Run HR on the Same Dates and Hand-offs Every Month, Alongside Quality
Most HR work in your business repeats: joiners, training renewals, attendance cut-offs, payroll inputs, reviews, exits and obligations with dates. We help you write it down as procedures, put it on a calendar, set turnaround expectations, define who approves what and agree the hand-offs between HR and quality. We then help you run it from your system or the GullyHR platform.
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Share your requirementsThe starting point
Does HR Run on Procedure or on People's Memory?
A business that insists on procedure in its plant often runs its HR on habit. The training coordinator knows when renewals fall due, the payroll clerk knows the cut-offs, and quality knows which HR record it depends on. When one is away, the work stops, and the reason is not carelessness but the absence of a written routine.
We help you run HR as a set of procedures with owners and dates, in the same way you run your plant.
You may be experiencing:
- HR tasks that repeat every month but live in people's heads, with no checklist.
- Hand-offs between HR and quality, such as a joiner, a transfer or an exit, that depend on someone remembering to send a message.
- Requests to HR that wait in an inbox because no turnaround is set.
- Approvals for hiring, overtime and letters that go to whoever is nearest.
- No annual calendar, so renewals, reviews and returns surprise people.
- A month-end that is rushed because inputs from different areas arrive at different times.
- No review of whether the HR routines are working, until something fails.
What we can help with
Our HR Operations and Governance Services for Pharma and Life Sciences
HR Procedures and Checklists
Write the repeating HR work as procedures and checklists: joining, transfer, leave, attendance cut-off, payroll inputs, training renewal, review cycle and exit. Name an owner and a deputy for each.
Annual and Monthly HR Calendar
Build a calendar showing what falls due when: payroll cut-offs, appraisal windows, training renewals, medical checks, licence and return dates, policy reviews and management meetings.
HR and Quality Hand-off Map
Define how HR and quality pass information to each other: new joiners, transfers, role changes, leavers, training completions and revised procedures, with the form, the sender, the receiver and the time limit.
Service Levels and Request Handling
Set realistic turnaround times for common requests such as letters, record changes and queries, a single place to log them and a regular look at what is overdue.
Approval Matrix for HR Decisions
State who approves hiring, offers, increments, overtime, transfers, disciplinary steps and exits, up to what limit, with a deputy for each. Align it with the structure and the quality documents.
Contract Manpower Governance
Set how contractor engagements are approved, recorded, inducted, reviewed and ended, so that contract workers sit inside the HR calendar and not outside it.
Monthly Management Review
Agree a short monthly review of calendar items, service levels, overdue records and actions, with a fixed agenda and a log of decisions.
Audit and Continuous Improvement
Check a sample of HR work against your own procedures at planned intervals, record the gaps and agree improvements, which feed the next version of the procedure.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on the agreed scope, you can expect:
- A set of HR procedures and checklists with owners and deputies.
- An annual and monthly HR calendar.
- A map of hand-offs between HR and quality.
- Service-level definitions and a request log.
- An approval matrix for HR decisions.
- A contract manpower governance routine.
- A monthly review agenda and decision log.
- An audit sample plan and improvement tracker.
Step by step
How We Work
Watch the Work as It Is
We sit with the people who do the repeating work and note what they do, in what order, from which source and by when.
Write It Down With Them
We draft procedures and checklists with the people who run them, so they describe real work and not an ideal.
Build the Calendar and Hand-offs
We put the work on a calendar and agree the hand-offs with quality, finance and the plant, naming owners and deputies.
Run It for a Cycle
We help you run one month or one cycle using the new routines, note where they are unclear and adjust.
Review Against the Baseline
Before work starts we record where you stand. We then review calendar items missed, overdue requests and hand-off gaps against it.
The difference
Make HR Predictable, Alongside the Rest of the Business
A governed HR function helps your business:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering calendar items missed, requests open beyond their stated time and hand-offs between HR and quality that were late or lost, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- Know what runs on which date, and whose it is.
- Pass information between HR and quality without relying on memory.
- Answer requests within a stated time.
- Route approvals to the right person each time.
- Include contract workers in the same calendar.
- Find and fix routines that are not working.
Find your fit
Who This Service Is For
Manufacturers with a Small HR Team
Write down the routines that currently depend on one or two people.
Businesses Where HR and Quality Overlap
Agree hand-offs and ownership of shared records.
Companies Adding Sites or Shifts
Make the routines work at a larger size.
Research Organisations and CROs
Run HR processes consistently across projects and teams.
Owner-led Companies Building an HR Function
Set up routines before the team expands.
How it usually shows up in pharmaceuticals and life sciences
HR operations in pharma and life sciences often sit between the formality of the quality system and the improvisation of a people function. Plants run on SOPs, yet recruitment, joining, transfers, exits and letters rely on habits that a few experienced people carry in their heads. Turnaround times are not stated, so requests are chased. Approvals depend on who is available. The annual HR calendar, covering appraisals, training plans, medicals and contract renewals, is not written, so peaks arrive unannounced. Audits of HR records happen when an inspection or customer visit is announced, which is the wrong time to find gaps. There is rarely a regular review in which HR looks at its own errors and delays.
Common challenges
Where it goes wrong in pharmaceuticals and life sciences
Procedures live in people's heads
Experienced staff know what to do, and the process stops when they are away.
Turnaround is not stated
Requests wait for no stated time, so employees and managers chase.
The year is not planned
Appraisals, medicals and renewals bunch up and collide with production peaks.
Audit is reactive
Gaps in HR records are found when an inspection is announced, not before.
A better process
What a working version looks like
- 01
Write HR SOPs
A short procedure and checklist for each repeat process, with an owner and a review date. See HR process consulting.
- 02
State service levels
Time to issue a letter, close a query or process a joiner, published and tracked.
- 03
Draw the HR calendar
Appraisals, training plans, medicals, renewals and audits laid out through the year.
- 04
Set an approval matrix for HR
Who approves hiring, pay changes, transfers and exits, with limits and deputies.
- 05
Audit internally
A scheduled check of HR records and processes, with findings tracked to closure. See the HR process audit.
What to check this week
- Ask which HR processes are written down and which are known by habit.
- Find out how long a letter or a joining takes, and whether anyone tracks it.
- Look for a calendar of HR activity across the year.
- Check who can approve in the absence of the usual approver.
- Review when HR records were last audited internally.
What this looks like in pharmaceuticals and life sciences
The parts of hr operations and governance that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Shift Manufacturing Workforce
Continuous operations with quality oversight.
What this coversHide
Shift Manufacturing Workforce
Continuous operations with quality oversight.
What this coversHide- Shift patterns
- Staffing norms by line and area
- Rotation rules
- Relief and standby
- Overtime sanction
- Controlled-area entry procedures
- Attendance capture
- Contract manpower deployment
- Attendance cut-off
Questions on this, in pharmaceuticals and life sciences
A policy states what the business has decided. A procedure sets out how the work is done, step by step, by whom and by when. Most businesses have more policy than procedure, and operations work fills that gap.
Because many records depend on both. A joiner, a transfer or an exit changes training, authorisation and signature records, and a missed message leaves one of them out of date. A map names who sends what, and when.
As detailed as the risk and the number of people involved require. A checklist of ten lines with an owner is better than a long document no one reads. We start short and add detail where mistakes occur.
We propose realistic turnaround times based on how long tasks take and how many requests arrive. You decide what you can commit to, and we monitor them in the monthly review.
Often. Calendars, checklists, request logs and reminders can be set up in your system, in shared tools or on the GullyHR platform. We choose with you the one that people will actually use.
Because the process should not depend on a person. A short checklist lets anyone cover and makes the work easier to review.
Stated turnaround times for common requests, such as letters or joinings. They set expectations and show where delays occur.
At least once a year, and before expected inspections or customer visits. Findings should be tracked until closed.
A monthly review with HR and the heads of function, looking at the pack, delays and open actions.
Pick the five processes that cause the most chasing, such as joining, letters, leave corrections, exits and payroll inputs. Write each as a one-page checklist with an owner, then build from there.
Run HR on Procedure and on a Calendar, Like the Rest of Your Business
If HR depends on who is in the office that day, a short set of written routines, dates and hand-offs is the first thing to build.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
Book an HR Operations Consultation
Tell us about your business, who does the HR work today and where it slips.
The general method — what hr operations and governance covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the hr process consulting and implementation page. What is above is the part that differs for pharmaceuticals and life sciences.
Other HR topics for pharmaceuticals and life sciences
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for pharmaceuticals and life sciences, or another industry.