How healthy is your HR function?

Area 1 of 10 · HR Structure

How is the HR responsibility held in your organisation today?

• Nobody owns it — people issues are handled as they arise.
• The founder or a manager handles it alongside another full-time role.
• One person or a small team owns HR, without a defined remit.
• HR has a defined remit, reporting line and an agreed plan for the year.

Area 2 of 10 · Employee Documentation

What employment documentation do your staff actually have?

• Most staff have no written contract or offer letter.
• Some have letters; terms vary from person to person.
• Everyone has a contract, but records are scattered and out of date.
• Every employee has a current, consistent contract and a complete file.

Area 3 of 10 · Policies & Procedures

Where are your HR policies written down?

• Nowhere — decisions are made case by case.
• A few rules exist informally, communicated verbally.
• We have policy documents, but staff are not familiar with them.
• A current handbook is issued, acknowledged and applied consistently.

Area 4 of 10 · Recruitment & Onboarding

How do you hire and settle in a new employee?

• We hire through referrals when a need becomes urgent.
• We advertise, but there is no defined role profile or selection method.
• We use job descriptions and interviews; onboarding is inconsistent.
• Defined role profiles, structured assessment and a planned onboarding period.

Area 5 of 10 · Performance Management

How do people know whether they are performing well?

• There is no formal performance conversation.
• Feedback happens informally, usually when something goes wrong.
• We run appraisals, but objectives and measures are unclear.
• Agreed objectives, regular reviews and a documented outcome for each person.

Area 6 of 10 · Compensation Practices

How is pay decided in your organisation?

• Individually negotiated, with no reference points.
• Roughly based on what we paid the last person in the role.
• We have salary bands, but they are not reviewed against the market.
• Defined structure, reviewed against the market and applied consistently.

Area 7 of 10 · Employee Relations

How are grievances and disciplinary issues handled?

• We deal with each situation as it comes, with no set process.
• Management decides case by case; little is recorded.
• A process exists but is not always followed or documented.
• A defined, documented process is followed consistently, with records kept.

Area 8 of 10 · Compliance

How confident are you that your people practices meet your statutory obligations?

• We have never reviewed this.
• We think we are broadly compliant but have not checked.
• We have reviewed some areas; others are unclear.
• Obligations are documented, reviewed periodically and evidenced.

Area 9 of 10 · Workforce Planning

How far ahead do you plan your people needs?

• We hire when we are already stretched.
• We plan a month or two ahead when budget allows.
• We plan annually, but the structure is not mapped to the plan.
• Roles, structure and headcount are planned against the business objectives.

Area 10 of 10 · HR Technology & Processes

What do you use to run day-to-day HR administration?

• Paper files, chat messages and memory.
• Spreadsheets maintained by one person.
• Some HR software, used for part of the process.
• A system of record that managers and staff actually use.