SharePoint and the F.O.S.H. Life – Human Resources (part 1 of 4)

F.O.S.H. Stands for Finance, Operations, Sales and Human Resources and denotes four areas in an organization where SharePoint can have an immediate impact. SharePoint is a tool that can be tailored to any business to enhance communication and automate repetitive business processes within and across departments.

One real life example from the “H” in F.O.S.H. is the employee life cycle. SharePoint can be used to streamline all of the Human Resources processes while enhancing communication between HR and other departments - from the moment a position is requested until an employee leaves the company.

Open Position
When a manager realizes the need to open a position, s/he should consider answering the following questions: Why is this position open? What are the qualifications you are looking for? Who approves the opening? Who will be involved with candidate selection? And who will this position report to?

Using SharePoint, the position requisition process can be streamlined. When a manager recognizes the need to fill a position s/he can submit a request that goes through an automated approval process. The approval process follows a defined routing system so that the appropriate people can authorize and approve the new opening. When the requisition is fully approved the hiring manager and the staffing department are notified and the hiring process can begin.

Resume Tracking
Once the position has been approved and the hiring manager has worked with Human Resources to create the position description, there is the daunting task of tracking and managing the resumes for that position. Using the email enabled library functionality of SharePoint, resumes can be sent directly to SharePoint for management - either by the internal staffing department or by applicants themselves (i.e. open.position@yourcompany.com). The hiring manager and HR will have one central location to manage all of the resumes for that position. They can work together to sort and categorize the resumes, schedule interviews, as well as track the effectiveness of the resume sources over time.

Employee Onboarding
After an employee has accepted a job offer Human Resources needs to coordinate with other departments to ensure that everything is set up for the new employee upon commencement of employment. This whole process can be automated using SharePoint workflows.

A HR employee will start the process by filling out a form with the newly hired employee’s information including start date, location, and required equipment. When HR submits the new employee’s information a workflow for each department involved (e.g. Reception, IT and Facilities) will kick off. A predetermined process will be followed notifying each involved department of their tasks and when they need to be completed. When the employee arrives on the first day of work, everything is set up and ready. After the employee has completed orientation, s/he receives a SharePoint generated email with links to important pages on the site.

One week after the employee’s start date, s/he receives an automatically generated email containing a link to a SharePoint survey. This survey asks them information about the effectiveness of the onboarding experience and allows employees to help improve the process via the feedback provided.

Employee Records Management
A typical HR department has standard documents, such as offer letters and all new hire forms, that are used for all employees. These document templates can be stored in a central location and easily used for employees by incorporating SharePoint Document Sets.

When a document set is created, a folder is made to house all of the similar documents. By creating this folder, security can be used to ensure that only HR, the employee’s supervisor and the employee have access to these documents. This creates a single, secure location for all employee records.

When a new document is added to the document set, a workflow can automatically start to streamline the business process related to that document. Example: An Employee Reprimand Letter is created by a manager. The manager reviews the letter with the employee; the employee acknowledges, in SharePoint, that they have read it with the manager and this document is then stored in the Employee Record.

Employee Off-Boarding
When an employee exits a company for any reason, there are a series of steps that must be taken to close the loop. IT needs to cut off access to systems and receive back any assets the employee has had. HR needs to conduct an exit interview and make the necessary adjustments in the Human Resources Information System (HRIS). Facilities may need to clean up the employee’s cube or office. All of these tasks can be automated through SharePoint workflows while tracking all documentation in the Employee Record.

The employee lifecycle is but one of many areas in which SharePoint can enhance work flow and management of business processes within an organization. This blog post is the first in a series of four on the advantages of SharePoint within the F.O.S.H. areas. Future posts will discuss how SharePoint can improve and streamline business processes and communication in the fields of Finance, Operations and Sales.

Written by:
Josh Jackson, Senior SharePoint Consultant
FMT Consultants, LLC

Posted by: Jakob Bechgaard