First 90 Days as the new HR Manager: 6 things to cross off your list

You probably know the famous movie line, with great power, comes greater responsibility. This could be as well translated into as the new HR manager, plenty of responsibilities arise.

Before going into details, we want to congratulate you if you have reached this position! Now, you are probably wondering about the steps that should be taken in the first 90 days as the new HR manager, regarding the prerogatives and not the accommodation phase. However, you don’t need to seek further. Below you can find 6 things deemed as essential for the first three months.

•  Understand the business

Except for the case you have been promoted to the new function and probably even then this should be taken into account, one of the things you have to do in your first 90 days as a new HR manager is to understand the business. Not from an “okay guys, so what exactly are you doing here?” point of view, but more from a strategic one. 

The best way to implement this is to go and talk with the C-level and to ask them about their company goals – whether is expansion, revenue increase, involving directly into employees growth or anything else, it’s best to know where the company plans to head, in order to have a clear idea on how to structure your department’s strategy as well.

• First 90 days as the new HR manager should be used to assess your own department

It’s important to know the people you’re working with. To know their skills, their strengths and eventually their gaps. To understand each one’s way of getting things done. 

However, when you plan on assessing your team as the new HR manager, it’s important to start with the right mindset, to know them and to fill any potential skill gaps. Moreover, another thing you should take into account is to set out your expectations of them and to ask their expectations of you. 

• Grasp the HR department by scheduling an audit

We talked in our previous articles what an HR audit is and why it should be scheduled when a new HR manager steps in. An HR audit will help you to have a better overview of the department’s gaps, strengths, policies, processes, technology and strategy. Also draw a clear outline of the current employees, potential issues and ways to overcome them.

• Take the pulse of the company

It is well known that HRs, whether managers or not, are usually social butterflies, with strong communication skills. Therefore, the first 90 days as an HR manager should be used to take company’s pulse.

Grab coffees and lunch breaks with the other department managers, with your team, with employees from other departments. It’s highly important for you to get a sense on how the company culture looks on paper and how it looks in reality. Moreover, this way the team will get to know you and this will probably facilitate your direct communication in the upcoming future.

• Outline a clear strategy

You don’t have to create the perfect strategy within the first 90 days as an HR manager, but you should take into consideration the idea of outlining one, at least. This way, both you and your team members will know where to allocate the resources and what should be set as a priority. However, this should be done after you grasped the company’s pulse, understood the company’s overall strategy, assessed your team and ran an HR audit.

• Enjoy

There might be more or even other priorities that need to be taken into account in your first 90 days, but the thing you have to remember is to enjoy what you’re doing. After all, the beauty of working in the HR field is that new challenges are always around the corner. 

Also, if you’re looking to get the best synthesized. relevant and applicable information that is crucial for an HRM in his first 2 years of work, you should consider attending our  HR Management Essentials course. The course takes a practical view that integrates the contributions of the behavioral sciences with the technical aspects of implementing the HR function in the real world.
Register now and you’ll get early bird access and 10% of the full price.