HR Compliance

Personnel Forms

A healthy inventory of personnel forms can simplify your company's HR requirements. Here are some of the common personnel forms you'll need to streamline HR in your small business.

Managing your company's employees is one of the most important things you'll do as a small business owner.

If you're lucky, you'll have a small team of dedicated HR employees; if not, you'll have to handle HR yourself. Either way, the task of personnel management needs to be handled in a consistent and systematic manner.

Standardized personnel forms are an efficient way to handle many of your company's HR requirements. But maintaining an updated catalog of personnel forms is more than a matter of convenience. A lack of uniformity in employee-related forms and policies can have legal ramifications if it exposes your business to claims of employment discrimination.

Although it would be nice to have a template for every HR form your company will ever need, some forms will have to be researched and developed as the need arises. Yet there are several human resources forms no business can live without.

• Employment Application. An employment application is a seminal document in the employee-employer relationship. It should contain data fields that are designed to gather contact data and other information you are legally allowed to request during the hiring process.
• Employee Handbook Form. All employees should receive a copy of the Employee Handbook on their first day of employment. Since the handbook contains mandatory policies and procedures, employees should acknowledge receipt of the handbook with a signed, Employee Handbook Acknowledgement form.
• Job Descriptions. Updated job descriptions accurately describe the expectations and responsibilities for every position in your organization. A standard format makes it easier for supervisors to create job descriptions and for employees to understand the criteria that will be used to assess their performance.
• Time Sheets. Non-salaried employees need time sheets to record and report their work hours. But your HR and accounting departments also need them to fulfill reporting requirements for payroll and other purposes.
• Expense Reports. Standard expense reports create a uniform reporting process for employee expense and mileage reimbursement. These reports should be accompanied by a system that ensures timely filing and fraud monitoring.
• Performance Reviews. Performance review form templates force supervisors to maintain consistency throughout the review process and protect your business from the application of discriminatory employment practices.

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