Establishing Manual HR Systems

The devil is in the details someone once said, and this is certainly true with respect to designing an HR system. The HR manager may talk in broad terms about the recruiting, selection, and other HR functions he or she wants to install. But eventually, creating the HR system requires translating the HR managers broad preferences for !a selection program that produces more qualified candidates," for instance# into specific, !how e$actly will we do this" policies, guidelines, tools, and paperwork or computeri%ed processes. This means actually creating the infrastructure of the HR system. &oing so is not easy. 'onsider the paperwork required to breathe life into a companys HR system. (ust to start with, recruiting and hiring an employee might require a )otice of *vailable +osition, a Help ,anted *dvertising -isting, an .mployment *pplication, an /nterviewing 'hecklists, various verifications of education, and immigration status, and a Telephone Reference 'hecklist. 0oud then need an .mployment *greement, 'onfidentiality and )on1compete *greement and an .mployer /ndemnity *greement. To process that new employee you might need a hiring *uthori%ation 2orm, an .mployee Background 3erification, a )ew .mployee 'hecklist, and various forms for withholding ta$ and to obtain new employee data. *nd to keep track of the employee once on board, youd need 4 5ust to start 4 an .mployee 'hanges 2orm, +ersonnel &ata 6heet, &aily and ,eekly Time Records, an Hourly .mployees ,eekly Time 6heet, an 7vertime +ermit, an .$pense Report a vacation Request, an *bsence Request, an *ffirmative *ction 6ummary, and an ..7 +olicy 6tatement and *nalysis of promotions . Then come the performance appraisal forms, a 'ritical /ncidents Report, )otice of +robation, 2irst or second# ,arning )otice 2orm, a &isciplinary )otice, a )ew .mployee .valuation, a +erformance .valuation and a -etter of 'ommendation , and eventually# a Retirement 'hecklists , )otice of &ismissal Reduction in ,orkforce )otice, .mployee 'heck 4 out Record, 6eparation )otice, and .mployment Reference Response. The preceding list barely scratches the surface of the policies, procedures and paperwork needed to run the HR system part of a business. This has several implications. 2irst, you obviously cant wing it. +erhaps with 5ust one or two employees one could keep track of everything in memory, or 5ust write a separate memo for each HR action, and place it in a folder for each worker. But with more than a few employees one needs to create a human resource comprised of standardi%ed forms. 3ery small firms can handle all or most of this sort of HR record keeping through manual paper and pencil forms and systems. But as the company grows, various parts of the HR system 4 payroll, or appraising, for instance 4 will have to be computeri%ed if the firm is to remain competitive. *fter all a HR manager probably dont want to spend twice as much money and time on HR as their competitors.

3ery small employers say, with 89 employees or less# will probably start with a manual HR system. 2rom a practical point of view, this generally means obtaining and organi%ing a set of standardi%ed personnel forms covering each important aspect of the HR 4 recruitment, selection, training, appraisal, compensation, safety process 4 as well as some means for organi%ing all this information for each of your employees. The number of forms you could conceivably need even for a small firm is quite large. * reasonable way to obtain the basic component forms of a manual HR system is to start with a compilation of forms book like that one. The forms required can also be adapted from standard sources for a particular situation. 7ffice supply stores such as 7ffice &epot and 7ffice :a$# also sell packages of personnel forms. 2or e$ample, 7ffice &epot sells packages of individual personnel forms as well as a !Human Resources kit" containing 89 copies of each of the following; *pplication, .mployment /nterview, Reference 'heck, .mployee Record, +erformance .valuation, ,arning )otice, .$it /nterview and vacation Request, plus a -awsuit +revention <uide. *lso available and highly recommended is a package of .mployee Record 2olders. =se the folders to maintain a file on each individual employee> on the outside of the pocket is printed a form for recording information such as name, start date, company benefits, and so on. /n /ndia most companies, design their own formats e$cept statutory requirements# get them printed and use them.