Human resources administration covers a wide range of responsibilities that are essential for any business. As your business grows, your HR needs become vastly more complicated. You don’t want to find yourself swimming in unfamiliar waters without a lifejacket.

Our previous blog covered four major pillars of HR administration, so this blog will take a look at five other vital areas that fall into this field. 

Employee Performance Management in HR Administration

Performance management is an ongoing process in which your business can measure and improve employee performance. Maybe you need to understand what each employee is contributing, or you want to zoom out to gauge the performance of entire teams. An effective HR administration program will get you the information you need and help lay out a path forward. 

Generally, performance management encompasses performance reviews, goal-setting and tracking, one-on-ones with managers, peer feedback, and rewards and recognition programs. These are all useful tools to assess performance and guide growth. However, performance management can also include the dreaded performance improvement plan. 

Now, perhaps you’ll find that an employee is not performing up to expectations. Even though “performance improvement plans” have a nice ring to them, we find that they often hurt more than they help. ADDA’s HR administrators tend to lean away from fear-based tactics to improve performance. Instead, creating a positive, growth-oriented environment usually pays dividends to your company culture. 

Time Tracking 

If you have hourly employees or contractors, you need diligent time tracking to ensure you’ve paid everyone appropriately. You can break it down into three parts: time entry, approvals, and reporting. Your HR administration team may be working with physical time cards, but software-based time tracking is becoming the dominant method. 

The approvals step is a helpful safeguard to ensure accuracy on timecards for that pay period. After the employee’s manager gives their approval, HR will calculate the total hours, including overtime, for that period. 

Finally, your team will work on reporting, which is another helpful tool. For example, time tracking reporting is instrumental during budget analysis or when identifying compensation discrepancies.

PTO Management by HR Administrative team

When your company offers paid time off for your employees, you will likely want an HR administrator to manage that. Most companies measure PTO in hours, and it includes designations such as vacation, sickness, and personal time. If your company offers unlimited PTO or flexible time off policies, you might track that a little differently. 

PTO is important for your employees’ mental health and well-being which is why it’s also a priority in HR administration. Savvy and considerate employers will encourage their workers to take time off to recharge and return to work as the best versions of themselves. 

However, we must stress that an employee is never required to share why they’re taking time off. Moreover, it’s illegal to require a doctor’s note to prove sickness for a sick day. 

FMLA and Disability Leave

Another HR administration responsibility includes keeping your business compliant with FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993). For example, if your company has over 50 employees within 75 miles, you will need to offer up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to your employees every year. As such, your staff can use FMLA to accommodate life events such as the birth of a child or providing care for a family member with a serious health condition. 

If you work with ADDA Infusion, our team can help you navigate the intricacies of who qualifies for FMLA. We can also provide guidance on layoffs or firings of employees who are on leave or returning from leave.

In a similar vein, we can help your business comply with the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). This act applies to all employers with over 15 employees, and it requires you to provide disability leave and other reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities. Of course, you’ll want to be compliant for legal reasons, but we encourage enthusiasm here. The ADA makes your workplace safer and more inclusive for everyone.

Unemployment Insurance Filing and COBRA

Outside of a few rare exceptions, your company will be paying into State Unemployment Insurance and Federal Unemployment. Quality HR administration gets these taxes paid on time and accurately. Don’t get too down about SUI and FUTA payments because these are tax deductible for employers! 

Another consideration for departing employees is COBRA management. COBRA law requires employers with 20 or more employees to provide continued access to their group health plan if it were to stop. Most commonly, the plan is stopping because that employee is either being let go or leaving for a new opportunity. 

In accordance with COBRA, ADDA will make sure that these workers are aware of this coverage option within 45 days of the qualifying event. From that point on, the former worker would have to pay for the entirety of the insurance package, including what you were previously covered. 

Try HR Administration by ADDA! 

If your business is growing, you don’t have time to waste learning the ropes of HR. You need to be compliant and have your back office up and running as soon as possible! Fill out the form here to learn how ADDA Infusion makes HR administration easy and effective