, company-wide or one-on-one messaging via an app is a universally accepted way of notifying employees about new initiatives and policy updates — especially for frontline workers, who are always on-the-go. 

4. Compensation and benefits

Fair and equitable compensation is a key part of attracting and retaining top talent. But while they are powerful incentives, they need to be balanced in line with company budgets, industry benchmarks and economic forecasting. To do so, HR teams should monitor pay increases and set standards based on compensation analyses drawn from their own sector and across other geographic locations.  

Primary vs. secondary compensation 

Compensation can be divided into primary and non-primary compensation. 

1. Primary compensation is money paid for work (wages and bonuses).

2. Secondary benefits are all non-monetary compensation and benefits such as extra holidays, contributions towards further education, childcare or the daily commute. The goal is to reward employees in an impactful way that will motivate them to stay. 

HR checklist actions: 

We recommend conducting annual salary audits and adjusting the salary bands to be competitive within profit margins. Here are the things you’ll need to consider: 

• Experience and education level: The better and more experienced the candidate is, the greater their pay expectations. If you’re looking for candidates with a Masters level education or 10+ years’ work experience in a city characterised by a high cost of living, be prepared to compensate accordingly. 

• Industry: Candidates with the same skill set and job title can earn vastly different salaries based on their industry. For example, a head of nursing at a hospital may earn a higher income than a head nurse at an aged care home, despite having similar responsibilities.. Obtaining industry benchmark pay data can help ensure pay is market competitive. 

• Geography: Cost of living (primarily housing costs) is a significant factor when deciding compensation. This is generally the reason why salaries in urban areas far outweigh the salaries for the same position in more rural areas. 

• In-demand skills: When it comes to determining compensation, a skill set may be a more important factor than a job title. Many companies have different titles for roles that essentially require the same skill set. For example, regardless of industry, a Product Manager in one company may be called a Business Analyst in another. It’s important for recruiters and hiring managers to consider the value of the skills required for the role when deciding compensation. 

Software tip: 

Humanforce’s HR suite includes a Compensation Planner, designed as a secure, accurate, and centralised solution to compensation planning and budget allocation. It eliminates the risk of lost spreadsheets and risky email attachments for safer collaboration and consistency across your entire organisation. Managers can also visualise budget pool impact, automate salary calculations, and more.

5. HR Software / Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS)

A HCM suite provides tools that help businesses carry out HR programs and activities more efficiently. Although functionality will vary from software vendor to vendor, HCM suites can be used to support most – if not all – the HR functions discussed above. For example, Performance Management tools can help evaluate and support employee performance, and a Learning Management System (LMS) helps monitor employee goals and records performance scores and ratings. Most HCM platforms will be underpinned by powerful analytics and reporting tools, to help refine and optimise all aspects of HR management. 

HR checklist actions:  

Consider the following when choosing a HCM suite: 

• Staff size: A HCM suite can make the end-to-end management of a large workforce easier by eliminating the need for spreadsheets and manual processes. Ideally, it should be scalable so it can grow as your business does. Most software providers will provide modules or tiers, with the opportunity to pick the modules or tiers that are needed most. For example, Humanforce offers Workforce Management, HR, Talent, Benefits and Payroll.

• Reporting and analytics: An integrated HCM suite can be used to generate reports for analysing areas like compensation bands and remuneration trends, employee turnover and attrition, labour costs, absenteeism, shift acceptance rates, diversity of employees, training history and investment per employee, and performance metrics. In Humanforce’s People Analytics solution, managers and leaders can also model attrition over time and filter down on specifics like tenure, pay grade and gender. 

• Learning and development: It’s important to formalise and track staff training during staff onboarding and as part of ongoing professional development. HCM suites like Humanforce can schedule and monitor each employee’s progress through compliance or skills training. The system can issue alerts and reminders for any uncompleted training and generate reports for managers to help with audits and regulatory compliance.

• Employee information: Most of today’s HCM systems give employees and managers access to their HR information, usually via a Core HR solution (see below). This self-service functionality allows employees to enter and update personal information, such as emergency contacts, banking and tax details, qualifications, work preferences, and more, all without the need to call HR. 

Software tip: 

Humanforce’s HR suite contains Core HR — your organisation’s source of truth for employee records and information. Record, organise, and time stamp all your people's data in a secure, centralised repository to reduce data silos and say goodbye to countless spreadsheets. Employees can also access and update records such as personal details, qualifications and goals themselves, without the need to call on HR.

Strengthen each pillar for a solid HR structure

The five basic functions of HR in this HR checklist are not mutually exclusive, but interact and affect each other in a synchronous way. Think of the five core processes of HR as links in a chain — strong management of each element contributes to the strength of the hiring process and employee experience as a whole. Collectively, these HR components enable employees across an organisation to reach optimum performance while also establishing a workplace that everyone wants to join and nobody wants to leave. 

About Humanforce 

Humanforce is the all-in-one platform for frontline and flexible workforces, offering a truly employee centred, intelligent and compliant human capital management (HCM) suite – without compromise. Founded in 2002, Humanforce has a 2300+ customer base and over half a million users worldwide. Today, we have offices across Australia, New Zealand, the US, and the UK. 

Our vision is to make work easier and life better by focusing on the needs and fulfilment of frontline workers, and the efficiency and optimisation of businesses. 

To learn more about how Humanforce’s solution can help automate people processes in your business, please contact us.