HR mistakes in personnel documents: an anti-rating of HR decisions

No company with at least one employee can operate without HR administration. But because this process does not directly affect profit, it is the last thing anyone looks at. This leads to difficulties during inspections, fines and labor disputes.

For example, according to the Supreme Court, in 2021 it considered200 thousand caseson protection of labor rights; 96% of claims for payment of wages were upheld and 53% of claims for reinstatement at work.

Not automating

Of course, the first place goes toautomation, or rather its absence.

Let us look at a few examples:

1. Developingan employment contract templatein 1C:ZUP takes 2-4 hours, while preparing a single employment contract by hand takes 30 minutes. A configured template pays back the time spent after just 8 contracts. But the main thing is that there will be fewer errors.
2. Forprocessing sick leavean HR specialist has to get the sick leave certificate from the employee, enter the data into the Social Insurance Fund and calculate the payment. In 1C:ZUP this process is fully automated: information about incapacity for work can be received directly from the SIF and the employee's data pulled in immediately. And if sick leave overlaps with vacation, the system flags it at once.
3. Keepingtime recordsin a paper log or an Excel spreadsheet will inevitably lead to errors, especially in manufacturing companies with hundreds of employees. The Timesheet Portal module in 1C:ZUP can be synchronised with access control systems, so data on an employee's attendance flows into the system automatically. The system also compares the reference and main timesheets and shows discrepancies.

Automation reduces the workload on the HR department, saves time and cuts errors.

Working on an old version of 1C:ZUP

Support for version 2.5 of 1C:ZUP CORP is limited until 2023; after that, statutory reporting forms will no longer be updated in the system in line with legislation. That means all changes will haveto be written in manuallyby the developers, creating workarounds for the program.

In other words, you will have to migrate anyway, but we do not recommend waiting until the last moment.

Moving to 1C:ZUP 3.1 is a fairly long and complex process, especially if there are many customisations and add-ons for the company's business processes. But the costs will pay off, because version 3 works more correctly - for example, you can run cross-checks.

In our experience, moving to the new version can solve up to 80% of HR administration problems.

Not using employee self-service portals

After the pandemic many companies never returned to office work, but they did not adapt HR administration to remote work either. So to apply for leave or sign documents, employees have to go to the office, which is not always convenient or possible.

A self-service portal isa portal where an employee can download certificates, agree vacation and business trips, update personal data and generally communicate with the HR department.

If the HR EDF module is connected, the self-service portal almost completely eliminates paper document flow, simplifies control over the return of documents and reduces the workload on HR staff

Giving HR administration to an accountant or payroll specialist

In small companies HR document flow is added on top of the workload of a payroll specialist, an accountant or even HR specialists who handle recruitment. This is usually done when there are not enough tasks for a dedicated HR administrator.

But combining functions is not the answer, because proper HR administration is complex, time-consuming work that requires expertise. It is better to hire an HR administrator part-time or consider outsourcing.

Not running HR audits

Companies are required to undergo a financial audit, but there is no such requirement for HR administration. Yet you never know when the labor inspectorate will come.

It is better to prepare and initiate an audit in advance: independent experts will check whether your document flow complies with current legislation.

When it is especially worth considering an audit:

• HR administration was kept to a minimum for a long time, for example because no specialist could be found;
• there was a series of redundancies and conflicts arose with dismissed employees;
• changes in legislation were not checked or taken into account for several months.

Not keeping military records

Keeping military records is mandatory, but according to our data only a quarter of companies do it.

Yes, the military registration office cannot block an account like the tax authority, but it can initiate a prosecutor's inspection. Fines for mistakes in military records used to be small, but now they are growing.

It is tedious and complex work, because military records are kept by the place of registration of your employees, so one HR administrator sometimes has to deal with a dozen military registration offices. But we guarantee thatkeeping military records regularly is much easierthan gathering all the information at once before an inspection.

This is one of those tasks that makes the most sense to outsource.

Not analysing the possibility of moving to outsourcing

To calculate the benefit of outsourcing, it is not enough to compare an in-house salary with the cost of services. For an in-house specialist the company pays contributions, provides a workplace and spends time and money on development. So if you compare the cost of an HR administrator with the cost of outsourcing, you cansave up to 20% a month.

Plusan in-house employee cannot know all the nuances, for example how to act in complex dismissals. An outsourcing company solves HR tasks regularly and has refined its processes across hundreds of projects - calculations will be accurate and on time.

Summary

The main mistake in HR administration isnot optimising processes and turning a blind eye to violations. When a company has no uniform rules for completing documents, no expertise in HR administration and no one tracking changes in legislation, this will sooner or later lead to problems. After all, salary and other payments are calculated from HR documents, which affects the company's overall profit and employee satisfaction.

We understand that you cannot fix everything at once, but try to fix at least one item, and gradually you will get HR administration in order inside your company.

Author:Natalia Alenicheva, director of the payroll and HR administration outsourcing department at UCMS Group, has prepared an anti-rating of the decisions companies most often make in HR administration.

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