Why HR Needs a Content Hub and How to Get Organized to Make It Work

Last Updated: December 16, 2021

Between employee handbooks, benefits guides, handouts, and compliance documentation, just to name a few, there’s no question human resources is required to manage a lot of content. But you’re already busy with your day-to-day tasks and managing drafts and dozens of files isn’t the most productive way to spend your time.

The content management process for human resources is broken. Documents are scattered, files are hard to access, draft confusion is an issue, collaboration is difficult, and getting content approved is cumbersome.

Moving documents between shared drives, email inboxes, and desktops can lead to lost drafts and wasted time as employees search for documents or can’t access content that is “stuck” on someone else’s computer.

Research shows that employees spend only 40% of their workday on their primary tasksOpens a new window . Why is that? They are bogged down with emails, online chat, wasteful meetings, and yes, searching for information.

Add to all of this the fact that business is becoming increasingly global so HR regulations are changing faster, requiring frequent document revisions and updates. As a result, you have a chaotic mess of unorganized content.

Things need to change!

Organizing all your documents in one, centralized location will free you up so you can stop sifting through files and start spending your time on high-value tasks instead.

Creating an Effective HR Content Hub

This process will help you manage all three components of intellectual capital — people, work, and content — all in one place, enabling you to easily manage all parts of the content’s lifecycle.

Focusing on the four stages of the content lifecycle will help you transform your unorganized, ineffective documents into a content library that supports more productive work.

Create

With the right tools, all of the training manuals, recruiting materials, and handouts you create can automatically be added to your content library. By unifying your digital content creation tools with your content hub, you make communication and distribution of content much more efficient.

A streamlined process should allow you to upload assets so that employees anywhere can instantly access it. This means no one will waste time waiting for an email with information or for someone to upload a document to a shareable location. Everything will be managed in one place, so it’s always ready to be used.

Find

With unorganized content comes information silos. Documents get buried in inboxes on and individuals’ computers, making them inaccessible to everyone else and information isn’t communicated efficiently.

Ted Sapountzis, VP of marketing at Numerify, says that HR silos can be detrimentalOpens a new window to an entire organization:

“HR silos can have a significant business impact, as all other departments are affected by enterprise-wide HR policies and practices. In a silo, the HR department does not receive information that could be valuable in finding solutions to complex HR problems, and the solutions produced may be unnecessarily disruptive to operations.”

Use your content hub to break down these silos. Organize things the way that makes sense to your teams so people can find the exact content they need when they need it. Implement a single, searchable system that allows employees to use categories to keep things organized and findable by everyone so your solutions — in the form of content — are beneficial rather than disruptive.

This is especially vital for global businesses where employees need to be able to access documents from several locations. Your hub should be user-friendly enough that everyone can use it to find what they need with little or no training.

Use

The content you manage isn’t effective if the intended audience can’t use it. Collect and organize your content so peers, leaders, partners, and customers can access it quickly. Employees who can access the content they need precisely when they need it are empowered to do their best work.

A content library should connect digital assets to people, actions, and processes that run the business. This is where the true value of content becomes evident — when silos are broken down and otherwise forgotten content becomes usable again.

Set up your library so that it includes all the essential documents and expiration dates that will keep everyone on the same page strategically. Greater consistency and better version control is one of the biggest benefits that comes with an organized content library.

Focus

Your content hub needs to have the ability to help you manage your work so you can decide what content needs to be created based on past performance and current needs. It should allow you to compare the time and cost needed to create content so you can make informed decisions for future assets.

Being able to monitor when and how content is being used, downloaded, and shared will give you invaluable information that will help shape your future content creation plans.

It’s Never too Late to Start

With all the HR content you have already created and that already exists in multiple locations across your organization, you may be feeling like you’ve missed your chance to get organized. But it’s never too late to implement a content library that organizes existing documents and makes it easier to create and manage future assets.

It can be overwhelming to start, but by focusing on the four stages of the content lifecycle — create, find, use, and focus — you can organize existing content and put in in place processes for future content that will make it possible for employees across your entire organization to work more efficiently.

Also Read: Why Work Management and Not Project Management is the Future of HROpens a new window

Laura Butler
Laura Butler

SVP People and Culture, Workfront

As Workfront’s SVP of People and Culture, Laura is responsible for creating and reinforcing a culture that the most passionate, innovative, and customer-focused talent wants to be a part of and has spent the last 20 years shaping global talent management strategies for Fortune 500 corporations. Laura has received multiple awards and industry recognition for her work in diversity and inclusion including Diversity Inc. Top 5 Utilities, 2016 ERG Above & Beyond Award for PG&E Woman’s Network, Human Right’s Campaign’s Best Places to Work and the #14 spot on the Training Top 125 in 2017 for strategic leadership development. Laura has been recognized as a global thought leader in Human Capital Management and was named to the San Francisco Business Times Most Influential Women list. The White House also recognized Laura, resulting in an invitation and face-to-face meeting with former Vice President Joe Bidden, for her work focused on veterans.
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