Organizational Wellness

7 Essential HR Processes for Long-Term Success

Last Updated Dec 9, 2024

Time to read: 11 minutes

Mastering the employee lifecycle is essential for any HR leader aiming to build a high-performing team. From recruitment and onboarding to performance management and offboarding, the core HR processes are the engine that keeps everything running smoothly.

Dive into the seven essential HR processes that power success, along with actionable tips to streamline each one. Whether you're looking to supercharge your recruitment, boost employee engagement, or fine-tune your compensation strategies, these insights will help elevate your HR game and create a thriving workplace!

The Core HR Processes

A winning HR strategy is built on seven core processes that span the entire employee journey — from hiring to offboarding. Mastering each of these areas sets the stage for a thriving, engaged workforce that drives business results.

Human Resource Planning

Human Resource Planning (HRP) is the roadmap to building an adaptable, future-ready workforce. It’s all about forecasting what your organization will need and ensuring the right talent is in place at the right time, ready to take on new challenges as your business grows. This process considers emerging technologies, evolving organizational goals, and the skills necessary to stay competitive in the future.

Key human resource planning tasks:

Workforce analysis: Assessing your workforce and its skillsets can identify potential gaps and prevent your team from playing catch-up down the line.
Succession planning: Developing a plan for hiring and training certain positions ensures you get seamless employee transitions in key roles.
Talent forecasting: Analyzing the market and keeping up with tech trends will predict what you'll need from your staff and help you hire accordingly.

Practical tips for implementing HRP:

Conduct regular assessments to have a clear, updated picture of your employees' skills.

Take advantage of analytics tools for insight into trends and performance metrics.

Offer continuous professional development opportunities to keep staff updated.

Prepare for the unexpected and be ready to adapt to different scenarios — for instance, a sudden shift to remote work due to a global pandemic.

Ensure leadership collaborates at all levels to align everyone with the same goals.

Recruitment and Selection

Once your goals are clear, the next step is attracting and hiring top talent! This process focuses on recruiting the best candidates through diverse, inclusive channels, and selecting those who will add to your your company culture. This is critical, as creating diverse workforce can reduce turnover and improve employee engagement: A lack of diversity can lead to higher turnover rates and lower employee engagement, while recruiting a diverse workforce provides a strategic advantage to companies aspiring to thrive, according to recent research published in the International Journal of Science and Research.

Key recruitment and selection tasks:

Role analysis: Developing clear definitions of various jobs, responsibilities, and qualifications makes it easier to pinpoint who fits a particular role.
Reach diversity: Using multiple avenues to reach and attract prospects — including job boards, social media, and live settings — helps you cast the widest net.
Interviews, assessments, and shortlists: Conducting structured interviews and assessments evaluates skills and helps with shortlisting before making an offer.

Practical tips for recruiting and selecting talent:

Write concise job descriptions that accurately reflect the role and your expectations.

Avoid vague or fluffy language. For example, it's better to say you're looking for a "consistently punctual person" instead of "someone who respects company time."

Use recruitment tools to streamline and make the process more efficient.

Use a mix of channels to advertise and reach your audience. These include social media — TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn — recruitment agencies, employee referrals, and networking events.

Create a standard interview process to ensure fairness and consistency for everyone.

Onboarding and Training

Onboarding is your company’s first chance to make a lasting impression. This is the time where you introduce and familiarize new employees with everything they need to do their job well, including their responsibilities and the company's policies and values. It's a critical point in an employee's time with your company, as 45% of turnover happens within the first 20 days — but an effective onboarding process makes an employee more likely to stick around and be more engaged in their work.

Key onboarding and training tasks:

Orientation programs: Introducing new hires to the company's culture through effective employee orientation makes them feel welcome and prepares them for success.
Skills development: Providing job-specific training and upskilling programs is a way to show your employees that you believe in them.
Mentorship: Matching newcomers with veteran employees via mentorship programs is terrific for naturally integrating new staff into the company.

Practical tips for onboarding and training new employees:

Incorporate interactive content into your onboarding materials to engage new hires.

Offer diverse training and professional development opportunities year-round.

Develop online learning modules as a flexible option when in-person training isn't possible.

Create a feedback system to understand and eliminate the challenges new hires face during onboarding.

Plan fun team-building activities and encourage participation to help integrate new employees into the culture.

Performance Management

Keep your team firing on all cylinders with ongoing performance management. By setting clear goals, offering regular feedback, and focusing on development, this process ensures employees stay motivated and aligned with the company’s vision. Like HRP for forecasting, performance management is an ongoing HR process that aims to continuously improve employee performance.

Key performance management tasks:

Goal setting: Establishing clear organizational objectives and sharing them with the whole team keeps everyone on the same page and sends a message of unity.
Performance appraisals: Conducting regular reviews to assess achievements and areas for improvement is crucial for devising training and support options.
Feedback and coaching: Providing constructive feedback and coaching sessions builds trust by letting employees know you're invested in their development.

Practical tips for managing employee performance:

Outline the goals of your business to create transparency and set the same expectations for everyone.

Schedule a one-on-one meeting after a performance review to discuss the results in person.

Create fair and objective assessments by using measurable performance indicators.

Offer training and career development opportunities based on the gaps you find during performance reviews.

Recognize and reward your best performers for a boost to morale and motivation.

Compensation and Benefits

A competitive compensation and benefits package does more than attract talent — it drives productivity and keeps top performers on board. And you do need to pay attention to both compensation andbenefits, because today's workers won't sacrifice their happiness for a hefty payday: Ninety-three percent of workers consider their wellbeing at work to be equally important to their salary, up from 83% in 2022. This means you need an effective mix of salary, benefits, and perks to create a workforce of employees fully invested creating organizational success.

Key compensation and benefits tasks:

Salary benchmarking: Comparing the salaries and employee benefits against industry standards helps you design and offer the most attractive and competitive packages.
Benefits administration: Managing all benefits — from health insurance to wellness programs — avoids delay or disruption to services for staff.
Incentive programs: Providing bonuses or other incentives and awards for good performance improves productivity.

Practical tips for providing compensation and benefits:

Thoroughly research compensation trends and what your competitors are offering in your industry.

Customize your benefits packages to meet the diverse needs of employees. As a bonus, personalized benefits will also stand out from what everyone else is offering.

Be as clear as possible when communicating details of compensation or benefits policies.

Offer flexible work arrangements as part of your benefits to enhance work-life balance.

Gather employee feedback and follow market changes to adjust your offerings accordingly.

Employee Relations

Strong employee relationships are the glue that holds great teams together. Whether resolving conflicts or fostering open communication, creating a supportive environment helps employees feel valued and engaged, improving performance across the board. With supportive and response systems, you can create an welcoming environment for employees, significantly boosting how comfortable they feel at work. This is mission critical, a staff that feels safe and happy does better work: 95% of workers say their emotional wellness impacts their productivity.

Creating a safe and supportive work environment isn't something you can do overnight. Promoting healthy employee relations takes time, requiring HR to use multiple tactics to diffuse some situations while encouraging others.

Key employee relations tasks:

Conflict resolution: Mediating conflicts and disputes maintains a harmonious work environment free of awkwardness or tension.
Employee engagement: Establishing various initiatives and rewards programs encourages team-building.
Communication channels: Creating open communication channels for feedback signals your commitment to transparency.

Practical tips for fostering better employee relations:

Be proactive and address conflicts early before they get out of hand.
Provide employees with different platforms to voice their concerns or make suggestions. Also, always make sure they have the option of providing feedback anonymously.
Recognize and reward employee contributions regularly.
Show your commitment to diversity by following industry best practices.
Organize fun and original activities — such as a team escape room — to create cohesion.

Offboarding

The way employees leave your organization matters. A well-executed offboarding process ensures a smooth transition, preserves your company’s reputation and enhancing internal knowledge transfer. It can also help in future talent acquisition, as a respectful and smooth offboarding process can even turn former employees into future advocates or rehires.

Key offboarding tasks:

Exit interviews: Doing exit interviews is an opportunity to gather feedback and insights to improve future operations.
Role transfer: Facilitating a smooth transition of responsibilities and knowledge to remaining staff ensures you don't experience any gaps in your operations.
Legal and admin procedures: Handling any final paperwork, including compliance documents and benefits closures, allows the company to legally close the books on a departing employee.

Practical tips for successfully parting ways with employees:

Ask poignant and meaningful questions in exit interviews to gain real insights and improve retention.
Have a clear knowledge-transfer plan and share it with the appropriate people to safeguard critical information.
Commemorate an employee's time at your company. Depending on their tenure and contributions, this could be with a party, present, or other group acknowledgment.
Ensure you handle all legal and administrative tasks properly to avoid future complications.
Strive to part ways on good terms to leave the door open for former employees to become brand ambassadors or future collaborators.

The Role of Technology in HR Processes

Technology has revolutionized human resource management, streamlining processes and boosting productivity. It has the power to enhance engagement, enable data-driven decisions, and streamline core functions. Ways you can benefit include:

Automation & Efficiency

HR technology automates repetitive tasks like payroll, attendance tracking, and benefits management. This minimizes errors, ensures data accuracy, and frees up HR professionals to focus on strategic initiatives. For example, payroll processing can be automated, saving hours for People professionals to provide a more positive employee experience.

Improved Employee Engagement & Development

HR tech offers tools to gather employee feedback through surveys and communication channels. This allows HR to identify issues and enhance the employee experience. Learning Management Systems (LMS) also revolutionize employee development by offering on-demand courses, personalized learning paths, and trackable progress. Employees can easily access training to upskill and advance their careers.

Data-Driven Decision Making

HR platforms collect comprehensive workforce data which is transformed into actionable insights. This eliminates guesswork, empowering HR to make strategic decisions backed by data. HR teams can track important metrics before and after launching new programs to evaluate effectiveness.

Streamlined Recruitment & Hiring

Technology has simplified recruitment with job portals, social media platforms, and applicant tracking systems. Video interviews conducted via video conferencing are convenient and cost-effective. Cutting-edge software helps manage job postings, applications, and candidate assessments all in one place.

Improved Performance Management

Modern HR software automates performance management tasks like goal-setting, progress tracking, and evaluations. This saves time, reduces errors, and ensures impartial appraisals. Real-time data from competency assessments and 360-degree feedback provides valuable insights into employee strengths and development needs.

Strengthen HR Processes with Employee Wellbeing

HR processes like recruitment, onboarding, and performance management are vital to maintaining an effective workforce. But each of these processes can face challenges—skills gaps, high turnover, and low employee engagement all disrupt productivity.

A wellbeing program can help solve these issues by boosting employee engagement and retention across all HR processes. Wellhub's platform can reduce turnover by over 40% and lower healthcare costs by up to 35%, helping your team stay healthy, engaged, and productive!

Speak with a Wellhub wellbeing specialist to learn how supporting employee wellbeing can improve your HR processes.

Company healthcare costs drop by up to 35% with Wellhub*

See how we can help you reduce your healthcare spending.

Talk to a Wellbeing Specialist

[*] Based on proprietary research comparing healthcare costs of active Wellhub users to non-users.