The human resources department plays a key role in any organization, helping to foster a healthy work environment and meet your legal obligations. But the HR department is so complex that it can be helpful to think of it in terms of specific HR functions.
HR operations (or HR ops) is the part of the HR team that takes care of the day-to-day functions that keep your workplace running smoothly. From talent acquisition to payroll management, the HR operations team oversees the entire employee lifecycle, so that other arms of your HR team can focus on more strategic company goals.
Let’s take a closer look at the crucial role of HR operations, and how you can use HR technology to automate HR processes and streamline the employee experience.
What Is HR Operations?
HR operations, also known as people operations, refers to the administrative tasks and practical functions your HR team takes care of on a day-to-day basis. This differs from HR management, which focuses on strategic planning and big-picture thinking.
The dividing line between HR operations and human resource management will vary depending on your organization’s size and structure. Your HR ops department may include some of the following HR professionals:
- HR operations manager
- HR generalist
- Compliance officer
- Benefits administrator
- Employee relations (ER) specialist
Modern HR teams use digital HR systems like a human resources information system (HRIS) to collaborate. The HR operations team is in charge of managing your HRIS to minimize the impact of data silos on your organization. In some cases, you may also need to outsource HR functions to a third-party.
The Crucial Role of HR Operations
The HR operations team is responsible for implementing and overseeing some of the most integral parts of your organization. An effective HR operations team will provide benefits in all of the following areas.
Employee Engagement
By providing a memorable onboarding experience, administering employee benefits, and implementing employee retention strategies, your HR operations team helps to shape your company culture and support the well-being of your employees.
Safety and Compliance
The HR operations department ensures compliance with state and federal labor laws, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). By standardizing company policies and enforcing robust safety procedures, you can minimize the risk of accidents and compliance issues.
Efficiency
The human resources operations team drives operational efficiency by maintaining a strong workforce and overseeing performance management. The ops team uses HR tech to streamline workflows, improve productivity, and save time and money.
4 Ways HR Tech Can Support Your HR Operations Team
Now that we’ve taken a look at the importance of the HR operations team, let’s get clear on its core responsibilities. Here are four of the most important HR functions, along with the new technologies you can use to support your HR digital transformation.
Recruitment and Workforce Planning
The recruiting process involves everything from posting job ads to interviewing potential candidates. How do modern HR tools support these efforts? HR operations teams can use workforce analytics to anticipate hiring needs, while talent management systems facilitate the entire recruitment and hiring process.
AI recruiting tools can streamline the process even further by writing job descriptions, sorting resumes, and even scheduling interviews with candidates.
Onboarding and Offboarding
The employee onboarding process involves a number of important steps, from filling out onboarding documents to enrolling new hires in payroll and employee benefits. At the other end of the employee lifecycle, the offboarding process involves exit interviews, revoking access to IT systems, and calculating the employee’s final paycheck.
Cloud-based tools like Pulpstream facilitate these processes by generating documents automatically, administering training modules and exit surveys, and more.
Employee Relations
Employee relations management requires your HR team to resolve common employee complaints and address disciplinary issues. You might even offer employee counseling and personal improvement planning to guide them further along their career path.
RapidBee, Pulpstream’s AI-powered employee relations platform, makes it easier for employees to access HR services. You can empower employees to take the initiative and resolve questions on their own using a self-service portal. Or, use an intelligent chatbot to route employee queries to the most appropriate HR professional.
Workplace Safety
Your operations team facilitates workplace safety by conducting safety trainings, audits and inspections, and incident investigations. In the past, it was common for agents to rely on legacy systems, Word docs, and Excel spreadsheets to do their job.
Now, you can create, assign, and track corrective actions digitally, with customizable, cloud-ready forms and user-specific dashboards. Pulpstream’s mobile-friendly tools allow your agents to conduct better inspections, both on-site and in the field.
Best Practices for HR Operations
As employee needs and industry expectations change, so will the activities of your HR team. Remote work, artificial intelligence, and regulatory changes all promise to bring new and unexpected developments to the modern workplace.
These best practices will help you make the most of HR technologies while providing a seamless experience for your team members.
Follow Standardized HR Policies
Your HR operations team needs to be nimble enough to respond to edge cases and unusual scenarios, but not so much that it makes things up as it goes along. Follow standardized HR policies and procedures to avoid compliance issues.
For example, you can make a recruiting process flowchart to reduce bias in the hiring process, or use performance review templates to discourage favoritism.
When it comes to leave of absence management, use a leave management platform with a custom rules engine, such as Pulpstream, that can automatically account for various state leave laws along with the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Make Data-Driven Decisions
Modern HR management platforms have reporting dashboards that help you analyze information and make data-driven decisions about your organization. From workforce analytics to employee performance metrics, use this information to improve business efficiency, address performance issues, and increase employee retention.
Many cloud-based tools have an API (application programming interface) that you can use to connect multiple HR systems and share data between them. This is often more secure than storing data on premises and manually moving data between systems.
Digitize and Automate Processes
Digitizing and automating processes involves converting analog paperwork into digital formats, and switching over from legacy systems to cloud-based alternatives. This will enable your HR operations team to auto-generate documents, pre-fill forms, accept e-signatures, and provide an employee self-service portal.
HR digital transformation doesn’t require a dedicated software development team or advanced coding knowledge. No-code automation platforms like Pulpstream make it easy to create your own digital workflows with a drag-and-drop interface.
Modernize HR Operations with Pulpstream
The HR operations team is responsible for many of the recurring, day-to-day activities of your HR department. From payroll administration to talent management, they play a key role in promoting business efficiency and developing a strong company culture. It’s also their job to maintain and optimize your human resources information systems.
Modern HR tools make life easier for your HR operations team — and in turn, improve overall business efficiency and employee engagement. By automating recurring tasks and providing HR services through a self-service portal, you can spend less time and money on paperwork and more time on higher-level strategic initiatives.
Request a demo today to see how Pulpstream can transform HR operations!
