New HR Manager at a Growing SME? Here’s Your 90-Day Plan

You just started your new position in an SMB. Maybe the role is brand new, or your predecessor left a few weeks ago without leaving much behind. Employee files are split between separate systems. Vacation requests live in a spreadsheet that two different people edit. And everyone is looking at you, thinking: “Finally, someone’s going to take care of this.”

If you relate to this example, this guide is for you! You will find a realistic game plan for your first 90 days: what to look at first, which risks can’t wait, and how to walk into day 90 with an approved plan instead of a wish list.

What You’ll Find When You Walk In (And Why That’s Normal)

At growing SMEs, HR tends to get built in layers. The founder used to handle everything, then an admin assistant inherited payroll, then a controller added a “vacation” tab to their spreadsheet. Nobody did anything wrong; each person solved the problem in front of them with whatever tool was on hand.

Here’s what that almost always leaves behind:

• Employee information exists in multiple versions: The address on file for payroll doesn’t match the one on the contract, and nobody knows which one is current.
• Access permissions follow no logic: At many companies, anyone with access to the ERP’s payroll module can see the entire employee file (SIN, salary, everything) because the software was built for accounting or project management, not HR.
• Signed documents are incomplete: One contract can’t be found, half the team never signed the harassment prevention policy, and hiring paperwork is still on paper.
• Processes depend on memory: Onboarding works if the right person remembers to do it. Performance reviews exist on paper, or not at all, even when employees ask for them.

If this sounds like your situation, you’re the rule, not the exception. The mistake would be trying to fix everything at once.

Days 1-30: Take Inventory Before You Change Anything

The first month is for understanding, not transforming. You’ll earn leadership’s and managers’ trust by showing you know where the risks are before you start proposing solutions.

Map Out Where the Data Lives

List every place employee information is stored: payroll software, ERP, spreadsheets, shared drive, filing cabinets, scheduling tool, inboxes. For each one, note who has access. This simple table becomes the centerpiece of your plan, because it makes two problems visible that leadership can’t see on their own: duplicate data entry and overly broad access.

Meet With Every Manager, One by One

Ask them three things: what wastes their time in HR-related tasks, what they have to ask someone else for before they can get an answer, and what they wish they could just do themselves. The answers overlap fast. At most SMEs, the same three pain points keep coming up: vacation requests, new-hire onboarding, and access to information about their own team.

List Your Obligations, Without Drowning in Them

Note the obligations that directly apply to your organization: personal information protection, workplace health and safety, and employment standards. You don’t need to be fully compliant everywhere by day 30. You need to know where the gaps are.

Understand How Payroll Gets Fed

Even if payroll isn’t your responsibility, figure out how hours, absences, and vacation time make their way into it. That’s usually where the errors that repeat every two weeks hide — along with the employees asking “how many vacation days do I have left?”

Days 31-60: Close the Three Risks That Can’t Wait

After the inventory, you’ll have a long list. Three risks deserve to be handled before anything else, because they’re exposing the organization right now.

Risk 1: Access to Sensitive Information

If managers, accounting staff, or team leads can see information they don’t need (SIN, salaries, medical notes, disciplinary records) that’s your top priority.

In practice: define who needs to see what. A team lead needs their employees’ phone numbers and certifications, not their SIN. A coordinator booking flights needs a date of birth, not a salary. Write these rules down, even in a simple document, before you pick a tool. They’ll become your access roles later.

Risk 2: Missing or Unsigned Documents

Get the essential missing documents signed: contracts, harassment prevention policy, confidentiality agreements — the full list of onboarding documents you need on file is a good starting point. While you’re at it, centralize existing documents into one folder per employee. The 80/20 rule applies here: get everything into one permanent folder per person first, then organize it further later.

Risk 3: Leave and Vacation Requests

This is the process that touches everyone, every week. If a leave request goes through a form, then an email to the manager, then an entry in a calendar, and another in payroll, you’ve created three chances for error out of a single request. Clarify the approval chain and designate one single source of truth for balances. Even before you have any software, that decision alone cuts down on errors.

Days 61-90: Choose Your Tools and Get the Project Approved

By around day 60, you know your priorities. That’s the right moment to evaluate HR software, because you now know exactly what it needs to do.

Define the Minimum Scope

Your first system doesn’t need to cover everything. For most SMEs, the starting scope comes down to four things:

• A centralized employee file, with access configurable by role and by field.
• Leave and vacation management, with manager approval and a mobile app for employees.
• Electronic signature, so signed documents file themselves automatically into the right record.
• A structured onboarding process, with assigned tasks and reminders.

Performance reviews, training tracking, recruitment, and payroll can come in a second phase. Many organizations start with a basic plan and add modules the following year.

Keep Your Payroll Software

Switching HR software and payroll software at the same time doubles your risk. If your payroll already runs on a system, look for HR software that connects to it, so approved vacation and leave requests flow through without re-entry. You can revisit payroll later, once your HR foundation is solid.

Ask the Questions That Matter in Quebec

During demos, always ask: where is the data hosted, and which subcontractors does it pass through? Does the vendor hold an independent security certification like SOC 2 Type 2? Is the interface genuinely bilingual for employees? Does the workplace injury module follow CNESST’s process? Can every sensitive field be hidden by role?

Prepare for Approval

Your leadership team will ask three questions: what’s the total cost, how much time will it take, and why now. Your first-month inventory already answers the third one — you’ve documented real risks, which is exactly what you need to convince your boss to buy an HRIS without improvising the pitch. For an SME, a well-run HR implementation typically takes four to six weeks and about forty hours of internal work, spread across several people. Present that number honestly: leadership that underestimates the effort often pulls back support partway through.

Common Mistakes New HR Hires Make at SMEs

• Trying to fix everything at once. Overhauling policies, rolling out software, launching performance reviews, and redoing onboarding in the same year burns out the team and the managers. One organization we talked to had just finished a scheduling tool rollout that was solid, but so heavy on the HR team that they were mainly looking for a tool they could roll out gradually next time.
• Picking the tool before knowing the need. Software chosen on day 10 reflects the loudest complaints, not the most important ones.
• Forgetting the managers. If the tool is built only for HR, managers will keep sending emails. Plan a short training session for them right before go-live.
• Underestimating the data cleanup. Set aside time to clean up your files before import — our guide to migrating to new HR software covers what actually takes the most time in practice. Modern software accepts spreadsheets with inconsistent columns, but a clean file speeds everything up.
• Doing it alone. Serious vendors offer implementation support. Use it: it’s often the difference between a tool that gets adopted and one that gets abandoned.

How Folks Supports New HR Hires

Folks was built for Canadian SMEs starting from scratch. Creating an employee file takes three pieces of information (first name, last name, email): the employee then gets a secure form to fill in their own contact details, SIN, emergency contact, and documents — no account creation required. Access roles are configurable field by field, which makes it possible to hide sensitive information.

Data is hosted in Canada and the platform is SOC 2 Type 2 certified. The software connects to existing payroll solutions (and you can explore Folks ATS and Folks Payroll when the time comes!). Most importantly, every implementation is supported by a dedicated customer success person.

Conclusion

Your first 90 days aren’t about fixing everything. They’re about understanding the situation, closing the risks exposing the organization today, and walking into leadership with a plan that’s clear, costed, and realistic. Start with the inventory, handle access, documents, and leave requests, then choose a tool that matches what you’ve learned.