I am looking for information and guidance on the setting up of an HR Portal- what should be its purpose and what all should it contain?
From United Arab Emirates, Dubai
An HR Portal is (or at least should be) a comprehensive information source for employees giving them on demand access to HR related information such as policies, processes (that can be shared vis-a-vie process documents / manuals), self help templates and resources, links to important URLs (again mainly HR related) and other general HR news in the org.
Like any other normal portal you would have main pages and content within them. The style a portal takes also depends on the capabilities of the developer. However generically, there would be main pages such as Career Development, Benefits (which may be further split as health or financial), Compensation, Learning, payroll, recruitment and maybe other resources, depending on the intensity and volume of information under each head.
A few pointers to head out good HR information systems:
  • Consider using modules which sub sections main heads of information.Example use a module to illustrate various kinds of health benefits available under a single head that says "HEALTH BENEFITS". This way employees can better identify info where it belongs.
  • Always use a quick resource bar somewhere on the page (where its well visible) to quick launch important resources directly or indirectly related to the main content on that page. (E.g. you could have a quick link to ER payouts on the employee referral page coz its that employees are most interested in)
  • Use a CMC (Content maintainance cycle) to regularly update and upgrade content. Ensure that it's always up to date and meets current state Especially contact person, SPOC info, locations, fine adjustments in policies, forms and templates which can be critical and may be regularly changed per the org requirements. If we try to randomly maintain content it may result in haphazard operation and important things may be missed in the process. Rather have a time related system wherein particular gets upgraded once every say, fortnight. However this is a subjective mechanism. When others come to you, make sure those updates happen quick but regularly go back to the portal and check particular content.
  • Always try and invent new heads of information. Ways to do this are consultation with HR Reps, employee feedback, an analysis and metrics of prior queries raised by employees. Such information will help us understand whether information is lacking / inadequate or incorrect and appropriate action may be initiated.
  • Use graphics / pics, if possible, to make pages more interesting and enhance readability. Introduce a top hits / quick links section on the main or home page to help in fast and easy access to information. Also, keep information optimally located under the right head , sub heads. Create new subheads if required. Example under financial benefits create separate sections for statutory (PF, gratuity) , Stocks, ESOPS, Tax Savings policies / funds etc.
  • Try if possible to link your portal to the company intranet to import important news items / HR news / or any other general news you deem fit to be hosted. Ensure a moderator is in control at all times though. You could use RSS feeds for this.
  • Use a powerful search capability / engine. Many employees are lazy to navigate to information, even if its optimally locate. So a good search function goes a long way.
Last but not least, implement a feedback mechanism on the portal itself for anyone and everyone to opine. You'd be amazed at the extent of opinions got. Things you probably never had even thought of !!
The end result is to run a system wherein all employees can access anytime, anywhere (helpful when employees use VPN / WFH a lot), .
There is an endless ocean of ideas you could implement. Consider a separate page for HR / Managers to give them access to manager self service tools / or HR to process documents and manuals / forms etc. or whatever. ! HR Portal implementation is FUN !

For any queries on HR Portal deployment, maintainance feel free to get in touch.

Regards
Joshua.

From India, Delhi
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