The most important asset of an organization is its people because they contribute to the growth and success of a company. HR today has become the prime focus for most organizations as they are the ones in charge of the people within the company.
Challenges in HR Management
Companies have various HR requirements depending on how big or small the organization is. As business models change, HR can face different challenges, such as:
Changes in Management
When the business grows, so is the workflow or operations. New strategies, policies, and processes will develop over time and these changes can affect work productivity and morale.
Adapting to Innovation
Since technology is constantly changing, businesses, no matter the size, should be quick to adapt or risk being left behind. One challenge is for employees to accept these shifts in technology.
Compliance with Policies
For business owners and HR department, keeping up with the ever-changing laws and regulations continues to be a challenge. Smaller businesses who are not focused on HR might find themselves in trouble for non-compliance.
There are multiple ways to combat these challenges and one of them is to utilize Microsoft SharePoint to boost HR Operations.
Leveraging SharePoint for the HR Department
Every day, the HR department faces several requests and queries that take time to resolve. SharePoint has different functionalities that can eradicate communication breakdown and encourage employee’s productivity and efficiency.
Mobile Workforce Enablement
People have now the option to work more flexibly and having access to apps and tools from a mobile device is helpful especially for a remote workforce. The interface of SharePoint is mobile-efficient which makes the process of completing a task or even a simple update on a document within the app is easier. The last thing your HR wants in a platform is to slow things down instead of speeding things up.
Document Management – Company Policies, Forms or Templates
SharePoint can be utilized as an HR/Employee Portal where it enables employees to get access to different documents or files that don’t require them to contact HR and waste time spent on unproductive chats or calls.
Since the digitization of documents is necessary these days and privacy is a major concern for employees, SharePoint allows you to safely store documents and only allow access to specific users.
Leave Management
HR department deals with a lot of requests every day, and some can be demanding because it requires immediate attention. SharePoint enables the HR team to automate leave requests and ensure that the right people will be notified once the request has been made.
Through Microsoft Flow, an automation tool that helps with this automation process, SharePoint can generate a workflow where it will be sent to the appropriate department (HR personnel) to approve or deny the request, and once it is done, a notification will be sent to the employee and a calendar event will be created in the Outlook.
Here is an example of Uniserve’s Leave Management in SharePoint:
HR Announcements – Events, Birthdays, New Hires
If you want to highlight any company events, holidays, or news, you can utilize the SharePoint calendar to showcase important dates. This can simplify HR operations since employees do not need to ask HR frequently for any upcoming events or holidays, they can simply point them to the SharePoint site, and everything is there.
Using SharePoint for Onboarding, Offboarding, or Training
SharePoint can be used as a database of applicants where you can easily find a resume that matches the required position. SharePoint also allows the HR department to streamline the process involved in onboarding new employees or offboarding.
For example, you can set up an onboarding site where there will be a list of tasks the new employee is required to complete, such as going through the company policies, and procedures. You can also create a training video using Microsoft Stream that they can watch during the onboarding process.
Effectiveness of SharePoint from an HR point of view
We’ve asked an HR officer about the effectiveness of SharePoint in the organization and if there is any improvement seen regarding the business operation, she said that “with the improved SharePoint type which is called "Modern Team site", it does not only function as the traditional file sharing tool, but it has a lot of features that could facilitate easy information access that can be customized to tailor fit with the organization.”
She also mentioned that the most useful aspect of SharePoint is the file-sharing wherein HR Management can modify the files depending on its confidentiality amongst team members and the leave management system that they were able to apply and utilize in SharePoint.
While there are still some features that need to be improved like the flexibility of its interface and additional function on the SharePoint calendar, the benefit still outweighs these minor imperfections. “A well-built Modern SharePoint is a great advantage for sharing information, announcements, policies, and other organizational documents, especially for newly onboarded employees. And now that we're in the middle of Pandemic, it is a great tool to share and encourage employees by sharing articles on its "news-type/section" strategically.”
SharePoint might not be the complete solution for HR but with its features and capabilities, it can provide a valuable framework that delivers a secure solution to your HR needs and employee's demands.
Are you considering SharePoint to streamline HR operations at your organization? Contact us today!
