Essential Process

Templates for
Human
Resources
Human resources is a huge job. That’s a given. HR teams need to cover a lot of ground.

More-so than many other departments, HR teams have a lot of repetitive processes to go through. This
means that inefficient processes quickly add up to a lot of wasted time.

Imagine the cost and time savings (not to mention frustration savings!) that could be achieved by
improving on and automating these processes.

It doesn’t have to be hard. You don’t need to improve all your processes to make a serious impact. All
you need to do is improve upon 3-5 key processes and your business will see serious time and cost
savings.

That’s what this guide is about. We have taken some of the most important processes that HR teams
regularly use, and refined them into efficient, automated workflows.

We’re always looking to further improve our processes, so if you have any ideas (big or small) we would
love to hear from you.

Thanks,

Jon Kalaugher
Founder & CEO
 Contents
4. APPLY FOR LEAVE
6. ADVERTISE AN OPEN POSITION
9. ONBOARD & INDUCT A NEW
EMPLOYEE
 HR Processes Apply for Leave
Leave requests are one of the most common processes within an organization. For this reason, they are a great
place to start with process improvement. Even small improvements here can save the business thousands of
hours a year.

1. 5.
2. 3. 4.

1 Submit Request Initiator

The trigger for starting this process is the employee
initiating the request. You will want to capture all the
required information about the request at this step,
eliminating any back-and-forth later in the process.
Consider things like:
• Type of leave (annual, sick etc.)
• Dates requested
• Whether leave in advance is required
• Whether they will be contactable

2 Check Employee Leave Balance Payroll

Upon submission of the request, the Payroll team
will provide the first approval. This is simply to check
whether the Initiator has enough leave accrued. This
should be a basic Approval or Rejection.
If “leave in advance” was requested, Payroll can approve
the request and leave a comment for the Initiator’s
Manager to see in the next step.
 Check Team Calendar for Clashes
3 Initiator’s Manager
The next step in the process is the for the Initiator’s
Manager to check for any calendar clashes within
their team and either approve or reject the request
based on this.
Depending on your organization size and structure,
you may find that you have no difficulty covering a
staff member’s absence, or that you need to arrange
cover during this time. These are things for the
manager to consider at this step.

4 Approval Email Notification

Once the leave has been approved or rejected, an
automated email can be sent to the initiator to inform
them of the outcome.

5 Update Payroll Records Payroll

The final step of the process sits with the Payroll team.
This is just a reminder for them to confirm that the
leave has been recorded in their payroll system and
that any shared leave calendars have been updated.
One of the key benefits of managing this through a
workflow platform is that you can ensure this process
is not marked as complete until all required steps are
done.
 HR Processes Advertise an Open Position
The process of writing a job description and advertising a position is often fraught with issues. Without a clear chain of
communication, both the recruitment team and the advertising manager can be left extremely frustrated.
This process helps simplify the chain of communication, and leaves everyone clear on their responsibilities from end-to-end.
It is also a great way to open everyone’s eyes to the exact requirements of advertising a position.

2.

1. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

1 Gather & Validate Role Requirements Manager

The trigger for starting this process is the manager gathering and
validating the requirements for the role. At this step you will want
to provide the HR or Recruitment team with a basic overview
of the position. Keep it simple, with only the most pertinent
information being captured.
Consider things like:
• The position title
• Their direct manager and associated team/department
• The estimated remuneration
• Whether a position description exists (plus optional attachment)

2 Write a Position Description Manager

Based on the selection of the previous step, a position
description may or may not need to be written. If not, the
process can move straight onto the next step. If a position
description has not been provided, the manager will be
required to write one.
This is an essential step to keep all jobs hires consistent and
well-documented across the entire business. No position
description = no new hire. This ensures that everyone retains
responsibility for their parts of the process.
3 Approve Vacancy Details Human Resources
The next step is for HR to read over the provided information
and ensure that they have everything required to advertise
the vacancy. This step is simply to make sure the details are in
order.

Prepare Vacancy Advertisement

4 Human Resources
Now that HR has all the required information, they can
write the advertisement and decide on the best channels to
advertise through. Most organizations will have a templated
job advertisement, so it is a matter of taking the relevant
information from the previous steps and applying it to the
template.
If you were using an automated workflow here, you could
simply have a checklist outlining the requirements, along with
an attachment for the advertisement.

5 Approve Advertisement Wording Manager

Before the job advertisement is posted, the manager will
want to have a read over the wording to make sure that 1)
it describes the position correctly and 2) it will appeal to the
people that they are looking to recruit.
This will be a simple approval or rejection step. If the wording is
rejected, the manager can make notes and the process would
loop back to the previous step. From here HR would review
the notes, make the requested changes and re-submit the
advertisement for approval.
6 Post Vacancy Advertisement Human Resources
Everything has been approved and you’re ready to advertise!
This step is simply letting Human Resources know that they can
now advertise the position.
Adding instructions in this step will be appreciated by the
whole team. A quick step-by-step guide for advertising on each
channel will maintain consistency, ensure that nothing is missed,
and speed the process up as a whole.

Run the “Hire a New Employee” Workflow

7 Manager
Here we can see how you could link this process together with
other processes or workflows to create an end-to-end process
for recruiting and onboarding a new employee.
Once the vacancy has been advertised, the next logical step
would be to progress to the hiring process. This would then
follow on to the onboarding process.
Best practice when undertaking process improvement is to
break larger processes down into pieces and then link them
together. This ensures that no steps are missed and allows you
to analyze and refine processes easily. It will also give you a
better understanding of potential bottlenecks or issues within
your processes.
 HR Processes Onboard & Induct a New Employee
A quality onboarding experience is the single most important step to getting a new staff member to an operational level
quickly. Sadly, this is a process that many organizations only pay lip-service to.
If you’ve been lucky enough to join a company with an exceptional onboarding experience, you’ll know just how powerful
it is. The benefits are endless. Better understanding of company culture. Improved grasp of responsibilities. Increased
performance through better training. Decreased time to becoming fully operational.

5.

1. 2. 3. 4. 6. 7. 8.

Send Welcome Email and Request New

1
Employee’s Details Manager
What better way to kick-off the new employee’s experience than
with an email welcoming them to the company! This is a great way to
introduce them to the company culture and set the tone for what they
can expect going forward.
Use this opportunity to request the employee’s details, such as their
tax details, superannuation info or their working visa. This will save
you more time on their first day.

Complete New Employee Basic Information

2
Manager
Once the manager has the employee’s basic information, they
can collate it into a standardized form for the HR team.

When building this process, it is the responsibility of the HR

team to outline exactly what they require to process a new
employee. If it’s not outlined in the process, the manager will
not know what is required.
 Approve Employee Paperwork & Enter in HR
3
System Human Resources
This step is where the HR team enters the provided details into
their systems. The first action is to check that all the requested
details have been entered correctly. If not, the process can be
sent back to the manager to fix.

We use a combination of a task list and an approval in this

step. This could be split into two, however the best processes
are nice and simple. This creates no unnecessary wastage and
less admin.

Prepare Employee’s Desk and Laptop

4 It Services
Now that the basic information has been covered, it’s time to
setup the employee’s tool-of-trade. IT can simply come in and
follow a quick checklist outlining what the employee requires.
A handy addition to this step would be a quick video on desk
ergonomics!

Optional extra: Some companies may require a stack of

software to be setup for the new employee. If this is the case,
additional fields can be used to inform IT of the required
software. This removes the hassle of back-and-forth emails
over logins during the first couple of weeks.

5 Issue New Employee Items Administration

It’s now Day 1 of the employee’s new job and they require
some basic items to become a fully-functional employee.
Things you might want to include here:
• Mobile phone and charger
• Security door key
• Swipe card
If you’re more advanced with your processes, you would link
this up with your employee exit process. This would allow you
to mark off these items as returned at the end of employment.
 6 Complete Activities by End of Week 1
New Employee
As we all know, the first week at a company can be a bit of a
blur. Most organizations have a standardized approach. This
step of the process should be a simple checklist, where the
employee can check off that they have been introduced to the
team, gone through an H&S induction, had their photo taken
and more.

Complete Activities by End of Month 1

7
New Employee
The key to an effective onboarding is having specific timings
and goals. It is important for the manager to set aside time to
understand how the employee is tracking and to give them
feedback and coaching. Many businesses have their new
employees spend time with different parts of the company.
The end of month 1 is a great time to get together and review
the key takeaways that the employee has had in their first few
weeks. This step may include a review of what the employee
has learned and opportunities for company improvement that
they have seen with fresh eyes.

Complete Activities by End of Months 2 & 3

8 New Employee
By now the employee should be progressing to an operational
stage. This is a good chance for the employee to review their
learnings and sit down with their manager to evaluate their
progress. It is important to capture feedback at this step.
This will help management understand the effectiveness
of the onboarding process, and whether it requires further
improvement.
We hope that we’ve got your minding turning over all the possibilities
for improvement in your own HR processes. You may have found that
these processes are readily applicable to your own organization. Or
they may give you some ideas on building your own processes from
scratch.

If you would like to start on your process improvement journey, get in

touch with us today.

Flowingly is a beautifully simple process mapping and workflow

automation platform. Trusted by 100,000+ users at innovative
companies around the globe.

flowingly.io