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HR Management Practices

HR Management Practices

The purpose of HR Management Practices is to provide the tools to manage the IT human resource lifecycle. This lifecycle begins with the decision to hire new employees and ends with how to manage departing employees. IT must recognize that that their human resources, when managed properly, can be their most valuable asset.

The HR Management Practices involve five steps:

Making the case for recruitment.
Finding the "right" employees.
Hiring and onboarding.
Employee management.
Retention.

When you have completed the HR Management Practices program you will have:

An understanding of what additional hiring is required and why.
The steps to get through the hiring process, starting with the job descriptions, followed by guidelines for the interview process.
A defined process for onboarding new employees.
Templates for completing new employee contractual arrangements.
Policies and templates to help you manage employees throughout their employment at your enterprise.

HR Management Practices are centered on the hiring process and, therefore, this section should be revisited whenever you consider bringing new employees into the organization.

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Steps		Tools	Related Research
Step 1: Make the Case for Recruitment New hiring decisions in IT departments are made either to fill skill-set gaps or to resolve a current or expected over-utilization of existing staff. Once IT determines a need for a new hire, a clear understanding of cost and benefit will facilitate the business case.
	1.1 Assess Skill-Set Gaps Determining the need for hiring is often a difficult decision. Identifying roles and/or skills that are currently unfilled within the enterprise will help to articulate the need for new employees. Use these templates to inventory the existing IT staff and skills within your enterprise and compare them to enterprise requirements. In addition, the IT Staffing Worksheet will give you benchmarks appropriate to your industry and company size to help compare your requirements to that of your peers.	IT Staffing Worksheet IT Skills Inventory Staff Level Allocation	Special Report: Critical Budget & Staffing Trends for 2007-2008 Knowledge Transfer: The Key to a Changing Workforce
	1.2 Measure Resource Capacity Problems An inability to meet human resource demands is an important justification for recruitment. Use these tools to estimate capacity of existing resources and to validate if additional resources are required to meet the existing/expanding workload. There is greater transparency in smaller or less complex IT departments as to how IT employees spend their time. Therefore, these organizations may choose to skip this task.	Maximum Capacity Warning Indicators Evaluating Candidates for Succession Planning
	1.3 Calculate the Costs Recruiting new employees should be preceded by a clear understanding of the full costs of current employees in relation to those of each new hire. This is an exercise valuable to all organizations to help them budget for additional resources. Costs should be estimated based on compensation (salary, benefits, overtime, etc.) and infrastructure costs, including additional hardware, software, administration, and so on. An understanding of the "true" cost of hiring a new employee is necessary for evaluating the ROI of a new hire.	IT Salary Worksheet New Employee Cost Calculator	A Process for Setting IT Salaries
	1.4 Sell the Need After identifying the need for a new hire and the cost of doing so, a formal or informal business case should be completed to document and articulate the justification for hiring. The new hire business case will help to make a more informed hiring decision and a method for communicating the expected costs and benefits of doing so. Additionally, there is an opportunity here to consider the alternatives to hiring (such as more training or bringing in a contractor) and determine the best course of action.	New Hire Business Case Template Position Request Form Comparing Staffing Options: Permanent vs. Contract
Step 2: Finding the Right Employees Bringing new employees into an organization can have positive or negative consequences. Finding the "right" employee implies that the employee is well suited to the role and the enterprise. It also means that the enterprise and role are well suited to the employee. To improve the outcome of the hiring process, start by clearly defining the role being filled. Next, engage in a thorough interview process to learn about the candidates and select the one that is best for the role. Effective communication is essential during the interview process to avoid surprises later. Make sure you are aware of all the important facts about the candidates and, conversely, make sure the candidate is aware of all the job responsibilities and the company culture. By doing this, you will be in a better position to judge if the fit is ideal for both employee and enterprise.
	2.1 Define Hiring Needs The job description is a multi-purpose document. This document guides all internal resources (HR, hiring manager, interviewers) as to what skills to look for. It also speaks to the candidate by letting them know what responsibilities the job entails. The available job description templates are a good starting point for most IT roles, but should be customized further to clearly capture the intended role. Once the job descriptions are finalized, use them to build meaningful job postings for recruitment.	Job Description Template Job Posting Template
	2.2 Interviews Finding the right employees is not an easy task considering how little time is spent with prospects before hiring decisions are made. These tools and templates will prepare you to learn about the potential hire, communicate key information about the role and the company, and document your impressions of candidates.	Interviewing Guide Interview Documentation Form Checklist for Checking References	Info-Tech's Guide to the Interview Process
Step 3: Hiring and Onboarding As the saying goes "you only get one chance to make a first impression." The onboarding process ensures that the employee is given all the tools needed to do the job and is an opportunity to impress upon the new employee a sense of the organization and importance of the job. The hiring component of this section is centered around the legal aspects of new hires -- formalizing the contractual obligations of the new employee and the enterprise. Start off on the right foot by setting clear terms and conditions of employment. Ensure that the onboarding process is quick and painless for the both the enterprise and the new employee.
	3.1 Contract and Employment Agreements These agreements, an essential part of the hiring process, outline the contractual obligations of both the employee and the employer. These agreements all start with the communication of basic terms of employment between IT and HR.	Job Offer Request Form Sample Job Offer Letter Employment Agreement IT Contract Template Letter of Agreement Template
	3.2 Onboarding As the saying goes "you only get one chance to make a first impression." The onboarding process ensures that the employee is given all the tools needed to do the job and is an opportunity to impress upon the new employee a sense of the organization and importance of the job. The hiring component of this section is centered around the legal aspects of new hires -- formalizing the contractual obligations of the new employee and the enterprise. Start off on the right foot by setting clear terms and conditions of employment. Ensure that the onboarding process is quick and painless for the both the enterprise and the new employee.	Welcome E-Mail Template New Employee Orientation Checklist New Employee IT Resources Request Form
Step 4: Employment Management Employee management concerns the setting of clear policies and expectations for current employees. Policies cover both typical day-to-day activities and atypical work methods. While it is expected that employee behavior falls in line with these policies, employees will not be expected to read and memorize them -- more often than not, policies will be treated as reference materials. From a legal perspective, it is important to clearly define acceptable employee behavior so that policies may be referenced where expectations are less intuitive.
	4.1 Protect Company Intellectual Property An organization must recognize and be prepared for the eventuality that employees will move on. As such, it is important to mitigate the cost and risks of employee departure by maintaining applicable confidentiality and non-competition agreements for all employees, contractors, or organizations that work for your enterprise.	Confidentiality & Non-Disclosure Agreement Non-Compete Agreement
	4.2 General Policies These policies include the myriad issues that affect an employee's daily activities, including travel, overtime, Internet use, and more. While some of these policies will apply common sense and others will be communicated naturally through company culture, it is important to document them, to clarify any ambiguities, and to reflect the enterprises values.	Employee Manual Employee Status Change Policy and Form Travel Expense Policy IT Overtime Policy Employee Reference Provision Policy IT Employee Code of Conduct Internet Acceptable Use Policy E-mail Acceptable Use Policy Telephone and Voicemail Acceptable Use Policy Removable Media Acceptable Use Policy Password Policy Time Off Request Form
	4.3 Alternative Work Policies Many enterprises offer employees alternative hours or locations for working. These templates will provide guidance for articulating the parameters for alternative work methods.	Flextime Policy and Agreement On-Call Policy and Agreement Telework Policy and Agreement
Step 5: Retention There can be a high cost to losing employees. Regular employee satisfaction surveys will highlight the organization's strengths and weaknesses as an employer. Setting an action plan based on these results should improve your ability to retain key employees. Also, by reacting to employee needs, not only do you retain key employees, but you also increase overall satisfaction levels, which can improve employee productivity.
	5.1 Departing Employees Policies for managing departing employees capture the complexity of the off-boarding process. Formal processes for departing employees are intended to maintain security, learn from departing employees, recover all company issued property, and meet all legal obligations.	Employee Departure Checkout Checklist Exit Interview
	5.2 Departing Employees By calculating the cost of employee departure, the enterprise can prioritize retention efforts accordingly. A high cost of employee departure makes employee retention all that more important.	Total Cost of Turnover Worksheet	How to Keep Information Management Staff from Defecting Reduce Turnover through Diversity Management
	5.2 Keep Employees Happy Employee satisfaction positively correlates with employee retention. As such, it is important to have a clear picture of employee satisfaction and to devote efforts to improving areas where satisfaction levels are low.	Employee Satisfaction Survey	Help IT Staff Navigate Technology Change

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Steps		Tools	Related Research
Step 1: FastTrack HR Management Practices This FastTrack Tool is a simpler, less rigorous approach to completing the program. Nonetheless, FastTrack addresses the fundamental elements of the program and is expected to support your efforts to improve the IT function. FastTrack is intended for organizations who have reasonable, simple and straightforward IT environments. Because it is simpler, FastTrack is an accelerated program, designed to be completed in a short period of time.
	1.1 FastTrack Activity	HR Management Practices FastTrack