The 5-Step HR Checklist For New Businesses

The human resources department is one of the most important positions in any company,

especially for new companies that are just about to hire their first employees. Once a company

begins hiring staff, it needs an HR department in place to manage the process of taking care of

that staff. That means that the HR department is one of the first things any new company or

expanding small business needs to put into operation.

Not sure where to start when setting up an HR department? This 5-step checklist will give new

businesses a roadmap for creating a human resources department and hiring their first staff

members.

1. Create a Staffing Plan –The information that a staffing plan needs to have includes:

What positions need to be created? How many employees are needed for each position?

What will each position pay? How many employees can the company afford to hire?

Answering those questions will allow a company to move forward with hiring in an

organized, carefully planned manner that will allow it to stay within its budget while still

finding enough new employees to meet its needs.

2. Write Department and Position Profiles – Once a staffing plan has been created, the

HR department then needs to create detailed profiles of all the positions and departments

included in that plan. Will the different positions be separated into departments? What

will each of these departments look like? What is the specific hierarchy of the different

people in a department, and the hierarchy of departments in relation to each other? A

good human resources department needs to create profiles that answer all of these

questions, and then apply all of them to the hiring process.

3. Execute and Accurately Track the Recruitment Process – After the staffing plan and

position/department profiles have been created, the next step in setting up a human

resources department is to begin the interview and hiring process. In order for this

process to go well, the HR department will need an efficient way to track and manage

applicants. The easiest way to do this is to purchase recruitment tracking software like

Recruiterbox that will allow HR to accurately and easily manage applications, interviews,

and potential employee information.

4. Create Employee Management Documents – Once the hiring process has started, the

human resources department will need to create all the employee management documents

it needs to manage the new employees being hired. Employee files, time cards, time off

requests, quarterly/yearly evaluation forms, and every other document that is needed for

the company and its employees to communicate and make requests of each other is the

responsibility of the HR department. HR will also need to create new documents and alter

existing ones according to feedback and the company's future needs.

5. Create an Employee Replacement System – The hiring process isn't one that really

ends, which means that the HR department will also need to have a system in place to

replace employees who leave the company. HR is responsible for handling the exit and

replacement process and will need to determine how much prior notice is required for

departing employees, how to recruit new staff for positions that have been vacated, what

the review process for open positions is, and other issues that arise when employees leave

the company or are let go.

Once an HR department is in place, it will continue to grow and change depending on the needs

of both the company and the staff. From the moment that the first staff member is hired, the HR

department's job becomes staying on top of managing employee needs and developing further

processes so that the company can continue to grow and evolve.