SharePoint for HR - Business Agility · 2018-03-13 · process can be overwhelming for line managers and the HR deptarment. With SharePoint, you can automate the review process to

A Business Agility Guide

SharePoint for HR

Business Agility is expert in the delivery of solutions built on Office 365 and SharePoint.

We build solutions to both the common and the uncommon. This can be anything from:

• Intranets, Document Management Systems, workflow processes

• Migrating you to a new version of SharePoint

• Planning your information architecture around SharePoint

• Hosted SharePoint, SharePoint Online and Office 365

• Building industry-specific solutions

Table of contents

• SharePoint and HR..................................P4

• Common problems in HR management...........................................P5

• Leveraging SharePoint for the HR Department................................ ............P7

• GDPR, data security and HR................P9

• HR Reporting - leveraging Power BI..................................................... .................P15• Conclusion ..............................................P16

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Business Agility Consulting Ltd

All organisations are different, but what’s most important are the people. Some companies will have large Human Resources departments, some will have very small departments, and some may not have a dedicated team at all. In many cases, HR managers can find lots of processes to be cumbersome and arduous.

What should be simple tasks such as holiday/leave requests, candidate databases etc. are the tasks that take huge chunks of time out of the day. SharePoint has lot of functionality to alleviate HR staff of headaches.

This guide goes into detail on how SharePoint can be instrumental for HR purposes. It’s one of the most secure platforms out there for sensitive information (great for the GDPR coming up in May this year), it can be tailored exactly how you want it, and you might already have access to it if you use Office 365.

SharePoint and HR

Common problems in HR managementInformation Architecture

Issues such as cash flow, competition, and revenue growth are top of mind for small, medium and large business and their teams. Along with these challenges comes another area many companies struggle with: human resource management.

#1 Compliance with laws and regulationKeeping up with changing employment laws can be a struggle, not to mention data protection regulation around personal and sensitive information.

#2 Management changesOver time, organisations grow, develop, and introduce new strategies and processes. Periods of change can impact the workflow – affecting productivity and morale.

#3 Workforce training and developmentInvesting in the training and development of lower-level employees is another common HR problem. Some businesses have trouble finding the resources to do so. Employees on the front lines are some of your hardest workers, and may not have the time to take a training course.

#4 Adapting to innovationTechnology is constantly changing. Businesses must be quick to adapt, or risk being left in the dust by their competitors. The challenge for business owners is getting employees to embrace innovation and learn new technology.

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#5 CompensationMany companies struggle with how best to structure employee compensation. Small businesses have to compete not only with businesses of a similar size, but also with corporations with larger payroll budgets. Plus, you have to factor in the cost of benefits, training, taxes, and other expenses, which can range from 1.5 to 3 times the employee’s salary.

#8 Understanding benefits packagesGood benefits packages can be the deciding factor for potential hires, understanding them and illustrating them is key.

#9 Recruiting talented employeesAttracting talent is a huge investment of time and money. It can be difficult to balance between keeping a business running, and hiring the right people at the right time. In addition, it’s tough to evaluate fully whether a candidate will actually be a good fit until they’ve worked for you for a period of time.

#10 Retaining Talented EmployeesCompetition for talented employees is fierce and employee turnover is expensive and can negatively impact business growth.

#11 Workplace DiversityMultiple generations. Ethnic and cultural differences. These are just a few of the many factors that make workplace diversity a continual challenge for businesses.

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SharePoint has many advantages, several of which will make life so much easier for HR professionals (and overlapping departments they may work with). There is a lot of functionality within SharePoint that can eliminate communication breakdown, and encourage productivity, efficiency and collaboration – crucially, lowering the cost of HR!

The following information in this guide has been put together by our SharePoint team to help highlight various areas where your investment in SharePoint can be maximised by HR.

HR / Departmental Collaboration Because of the Cloud-based functionality, it’s very easy to have several people collaborate on the same system simultaneously. SharePoint is a hugely collaborative platform, and is built with multiple users in mind. Some companies may have quite large HR departments, or departments that need access to the same software (e.g. finance and HR needing the same level of access to holiday/payroll information). HR departments can’t work well if they’re not able to overlap from time to time – if they do overlap, SharePoint’s cooperative ability can help with this.

Mobile Workforce Enablement With more users working flexibly, having access to software from a mobile device is hugely helpful. Whether it’s end users trying to book holiday on the go, or administrators updating the system from home, SharePoint’s mobile-efficient interface can make your processes much easier. It makes the platform more adaptive to the ways in which your users choose to work. Restrictive platforms only slow things down – which is the last thing a fully functioning HR department needs!

Leveraging SharePoint for the HR department

HR

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Custom views for different HR usersWith varying levels of users needing different amounts of access to the platform, customisation functionality is important. SharePoint’s platform is extremely flexible depending on users’ needs. Payroll administrators will need access to different information than recruitment managers. This is all available with one platform. SharePoint can enable a ‘one size fits all’ workplace, if this suits your organisation.

Leverage other Office 365 apps for HRIf you have access to Office 365, then you’ll have access to SharePoint. The great thing about this is that you’ll be able to integrate other Office applications in with your SharePoint HR platform. For example:

• Synchronising Outlook can eliminate communication errors and encourage workflow and productivity• Enabling Microsoft Flow can automate many mundane HR tasks• Power BI can support more robust employee reporting• Employee usage dashboards can illustrate productivity on systems• Forms can be integrated with other application making the collection of information even easier

HR governance - Enforcing policies and procedures Governance is immensely important to HR managers. There are large amounts of highly sensitive data swimming around in different locations, and it can be difficult to monitor everything. SharePoint is built with security and governance at its forefront. HR administrators and managers don’t need to worry about security risks if the system is set up properly. All of the governance functionality comes straight out of the box, so once again there’s no coding required; just initial set up and regular reviews post-set up. All you need to do is make sure your permissions are up to date. You can ask SharePoint to send you a notification when this needs reviewing.

A common problem that challenges most governance plans is a high volume of emails and messages flying around. Staff can become inundated with communications, and many of these messages just end up lost/deleted/overlooked. Inevitably, HR managers then spend more time chasing employees to complete a task (fill in a form, confirm training has occurred, etc). And if there are different versions of a document (such as a policy) it can be difficult keeping up with what’s the most recent and who edited it.

SharePoint can take these HR headaches away.

SharePoint allows the document/policy/record/piece of content to come to you, rather than the other way around. Instead of constantly emailing employees about where to find the latest policies, SharePoint can enable the content to ‘pop up’ on a users’ dashboard. When this happens, they can be prompted to fill it in and send it back.

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GDPR, data security and HR

What is the GDPR?GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation and it is a new law that will replace the EU’s existing data protection and privacy regulation. It was agreed in April 2016 and will come into force in May 2018. The GDPR will apply to all companies that process personal data of European Union (EU) citizens. Individuals will be able to request a copy of all personal data held by a company that relates to them as an individual and have the right to have their personal data erased from the records of an organisation. An individual must explicitly agree to a company retaining personal data relating to them. Brexit will not influence the GDPR in the UK.

SharePoint can help you become GDPR compliant regarding employee data management and control. Whether you’re using Office 365 on-premises or in the Cloud, there are secure ways to ensure your data is well-governed and compliant.

Using SharePoint for Data Security and ProtectionData security is one of the most prevalent aspects of the GDPR. To be able to store data securely and to have suitable permissions to certain data will help you ensure you’re compliant. As you now know, SharePoint is an exceptionally collaborative platform – where you can co-author documents at the same time as well as freely share documents internally and externally.

These features sound great when it comes to enabling productivity in your organisation; however, they come with substantial risks too. It can be as simple as sharing a link to a document that wasn’t meant for the recipient, or allowing someone to co-author a document that they weren’t supposed to have access to. This is how data breaches start, and unless you have stringent policies and procedures, your data isn’t 100% safe and secure.

Luckily, you can flexibly administer a level of control to your system; setting permissions and access abilities. If you’re an administrator or owner of a library, list, or survey, you can change permissions to let the right people access the data they need data while restricting others.

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It’s important to have policies in place for when people leave your company and what data they may still have access to. Be sure to remove access permissions of their internal accounts. Remember: if you have data in the Cloud, it can be accessed from anywhere – so an employee doesn’t have to be on company property to be able to access it! Removing permissions is just as simple as adding them in. It’s also a good idea to check the permissions on a regular basis, just in case.

There are things of course that as a company you need to address internally – and that’s the processes of your employees. How much data do they have access to? How easy would it be for them to breach internal data and share it externally? If an employee suddenly downloads an entire list of potential clients, how long until somebody realises and can do something about it? SharePoint can of course help you with notifications and permissions – but work processes need to be addressed on a wider scale first.

Automate Employee ReviewsSome organisations conduct reviews more regularly than others. If they all come around the same time each year, the process can be overwhelming for line managers and the HR deptarment. With SharePoint, you can automate the review process to ensure reviews are performed on time. You can ask SharePoint to tell you when a review is due as well as set permissions so employees can see their review (and nobody else’s!)

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Employee onboarding, offboarding and trainingHiring and dismissal processes can be difficult with many steps to each stages and manual tasks involved. SharePoint can help with this entire process.

There are hundreds of candidate/CV databases out there for HR managers to use. Many find it useful to have a database for this within SharePoint. Usually because they’re already using SharePoint for many other tasks and having databases like this all in one place can be really useful.

The process from candidate to employee can be a complex one, involving several departments. You can create collaborative checklists in SharePoint to make sure the process is streamlined. The same can be said for dismissing an employee, or generating other important paperwork such as disciplinaries.

When an employee starts at a company, there are many boxes that need ticking when it comes to orientation. In SharePoint, you can easily set up an ‘e-learning’ site. When you input a new user, this kickstarts a workflow which will give them access to the area, and display a list of ‘outstanding tasks’ for them to complete. Using Microsoft Stream (an app within Office 365 for videos), you can link up training videos to this area and after they’ve been watched, give your new starters a test on said video. Below is an illustration of an e-learning area we’ve set up as an example.

Offboarding is a similar structure. When an employee hands in their notice, an ‘end date’ can be entered into the system and workflows can be triggered. For example, an email can be sent to IT letting them know that they can reclaim any kit.

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DisciplinariesDisciplinary processes can involve multiple people, and can be time sensitive. When a grievance is raised, it can trigger another standard workflow. This means all grievances are treated in the same way in a timely manner – which is really important. You can manage the entire process from one place and have peace of mind that the right people will be informed at the right time.

Employment Offer letter generationCreating Offer Letters can be an arduous administrative task. It’s not a job where you want to automate absolutely everything as the information in each letter can be different.

However, when most of the content in the letter is the same when offering a position to a candidate, SharePoint can be helpful. You can do this by setting up templates and when you need to generate an offer letter, you can just fill out the custom fields such as salary etc. then the letter can be generated for you. This can all be done with the workflow functionality built-in to SharePoint (so no coding required!)

Employee SearchSharePoint’s search functionality is second to none. Being able to find people in the organisation is important, and many Intranets may already accommodate this (especially Intranets powered by SharePoint!) – however if you’re using SharePoint already, this is a function that’s worth taking advantage of. You’ll be able to use SharePoint’s search function to look out policies, procedures and everything in between. Organisational charts are another aspect of SharePoint that many HR managers find useful; especially in big companies. (This is something we’re often asked to put together for our clients). Timesheet systems

In large companies, timesheets can be difficult to manage. When lots of staff work different hours (and not just part-time vs. full-time) it can be challenging to keep track of all the information.

SharePoint can create timesheets from a basic level up to the most complex working hours. Using workflows already built into SharePoint’s functionality, you can create timesheets and the

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approval on them too. Basic timesheets don’t need any code and come straight out of the box. More complex timesheets will need some configuration from a SharePoint professional, but it can be tailored exactly to your working needs.

You’ll see there are third party apps available for timesheets that work with SharePoint, however these are created by developers who may restrict certain aspects that you need to be able to do. With the right configuration, SharePoint can create the timesheets you need.

Managing leave, sickness and holiday requests

Several types of requests need dealing with daily for HR managers. It can be a demanding task but as it’s time sensitive it cannot be put off. SharePoint can help with leave requests by automating much of the process and making sure the right people get notifications once the request has been made. One of these ways is by using workflow in SharePoint as well as Microsoft Flow.

Microsoft Flow, (an app available in the Office 365 suite) is a useful automation tool that can take the arduous, manual admin processes out and help boost productivity. Large companies will find that manually managing leave and sickness requests takes a lot of time and effort. Microsoft Flow can help automate this process. What’s more is that Microsoft Flow is right out of the box – very little development is needed.

SharePoint can generate a workflow when a request is made. The request will be sent to the correct person(s) and they can then approve/deny the request. When this is done, a notification will be sent to the requester – and a calendar item can be created in their Outlook.

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Managing Absence/Sickness Workflow in SharePoint can also be used to record sickness. When a manager notes someone as ‘absent’, a workflow can be generated to record this. An HR administrator who looks after this area within SharePoint can receive a notification, and the person who’s absent can also get an email to confirm the process. In fact, the person who was absent can receive an email with a link to the Employee Sickness Form so they can fill it in, kicking off a sickness approval workflow.

All this information can be pulled into reports within SharePoint too – we’ll go into more detail about reports in this guide.

HR Reporting - leveraging Power BIAll departments in a company have their own ways of compiling reports. It can be a frustrating process gathering all of these reports and making sense of them. SharePoint has a few tricks you can utilise to maximise the benefit of the platform. If you currently find reports difficult to acquire and time consuming to analyse, SharePoint and Office 365 can help.

If you use Office 365, you’ll have access to Power BI. HR information is highly sensitive, and Power BI is a tool that can help ensure the right information is reported in a simple manner. It’s basically a ‘data dashboard’ which can display what you want using varying criteria. Whether you want to display staff turnover, information from the appraisal process, or holiday and sickness statistics, Power BI is built to do this for you.

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Mobile-friendly reportingDepending on your device, Excel can look awkward and clunky on mobile (especially larger, in-depth files). The beauty of Power BI (and the Cloud) means devices of all kinds will be able to see Power BI’s dashboard with ease. Once you have a dashboard created you can access it from almost any device.

The web app is great for displaying and editing reports from the desktop. The iOS and Android apps allow you to use your reports on the go. For those who are after something with enough features to write a book on then there’s the Microsoft Power BI Desktop, where you can model, transform, and visualise your data to your heart’s content.

Unlike Excel, Power BI is hugely visual. This is why it partners so well with Excel. You can input all your data into Excel as normal and get Power BI to pick it up and display it in a visually appealing dashboard – which makes it great for presentations. Nobody wants to look at a spreadsheet in a presentation!

Managing Absence/Sickness Speed up collaboration on reports (multiple users editing at the same time)SharePoint allows real-time co-authoring among Office 365 apps. So. instead of playing email tennis with several other editors of the document, you can make changes in real-time as well as seeing what changes other people are making to the document too. This feature may be simple, but it’s brilliant for productivity boosting in the HR team!

Search your dataThe search function on Power BI allows you to ask questions of your data, rather than your data presenting you with lots of confusing information. For example – if you need to know how many employees were off sick in the last year, you could call on Power BI’s search function to tell you right away.

Turn on real-time reporting!You can stream data and update dashboards in real-time – all in a visual way. Power BI is designed for collaboration and ease of use. If you a lot of data that needs updating instantly, you can do it with Power BI.

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ConclusionIt’s common for many HR personnel to have various systems to do different things. Because of this, each system can become convoluted and clunky. Many tasks are time-sensitive such as appraisals or employment offer letters, and generating documents for these can take a considerable amount of time and effort.

With SharePoint and Office 365, headaches can be solved. SharePoint is a platform where you can automate processes, have access to them from any device anywhere, and most importantly securely store your information.

If you’re collaborating with other departments, SharePoint is great and accommodating this. Its built-in reporting system can assist with generating reports for example and relay everything in a convenient and attractive way.

When it comes to security, HR is a department where the protection of employee information is its highest priority. SharePoint’s permission functionality supports this. There’s no special setup needed and it auto-hides everything unless you have permission to see it. People can have access to the ‘salary review’ area, but not all the documents inside if you wish – or, if they don’t have access to that area at all, it won’t even appear as an item in their view. This is helpful for both the impending GDPR in May 2018 as well as best practice for data protection within the organisation.

HR professionals can benefit hugely from SharePoint and the other applications in Office 365. The integration of these applications with SharePoint brings everything into one place with no third-party involvement. Depending on the structure of your organisation, SharePoint can be configured exactly how you need it to be. The workflows that come out of the box mean you don’t have to worry about complex coding to get the system set up either.

As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we’re expert when it comes to everything SharePoint. If you’d like some more information about SharePoint (whether or not you already have it!) get in touch and we’ll be more than happy to give advice.

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Contact us for support and [email protected]

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Business Agility Consulting LtdSpirella Building

Bridge RoadLetchworth Garden City SG6 4ET

01462 470 [email protected]

Documents

SharePoint for HR - Business Agility · 2018-03-13 · process can be overwhelming for line managers and the HR deptarment. With SharePoint, you can automate the review process to