VIRTUAL HR SERVICES

VIRTUAL HR SERVICES

INTRODUCTION

VirtualHR was founded in 1996 and is a national provider of payroll and human resource services in Singapore. Since its inception, VirtualHR has supported local enterprises, MNC regional offices and government-linked companies in the financial services, infocomms, logistics, public transportation, biomedical and tourism sectors.
VirtualHR started with offering simply payroll services – making it easy and affordable for companies to outsource their payroll processing

VirtualHR added human resources services to its payroll processing to meet the growing demands of its clients. Today, VirtualHR’s most popular services include payroll, leave admin, benefits admin, claims admin and developing employee handbook and HR policies.

By working with VirtualHR, companies achieve the following key benefits :

• Increased agility in meeting business needs
• Instant access to expertise
• Reduced fixed overheads
• Best-sourcing objective is attained

SERVICES TO:

Business Owners

Paying employees is more than just handing out a pay cheque. Business owners need to know an employer’s obligations. VirtualHR assist owners with understanding their obligations and help business owners to set up the necessary CPF, Salary Crediting Account and Income Tax systems.

Regional Offices & SMEs

Regional Offices and SMEs often pass the HR responsibility to their Office Managers and Accountants. These individuals, on the other hand, find it a challenge to meet the demands of this extended responsibility as their core role would have already been overwhelming, especially in a growth environment. Yet, hiring one HR or payroll person may not address the needs as there will be the challenge of hiring a person with a combination of attributes and issues of continuity in the event of absence and resignations. Investing in HR technology and support infrastructure would also mean capital investments and maintenance costs.

To meet the multi-faceted needs, VirtualHR works with regional offices and SMEs to act as their HR Manager, HR Specialist and provide HR technology. All these services are provided on a need-to basis, which means fixed overheads and capital investments are minimised. They only pay as they use.

Growing Enterprises

Enterprises which are poised for tremendous growth often need resources overnight. HR Departments in growing enterprises are often overstretched with various HR projects and initiatives. Day-to-day operations tend to compete and distract these HR Directors, Managers and Executives.

VirtualHR comes in handy to complement the internal HR team, supporting the internal team in operating the routine tasks, extensive record keeping and processing. The most effective tasks to outsource are :

• Payroll Processing
• Leave & Benefits Processing
• Employee Claims Processing

Industry Associations

New and small industry associations often need a professional secretariat to support its growth, until such a time a full time Secretariat Office can be justified.

VirtualHR acts as the Secretariat Office for various associations and professional interest groups by supporting the following activities:

• Act as the contact point for the statutory boards and members
• Update membership database
• Invoicing & Collections
• Organizing meetings & conferences

Accounting Professionals

Many accounting professionals end up with payroll responsibility, as part of their extended accounting services. To enable these professionals to focus on their core services, VirtualHR offers a variety of services of special interest to accounting professionals and their clients.

• On-Line Payroll System
• Payroll Processing
• CPF Submission
• Income Tax Preparation.

SERVICES

CONTRACT OF EMPLOYMENT

A contract of employment is an agreement between an employer and an employee. The employees rights and duties, and those of the employer are called the ‘terms' of the contract.

The contract doesn’t have to be in writing, but employees are entitled to a written statement of the main terms within two months of starting work.The contract is made as soon as you a job offer is accepted and both sides are then bound by its terms until it’s properly ended (usually by giving notice) or until the terms are changed (usually by mutual agreement).

Written statements

Employees must get a ‘written statement of employment particulars’ setting out their main terms of employment. The statement must include things like pay, hours, holidays, notice period, discipline & grievance procedures.:

HR AUDIT SERVICE

The HR Audit service from Virtual HR Services involves an on-site audit of a company’s HR processes, procedures and policies with a HR Consultant. This would involve a short meeting with the most relevant manager(s) and the requirements at looking any current policies and a sample of a personnel file.  We will go away and work on a complete report which will be delivered back to the business within seven days.  The report will help the employer to understand weaknesses in their HR processes and give them an action plan on how to improve them. 

The HR Audit service is aimed at small and medium-sized companies to help them understand where their vulnerabilities lie and make valued recommendations based on facts. 

INDUCTION

Every company that employees staff, should have an induction programme.  Designing an appropriate and cost-effective induction package can be a difficult task.

What is an induction for?

The purpose of induction is to ensure the effective integration of staff into or across the business for the benefit of both parties.  Research has shown that tailor-made induction programmes increase staff retention.

A good induction programme contains the following elements:

• Orientation (physical) - describing where the facilities are.
• Orientation (organisational) - showing how the employee fits into the team and how their role fits with the organisation’s strategy and goals.
• Health and safety information - this is a legal requirement.
• Explanation of terms and conditions and company policies.
• Details of the organisation's history, its products and services, its culture and values.
• A clear outline of the job/role requirements.

What happens without an effective induction programme?

New employees get off to a bad start and never really understand the organisation itself or their role in it. This may lead to:

• poor integration into the team
• low morale, particularly for the new employee
• loss of productivity
• failure to work to their highest potential.

Recruitment & Selection

The implications of not recruiting fairly can be very serious. You may not get the most suitable person for the job and the cost of recruiting again if you make the wrong decisions can be painful.  Also, you may be contravening legislation and be taken to an Employment Tribunal.  A planned approach will help you to select the best person for the and also enable you to justify your decision if required to do so.

Important recruitment & selection activities 
Writing job descriptions and person specifications.
Advertising
Application forms
Shortlisting
Interviewing
References
Eligibility
Unsuccessful applications
Making an offer
Confirming the appointment

Absence Management

Common business questions about managing absence:

• How can I tell if someone is genuinely sick or if they just didn't feel like coming to work?
• Can I dismiss someone when they are sick frequently?
• How do I talk to my employees about why they were away?
• What action can I take to improve the attendance of my employees?

We can show you how to manage absences, both short but frequent and long term.  We can offer advice on managing absence communications, return to work interviews and GP or Occupational Health referrals.
Research increasingly shows that employers who manage attendance save money and improve effectiveness.

HR Policies & Procedures

Why introduce HR policies?

Businesses introduce HR policies for very different reasons. These can include:

• the need to comply with existing or new legislation.
• A desire to develop a more formal and consistent approach to meet their needs as they grow and develop, for example, with regards to flexible working.
• to follow the latest developments in effective people management, for example, wellbeing.
• dealing with internal changes.
• to keep up with competitors, for example, policies may be reviewed in order to attract or retain employees, particularly in a tight labour market.

Each organisation will need policies that are adapted to suit their own purpose and to fit with their sector, culture and structure.

The culture of the organisation and the complexity of the policies will influence how a policy is introduced. For example, when it comes to communication, hard copies could be given to employees or put on notice boards, or 'soft' copies circulated by email or placed on an intranet. The communication process should be tailored to the organisation.

What policies should we have?

The type of organisation will dictate what policies are in place. As companies grow and develop, they need to introduce policies to ensure a consistent and fair approach - and to avoid wasting time by having crises dealt with in an ad hoc way.

Dispute Resolutions 

If you are involved in a dispute or disagreement at work, whether it involves individuals, groups of people, or the whole workforce, we can help resolve it. Our aim is for you to reach an acceptable solution without having to go through any kind of court hearing, such as an employment tribunal.

We can advise on ways of managing conflict and dealing with disputes or act as a neutral third party.

Employment law and legislation items that businesses should know about:

Work and families act
Childcare benefits 
Employing a disabled person
Training 
Pre-employment checks 
References and job offers 
The National Minimum Wage 
Sick pay rights 
Non payment, deductions and payslips 
Performance-related pay 
Contracts of employment 
Changes to employment conditions 
Fixed-term work 
Part-time work 
Flexible working and work-life balance 
Holiday entitlements 
Rest breaks 
Overtime 
Working when pregnant 
Maternity leave 
Parental leave 
Time off for dependants or compassionate leave
Employers' health and safety responsibilities 
Drug testing and employee monitoring 
Workplace stress 
Discrimination at work
Age discrimination 
Sex discrimination
Bullying in the workplace 
How to resolve a problem at work 
Information and consultation of employees 
Grievance procedures 
Mediation, conciliation and arbitration 
Redundancy and leaving your job
Redundancy 
Unfair dismissal 
Retirement

EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK

There are many benefits of introducing an Employee Handbook to a company, or updating an existing one.The main one being prevention - prevention of employee disputes, prevention of claims to an Employment Tribunal and most of all prevention of financial awards being imposed against the Company. 

Start by preparing a list of policies and procedures that the Company is likely to want to rely on, remembering that policies and procedures can always be added at a later date if required. 

Basic policies for an Employee Handbook could be:

Annual Leave

Sickness

IT Security & Use

Company Property 

Discipline& Grievance Procedure 

Drivers of Company Vehicles 

Equal Opportunities Policy 

General Rules 

Health & Safety 

Timekeeping

Dress Code

JOB DISCRIPTION. 

A job description is a list of the general tasks, or functions and responsibilities of a position. 

Typically, it also includes to whom the position reports, key areas of responsibility and general duties.

A job description is usually developed by conducting a job analysis, which includes examining the tasks and sequences of tasks necessary to perform the job. The analysis looks at the areas of knowledge and skills needed by the job. Note that a role is the set of responsibilities or expected results associated with a job.

Business recruitment starter pack

For a very reasonable cost, we can give you the following:

• Application form
• Template job advert
• Interview guide & questions
• Offer letter
• Induction checklist
• Contract of Employment
• Important Policy Pack
• Free advice for a month after you take up this offer.