Companies are expanding, hiring new staff and helping their existing employees to climb the career ladder wherever possible – which, of course, means pay rises – and last but not least are the politics (both workplace and governmental) which make businesses go around much the same as they do the rest of the world.
So ‘what is a business mogul to do?’ I hear you ask. Well, that one is pretty easy, at the very least. The key to any successful company is its people, and the way to well manage a people is with a stellar HR department.
What is HR?
HR (or Human Resources) is an umbrella term used for the people who work for a company and the team of people who manage the resources related to its employees. Very much a person-centred concept, hence the apt name Human Resources.
Human Resources describes the management and development of employees in an organisation and oversees all things related to human capital, including:
- Recruitment and staffing
- Onboarding and offboarding
- Contracts
- Payroll
- Benefits and bonuses
- Training and learning
- Policies and procedures
- Absence management (holidays and sickness)
- Rotas and working patterns
There are plenty more areas that fall into HR, but those are the biggest and most obvious tasks that a Human Resources Officer must deal with each day. When you stop to think about it, that’s an awful lot to be responsible for.
Why Should I Invest in an HR Solution?
While bigger companies will have the resources to employ larger HR teams, that does also mean that there are more employees to manage in the first place. As for SMEs it’s likely that there are only a couple of HR gurus available – and in some cases, probably even just one! That means no matter the size of your company, HR will always be a busy and demanding sector.
HR software is increasingly evolving and the technology that is available to its suppliers to include innovative functionality which allows its users to do more, work more efficiently and securely access data at any time from anywhere.
There are multiple benefits of investing in an HR solution which help not only your HR department itself, but your company as a whole – let’s take a look at some of them.
Automation
If you’re an HR Officer, think about the countless forms you’ve had to review and process or the number of spreadsheets you have open on your screen every day. Or, what about the painfully slow process of having to fill out paper forms and wait for a response each time you want to request a holiday as an employee?
Having a powerful HR system in place allows you to move away from the laborious paper trails that you have been struggling through for so long and become more automated with your internal processes.
Paper form holiday request? A thing of the past. With an HR solution, your staff can simply log into their account, request their holiday and a notification will be sent straight to their authorising manager to confirm or reject. They then get notified when the action has been made leaving no room for those tedious forms.
Increased Productivity and Efficiency
Implementing HR software, especially in a smaller company where resources are stretched, is valuable enough simply for the time that it saves by:
- Streamlining processes and reducing the amount of paperwork required.
- Automatically updating information.
- Sending notifications and reminders to improve compliance and productivity.
- Centralising all staff data to make it more easily accessible and secure.
Highlight Inefficiencies
Knowing where your inefficiencies are and the cost that they have to your bottom line and productivity is a crucial part of any business as you can’t improve if you don’t know where you fall down.
With an HR system in place, you have all of that information at your disposal at the click of a button. By logging into your HR platform, you can readily see absence trends and costs, view turnover figures, monitor and limit how many people can take holiday at the same time.
Worrying less about keeping tabs on your staff will give you more time and focus to get on with other tasks that might otherwise be pushed to the side.
Data Storage
HR solutions offer one central, secure place to store all sorts of information including:
- Staff data – i.e. contact details, address, next of kin information and bank details as well as all information regarding their employment such as job role, manager and salary etc.
- Holiday allowances – including carryover entitlement and pro-rata adjustments.
- Absence history – including all holiday and sickness. You can even run reports on this information to really get the most out of your HR system.
- Files – upload company files such as policies or handbooks as well as individual files to employee profiles.
Stay Connected with Staff
Most HR systems offer the facility to manage appraisals for staff, allowing you to stay on top of reviews without the worry of having to find time to fit them in or missing them since you can also set reminders leading up to the event, giving you plenty of time and warning to schedule appraisals in the diary.
Additionally, features such as goals, objectives and profile walls similar to that on social media are available, allowing you to really keep up to date with your staff.
Other benefits can include improved employer branding, employee advocacy, social integration and collaboration.
Things to be Aware of
Of course, no two businesses are the same, which means that neither are HR systems; so it’s important that you know what it is you want and need from the software before you dive straight in to the first one you find.
The best way to prepare yourself for the search of the perfect HR system is to understand your HR management as it currently stands.
Questions you should ask yourself include:
- What are the business goals and what functionality would align with these?
- Who will be using the solution (just HR, management or every employee)?
- What are the timescales for implementation?
- What’s the budget?
- Are your staff onboard with moving forward from the processes already in place?
If you know how your HR department functions, you will be in a prime position to identify how well suited each HR system you review or trial is to your needs.
Looking for an HR solution to help you stay on top of your staff easily and effectively? Why not contact ourCustomer Care Team to find out how Staff Squared can help you?
Written by Clarisse Levitan
Lead First Line Customer Support Agent - Staff Squared
Clarisse works as the Lead of our Customer Support Team to provide all of our customers with the very best care and guidance when using their HR software.
