Finance companies have to deal with a lot of admin work. As your business grows, you've got to find new ways of dealing with regulatory compliance, internal controls, record keeping, and client communications.
Things are the same in the HR department. Your HR team has to operate within a complex framework of local, state and federal regulations, each of which has its own unique documentation and reporting procedures. These regulations can include employment laws, tax regulations, and financial industry-specific rules.
This is on top of all the other day-to-day HR admin tasks, such as benefits and payroll management, handling employee queries and concerns, and overseeing training programs. When your company grows, your HR team needs to grow with it, which can be challenging with limited resources. Without the right HR resources, your company's growth could hit a bottleneck.
But the good news is that there is a way to lift this burden off your team: Foundational HR outsourcing.
How does foundational HR outsourcing work for finance companies?
Foundational HR includes all of the day-to-day tasks generally performed by HR administrators. By outsourcing these tasks to a consultant, you're not just handing off work; you're gaining a partner with extensive experience and knowledge who will work alongside your team and provide the support and guidance you need.
Your Foundational HR consultant can help with every area of HR admin, including:
1. Staffing
Foundational HR consultants can manage the most time-consuming parts of finding the right people for your team. Their duties might include:
- Candidate sourcing: Posting vacancy advertisements on job boards and dealing with responses.
- Candidate screening: Performing basic checks to ensure candidates meet basic requirements such as experience, qualifications, and employment eligibility.
- Interview scheduling: Arranging an interview schedule that suits both candidates and stakeholders. Your consultant can also deal with candidate communication, ensuring they fully understand the process.
- Offer management: Communicating offers to the candidate and answering questions about benefits, salary, or other Total Rewards.
A smooth hiring process can do more than just fill vacancies. It can enhance your company's reputation as an employer of choice, particularly in the highly competitive financial industry. Your HR consultant will support hiring managers and help ensure an outstanding experience for new hires, fostering a positive and motivated workforce.
2. Learning and development
Organizing training is one of the key duties of the HR team, and it's particularly important in the financial sector, where employees need to stay up-to-date with the latest regulations and industry trends. Your consultant can help with:
- Onboarding: Create an outstanding first impression for new hires, leading to higher engagement and lower staff turnover.
- Compliance training: Ensure the team is up-to-date on essential training, such as regulatory compliance, cybersecurity, and best practices.
- Professional development milestones: Help employees follow individual development plans by facilitating access to the appropriate training resources.
Learning and development play a big part in reducing staff turnover and ensuring that your financial institution has the skills and knowledge needed to stay competitive. Your HR consultant will ensure that everyone gets the L&D support that suits their career goals.
3. Payroll and benefits administration
Your employees will always need HR support for their salary and benefits, even if you provide an automated self-service portal. An HR consultant can help with tasks like:
- Payroll queries: Deal with employee questions and work with the payroll team to resolve any urgent issues.
- Enrolment changes: Respond to queries about changes in benefit enrollment. If an employee is eligible to make changes outside of the enrolment window, an HR consultant can help process their request.
- System administration: Perform everyday tasks on the benefits administration platform (or other HRIS system). This can include updates, data imports, and running reports.
Issues with payroll and benefits can have a massive impact on the employee experience and can also lead to compliance issues in the heavily regulated financial sector. Your HR admin team should be able to handle any problems before they become a big deal.
4. Employee relations
The Human Resources department often acts as the conduit between senior management (who create policy) and employees (who have to follow policy). This is particularly important in the financial sector, where policies and procedures are heavily influenced by regulatory requirements. HR consultants can help here by:
- Handling employee queries: Employees may sometimes need to talk to someone about company policy or to report HR issues such as harassment. Foundational admins can act as the first point of contact and escalate to the HR manager if required, ensuring that all issues are handled in compliance with financial industry regulations.
- Team communications: Consultant HR admins can help communicate new HR policies to the team, particularly when those policies relate to changes in financial regulations. They can also help local managers figure out the best way to communicate with their direct reports.
- Exit interviews and stay interviews: Exit interviews are a vital tool for increasing staff retention, which is a key challenge in the financial sector. Your Foundational HR consultant can conduct exit interviews—or run stay interviews with your incumbent team—to help identify areas for improvement in your employee experience.
Your HR team plays a key role in making your employees feel valued, respected, and seen, while also ensuring compliance with financial industry regulations. The right HR consultant will help you deliver a consistent employee experience that meets the unique needs of the financial sector.
5. Documents and record-keeping
HR operations can involve an awful lot of paperwork, particularly in the heavily regulated financial industry. Your HR consultant will understand vital record-keeping issues such as:
- Compliance: You may need to produce reports to prove that you meet regulatory requirements, such as SOX and FINRA rules. Your HR consultant will help ensure that you always have accurate personnel records and help keep you compliant with employment laws and financial regulations.
- Reporting: The HR department can be a rich source of internal data about your business performance. A great HR consultant can help you analyze this data and compile metrics that are relevant to the financial industry, such as employee turnover rates and compensation benchmarks.
- Safeguarding: HR consultants understand the importance of security and confidentiality, which is particularly critical in the financial sector where sensitive customer data is involved. They will handle all documents discreetly—and flag up any potential security issues.
Failure to keep adequate records can have serious consequences, including fines and lawsuits. In the financial industry, these consequences can be particularly severe, with the potential for regulatory action and reputational damage. A great human resources administrator will ensure that your files are always in order and that you are fully compliant with all relevant regulations.
How can outsourced HR help finance companies?
The financial sector is subject to a high level of scrutiny from both regulators and customers. Everyone on your team needs to be professional, knowledgable, and trustworthy.
When it's time to grow your HR team, you might not be in a position to hire full-time, or you may not have the time to train up a new staff member. HR outsourcing gives you access to a skilled HR professional who can work flexibly according to your needs.
Having the right HR resources in place is good for:
- Employee experience: Your HR administrators deal with employee queries while administering the things that matter most to your team, such as benefits and payroll. Getting this part of the employee experience right means higher engagement and lower staff turnover, which is crucial in the highly competitive financial sector.
- Compliance: A Foundational HR consultant will understand the regulatory requirements you have to follow. They'll ensure that you have all the paperwork you need to avoid fines and lawsuits, which can be particularly damaging in the financial industry.
- Talent pipeline: Foundational HR admins play a vital role in every stage of the talent pipeline, from recruitment and onboarding to training and professional development. They ensure that you always have the team you need to stay competitive in the fast-paced world of finance.
- Internal communications: A great HR admin team can help bridge the gap between management and employees. They'll help spread the word about policies and best practices, and they'll be on hand to answer questions as they arise, which is essential for maintaining a positive company culture in the financial sector.
As you can see, having access to skilled HR professionals is vital in the financial industry. If you don't have that kind of team in-house, you can flesh out your team with an outsourced Foundational HR consultant.
How to get started with Foundational HR Outsourcing
Need some expertise on your team? Reach out to Helios HR today and speak to our team of veteran HR consultants.
