How to create a Human Resources Site in SharePoint

In this tutorial, I explain to you step-by-step, how to create a functional and attractive Human Resources Site in SharePoint Online. No matter what the size of the organization is, you always have to store and organize HR content and present it to your employees. In this video, I explain some decisions you have to make along the way, along with detailed instructions on how to build a Human Resources Site from scratch.

👉 Continue learning more on this topic, by watching this video:    • How to create an Intranet in SharePoint  

⬇️ Here is a related blog post for you to read as well: https://sharepointmaven.com/how-to-cr...

00:00 - How to create a Human Resources Site in SharePoint
04:38 - Step 1: HR Private vs. HR Employee-facing site
08:46 - Step 2: Separate HR Site or Intranet Home Site?
13:12 - Step 3: Create a Communication Site
19:32 - Step 4: Build from scratch or start with a Template?
26:49 - Step 5: Determine different types of content
29:58 - Step 6: News & Announcements (News Web Part)
37:23 - Step 7: Company Calendar (Events Web Part)
42:37 - Step 8: Photos & Images (Image Gallery Web Part)
47:15 - Step 9: Videos (Stream Web Part and Playlist)
54:27 - Step 10: Links (Quick Links Web Part)
58:30 - Step 11: FAQ (Collapsible Sections)
01:05:18 - Step 12: Knowledge Base (SharePoint Pages)
01:08:12 - Step 13: Contact Us (People Web Part)
01:11:52 - Step 14: Deadlines (Countdown Timer Web Part)
01:15:39 - Step 15: Policies (Document Library with Metadata)
01:21:01 - Step 16: Customize the Main Page
01:25:50 - Step 17: Set up Site Permissions
01:29:54 - Step 18: Create Employee Folders
01:37:57 - Need Help?

The following topics & decisions are explored in this video:

Types of SharePoint Sites. Too often, users create just one SharePoint Site for HR and create varying levels of access for the HR Team and the rest of the employee. That is wrong and you should always create a separate Communication Site for Human Resources.

SharePoint Site Templates. Microsoft maintains a pretty extensive list of available templates for various use cases and scenarios. As a matter of fact, there is a template for Human Resources as well. With that being said, I always recommend my clients to think in terms of the content they have and want to share with the rest of the employees. So, my preference is to create Human Resources SharePoint Sites from scratch. However, Lookbook templates are a great resource to see the possibilities of SharePoint sites OOTB.

Below is a list of 10 types of content you usually find on the Human Resources Sites and respective SharePoint functionalities that I utilize to achieve a given requirement:

News & Announcements (News Web Part). Every HR Department needs to share news and announcements, and the News Web Part is a perfect fit. It allows sharing of internal and external posts + allows organizations to also send these posts via email.

Company Calendar (Events Web Part). Just like with News, every HR Department has events to publish. Events Web Part is a SharePoint-based calendar. Though limited in display options, it serves the need for this specific use case.

Photos. Photos are a great way to improve the look & feel of your HR Site. For this, we have an Image Gallery Web Part that allows the display of multiple images at once via the gallery and rotating carousel option.

Videos. Videos are another popular type of content. You might need to display training or onboarding videos, for example. For this need, we have Stream Web Part, which allows the display of a single or multiple videos. In addition, you can create a Playlist using the Lists app that will allow you to create a playlist of your videos.

Links. Every HR Department has links to share to both internal and external resources. For this, Quick Links Web Part is an invaluable option. It allows for varying styling options, too.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions). FAQs are a great addition to the HR Site. FAQs allow for quick and most frequent questions and answers. There are multiple ways to create FAQs, however Collapsible Sections are my favorite option.

Knowledge Base. Knowledge Base or Wiki is another great addition to the Human Resources Site. It allows for a more in-depth capture of knowledge.

Contact Us. It is always a good practice to add information about who to contact for a given department and business need and People Web Part is a great choice. It displays users and their information (name, phone, email, title, etc.) from the Employee Directory.

Deadlines. Every once in a while, you want to communicate to your users important dates and deadlines (i.e., Benefits Enrollment Deadline). For this, we use the Countdown Timer Web Part.

Policies. I always prefer to organize company or HR policies in a document library with custom metadata.