Overwhelmed as a New HR Manager: How Do I Build an HR Department from Scratch?

Dear Friends,

I have recently joined a new company which did not have an HR manager.

I joined as Manager, Human Resources & Training.

This new company has managed to work without a proper HR dept since it started 4 months back.

Now I need to handle Recruitment, training, talent management, performance management, training, as well as ER (general HR in all areas).

Since the day I joined, I had to formulate the appointment and offer letter with terms and conditions, which was easy.

I have provided enough input regarding employee benefits, including retirement benefits, in just 3 days and other regulatory details.

Since my 2nd day of employment, I have a huge target of filling more than 300 positions and also doing background checks to ensure the new hires will remain in the company for at least 2 years.

Surely, you can understand the complex situations I have to deal with while conducting interviews to ensure I am getting the best talent for my company.

But the Director of the company does not understand why I need to spend so much time with the right candidate to ensure that candidates are reliable before extending an offer.

In the process, as I am the only HR Manager with one assistant, I have no time to look into other HR areas. I need to formulate policies and procedures as I am hiring, which at the moment I am managing.

But I am finding it hard to organize the rest of the HR functions, even if I am willing to delegate responsibility, no one has the competency to accept it.

I am not used to working under an unorganized environment, especially when the employer has not formulated policies and procedures.

Can someone please provide me advice if they have handled everything from scratch to implementation? Any practical advice will be highly appreciated.

Warm Regards,

Rahul Rao

Hi Rahul,

No need to worry about the same. Can you please answer my few questions so that I can help you in a better way?
What does your company do?
What was your earlier experience?
Are you handling it alone or with a team? (If yes, what is the team size)

Look, the basic HR functions include selection, recruitment, appraisals, grievance handling, employee satisfaction, retaining employees, etc. I can help you out. I am an HR professional.

Regards,
Deepali

Hi,

I just read your email. My advice to you is, don't be so short-tempered; you are an HR personnel. You need to handle situations with care and due respect. If your reaction is like this, then I am sorry to say you will lose your self-respect and confidence.

Regards,
Fay

Dear Deepali and Fray,

I apologize for my hasty conclusion and rude comments.

Deepali, you asked me a few questions regarding the company I work for, and the answers to your questions are mentioned below:

The company I am currently working for is a local call center handling outsourced processes like telemarketing of products/services such as telecom, personal loans, credit cards, insurance, and mortgages.

I have 5 years of experience in customer service related to credit cards, loan processing, and car insurance.

I also have 2 years of experience in Human Resources across various verticals such as talent resourcing (hiring process), training and development (talent management), performance management, payroll and compensation, as well as employee relations. My most recent HR experience involved managing all verticals as mentioned above for Client Cisco Systems as a Vendor HR manager. With Cisco, all HR policies and procedures were well defined.

With my new employer, I am the only HR manager with one assistant who has no HR experience.

I hope I have answered your questions to your satisfaction.

Currently, I am working in an environment where the new company has NO HR policies or procedures defined or organized as it was with Cisco.

My detailed queries are mentioned in my initial request I made through this portal.

I am eagerly looking forward to constructive and practical solutions from HR professionals like you.

Warm Regards,

Rahul Rao

Hi Rahul,

Nice to hear from you.

Don't lose heart. I am mentioning some of the basic roles of an HR Manager in an international Call Centre:

- Conduct Performance Appraisals and confirmations as per schedule.
- Calculate and disburse quarterly incentives.
- Offer suggestions and support in creating retention strategies.
- Plan and organize rewards and recognition events.
- Organize different research projects related to personnel functions.
- Provide support in conducting manpower and compensation surveys, and more.
- Give presentations, trainings, or facilitate meetings related to the above-mentioned tasks.
- Continuously analyze development areas based on attrition rates, productivity, and CSMM scores.

Apart from these, here are some additional suggestions to enhance the work:

Ask your junior to conduct interviews for fresher candidates (up to 1 year of experience) to assess their communication skills, while you can personally interview experienced candidates. This way, communication skills can be effectively evaluated.

Involve someone in technical support to conduct technical interviews.

Create standardized formats for offer letters and interview letters, with only the name needing to be changed each time. Delegate printing and signing tasks to an assistant.

Establish specific interview timing, for example, from 12-3 p.m. Ensure no entries are allowed after 3 p.m., providing ample time to interview all walk-ins by the end of the day and extend offers promptly.

These are some helpful tips for you. Hope they assist you in your role.

All the best.

Deepali

Dear Deepali,

Thank you for the advice.

I am not working in an international call center, it is a domestic call center.

I have done most of the things you suggested. But the problem is, the individual unit managers have a lot of objections to the procedures formulated by me. The only reason is they are lazy to conduct appraisals and submit the appraisal results.

Regarding letting my assistant handle freshers or process managers handle some interviews, I don't know what to say.

They don't want to do it. If I enforce it through the director, the result is so bad... GOD, I hate sharing the result. The director informed me that they have selected candidates with dummy resumes, false experience declarations, and I had to terminate those candidates as the background check contradicted the information provided by candidates.

That is the only reason why the director wants only me to conduct all interviews as I do proper probing and also ask for experience proof and make sure that candidates with false declarations are not entertained.

Besides, my assistant is the company director's relative, and my request to transfer her was not entertained. My assistant does not have good communication skills, and her spoken English is so bad that sometimes good candidates refuse the offer extended because they find the interviewer stupid, hence they presume that the company is third class too.

I still have 300 positions to be filled, which I will manage by engaging a good external consultant, but I don't find time to work on other areas.

I don't even know how to explain how difficult these process managers are... All these days they got away with doing anything they felt like.

Now that I am handling employee complaints, thorough research regarding individual employees' performance shows that their performance results were manipulated by their managers, and bad performers have been projected as the best because these bad performers happen to be related to the individual process managers.

This resulted in strict action from the management, and the employees are happy that I am there to take care of their problems.

But the internal politics and gossiping by other managers are making me sick. I am compelled to be very strict with them as advised by the business partners.

Now I am just stuck with hiring and resolving conflicts. I am unable to find time to design policies and procedures in many of the HR areas, which I feel are absolutely essential.

I need time for my family too and my 2-month-old daughter too. I guess the only solution is to give my best efforts with very limited resources. I cannot explain the complexities of this company.

Thanks for the reply. I feel a lot better.

Regards,

Rahul Rao

Hi Rahul,

I can understand your problem as I have also gone through that stage.

In that case, you can do:

1. Take an approval from the director for HR Executive (Operations), and select a candidate who is proactive and has very good communication skills. You can even recruit a person from any consultancy (with HR experience) or hire one who is pursuing an MBA.

2. If you are planning to hire an external consultant for recruitments, give them the task of first shortlisting. Inform them that you will only interview those candidates whose profiles have your comments and whose resumes bear your company's stamp. This will streamline half of your work.

3. Regarding internal politics, this is a part and parcel of private companies, especially call centers. It is rare to find a place with 0% politics.

4. You mentioned family members of superiors working in the company. As an HR Manager, you can formulate a policy stating that no two members of the same family can work together. This will help reduce office politics, provide fair opportunities for deserving candidates to grow, and enhance the company's reputation in the market.

5. Do not hesitate to implement this policy as it is quite common nowadays.

All the best.

Deepali

Dear Deepali,

Thank you for your support and ideas. I will implement your suggestions with the consent of the director. Thanks a lot once again.

Warm regards,
Rahul Rao

Dear Deepali,

I have just joined CITI HR. I read about what you have suggested for the fresher in HR. I have just joined an International call centre as an HR professional.

Thank you for your advice.

Manish Kumar

Transitioning to an HR Role: Seeking Guidance

I'm working in a private company engaged in animal feeds as an Accounts Executive for one year and performing well in my role. Now, I have been offered a position in HR, as I am interested, even though I have limited knowledge in this area since my background is in accounts. Can you please suggest how I should start in this new role? I am looking for guidance on basic knowledge, maintaining statutory registers, policies, and other essential aspects.

In our company, there is no dedicated HR department; all HR matters and payslip handling were previously managed by one of the directors who is now frequently traveling and not physically present in the office.

I have reviewed your site, but there are numerous topics, and I am unsure which ones are crucial for me to focus on. Could you please provide a brief overview of labor laws, HR-related topics, required returns for the financial year along with their due dates, and the forms that need to be submitted to the Labor Department, ESI, EPF, and PT, among others? Additionally, I would greatly appreciate any sample calculations, filled forms, or returns that you could offer.

Thank you.

Regards, [Username]