Hiring process must be planned to optimize management and minimize risks

Inefficient hiring process can affect business strategies, in addition to being a gateway to labor risks

By Luciana Lupinucci

Hiring employees is a task that requires operational efficiency, especially when this activity involves seasonality, hiring a large number of workers, or occurs in a segment that has some specific features.

Avoiding exposure to labor risks, in the direct relationship between the company and each employee, starts right at the moment of hiring, when the main agreements between the parties are established. Hence the importance of starting this relationship in full compliance with the law.

Due to the economic recovery and the fact that Brazil is becoming again a prominent target for investments, the market will start demanding more workers. Naturally, issues related to hiring will be on the agenda for companies.

But what do business managers need to worry about?

Although often viewed as merely operational, hiring processes must be well planned. Problems at this stage can hinder the progress of services, create unnecessary costs and lead to errors that expose the company to risk.

Last minute hiring can bump into bureaucratic aspects, jeopardizing the execution of activities and the company's profitability.

Process planning minimizes the chances of occurrences like these to hinder performance, optimizing management and resulting in better results for the company.

Labor legislation and sector specificities

CLT, the Brazilian Consolidation of Labor Law, is always the guide for employer-employee relations. Even so, there are sectors that bring complementary rules, such as the case of the Oil and Gas segment, which includes Law No. 5.811/72 adding provisions for the exercise of oil exploration, drilling, production, and refining activities, among other related functions.

Maritime work also has a number of rules that must be considered by employers upon hiring.

Those who conduct hiring processes in segments with specific aspects need to pay attention to the different rules, which usually involve processes such as working hours, additional payment for hazardous and unhealthy work, additional payment for night shifts, among others.

Sectors such as commerce, on the other hand, are highly impacted by seasonality, periodically demanding a large volume of temporary workers, whcih also includes aspects that should observed.

There are other business segments, such as energy, in which large-scale projects lead to labor hiring spikes.

Hiring planning

Some aspects must be considered in the planning stage, especially the most suitable work regime that will be entered into in the employment contract. Such definition includes analyzing the function, working hours that meet the company's demand, and the current legislation.

Since the labor reform, companies can be more flexible when adopting a model of working hours. Among many other aspects, the parties are now allowed, through collective convention or agreement, to establish working hours of 12 x 36 hours for any category.

In fact, the professionals responsible for hiring and managing labor must always observe such agreements, which may bring points that will overlap with the legislation.

It should be highlighted that, at any time, terms may be added to the employment relationship, such as transfer, change from face-to-face activity to remote work, change in working hours, etc.

The hiring process

When an employee is hired, this process is formalized and all procedures are carried out to regularize the relationship that will be established between the contracting company and the hired professional.

Delivery of documents and contract signing

The company asks the employee for all necessary documents and the contract, which must provide for the special conditions of that employment relationship, is signed. It usually starts with the probation contract, but the contract can also be temporary, for an indefinite period, or of other types.

eSocial

Hiring of employees must be registered in eSocial. In this stage, all data of employers, employees, and documents are entered into the platform. This must be done until the day immediately prior to the beginning of service provision (up to 24 hours in advance).

The registration step usually comes with surprises for the contracting company. It is very common that the spelling of a name, a typing error, any inconsistency in a given data or in the Brazilian Classification of Occupations (Classificação Brasileira de Ocupações - CBO) become a barrier to the progress of the process.

Pre-admission physical examination

The new employee must be sent for the pre-admission exam, which will assess the aptitude to provide services, considering the characteristics of the activity that will be performed. This examination needs to be taken before hiring starts.

Handling documents

It is important that documents related to the hiring process, as well as other records produced during the employment relationship, are organized and kept by the company for a period of up to five years, whether in physical or digital format. With the General Law for the Protection of Personal Data – (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais - LGPD), companies must double the attention with data requested from employees, requiring what is strictly necessary.

Risk-free hiring

Hiring a large number of employees or hiring on a seasonal basis has a great impact on the routine of the personnel department. To avoid internal overload and failures, there are companies that choose to outsource this process, entrusting the work to specialists.

This is a choice that, in fact, has the potential to improve the efficiency of complex tasks that require in-depth knowledge of Brazilian legal requirements.

Check the advantages: