We can’t deny that HR tasks are some of the most essential business processes. HR teams handle employees, process new applicants, compute leave balances, assist the finance teams in processing salaries and deductions, manage employee databases, process government registrations of new hires, ensure that all employees follow corporate protocols, and many more. Before a business can transact with external stakeholders, such as customers, creditors, and manufacturers, it should first manage transactions with internal stakeholders—employees.
A growing company can’t function properly without HR, making it the bloodline of a business because it helps it gain talented and hardworking employees to serve its purpose.
Since the pandemic hit, software developers have been working nonstop to provide highly efficient software for businesses. Companies need these applications to run smoothly and complete transactions within specific periods.
The HR department is one of the busiest and most fast-paced in any company, primarily because it processes vital documents for other departments. Most of these documents are highly confidential. Aside from the IT and finance departments, HR needs digital support for multiple administrative functions.
HR team members are multitaskers, and their workloads can get heavy over time, so software developers have made several software that can help ease their work lives.
If you’re a new business owner or even someone who’s been in the industry for a while but hasn’t acquired any HR software yet, you may want to learn why it is essential to start using HR software to ensure smooth, mistake-free transactions every day.
We jotted down six ways HR software can improve your business transactions.
1. Manage Databases and Keep Records Safe
Due to certain restrictions brought on by the pandemic, most employees can’t go to their offices as often as before to process documents and keep vital records secure. The only way to continue doing these administrative tasks is to transfer and manage them online. With the volume of documents and databases HR staff need to maintain, you need software that can transfer, receive, retrieve, and store large documents simultaneously without lagging.
Employee information, applicant requirements, leave applications, reconciliations, and balances, licenses, certifications, promotions, contracts, compensation and benefits, government papers and registrations, birthdays, and many more are only some of the records HR teams need to process and organize regularly.
An HR information system (HRIS) refers to software designed to store large documents to manage and organize files regularly. Several HRIS are available in the market today, so it’s important to be meticulous when picking one that has good ratings and feedback.
2. Enable Efficiency
Employees request a hefty volume of files and other documents from HR teams every day. Working eight hours a day isn’t enough to process these requests at once, sometimes not even if HR staff work overtime. You should also consider the time required for necessary approvals required for requests, such as certificates of employment (CoEs), employee verification, study leaves, bereavement leaves, and more.
As a result, HR teams need digital support to accomplish requests on time and process supporting documents and approvals while handling other tasks on the side.
3. Provide Better Employee Experience
If companies need software to engage with clients and other external stakeholders, they also need applications for employees.
Employees need access to HR software to manage important matters that sometimes aren’t exactly related to their job descriptions but are connected to their employment. We identified some of these matters below.
Reimbursement Requests
Aside from the salaries employees get, they’re also entitled to several flexible benefits. As defined by Carla Yudhushthu, vice president of people operations at Mammoth HR, “Flexible benefits generally pertain to employee needs associated with work, home life, and planning for the future.”
Most flexible benefits, such as personal leaves, parking or transportation cost reimbursements, flexible scheduling requests, professional development training to gain helpful certifications, time-off benefits, and more, all undergo several processes, and HR software helps speed these up.
The most common reimbursements concern medical services, such as dental, eyewear, anti-flu medication, hospital, and other related fees. HR software helps ease the process so employees can request reimbursements without waiting long.
HR software stores and organizes old and new data alike, lessening the workload of HR staff. All employees have to do is process their requests through the software and wait until an HR staff accepts these for review and approval.
Daily Time in and Time Out
There is no way a manager can strictly monitor employee attendance without HR software. Since most people currently work in the comfort of their homes, managers need help to track their attendance accurately.
HR software can track employee attendance and keep records of the tasks they perform daily, so bosses can monitor their progress. Aside from monitoring tasks, managers can tell which job an employee is having a hard time with because they see how long he or she has been working on a project.
Having software that helps managers monitor employees’ work can also promote productivity. A work-from-home (WfH) setup can be demotivating to some, especially those used to working on-site and interacting with team mates. Software that monitors attendance and productivity can help employees avoid slacking off. They know that even with the current setup, their team is aware of how each of their tasks progresses and what help they will need.
Easy Training Access
HR teams are responsible for the consistent improvement of employees, which can happen through regular training. Employees can access online training, conferences, and more through HR software, making it easy for them to learn and monitor their growth over time.
4. Reduce Errors
Businesses know how much errors, regardless of size, can cost. While it’s acceptable to make mistakes, it’s never okay to continue doing so and not improve.
HR teams need to process numerous documents regularly. They can’t afford to make multiple mistakes since these can cause delays due to several reasons. We named a few below.
Avoid Unstructured Salary Increase Plans
Performance reviews are essential for HR teams because they are associated with salary increases, and one mistake can cost the company a lot. HR software helps identify and organize qualitative and quantitative measurements to guide staff decisions on when they should increase an employee’s salary and by how much.
Give Way to a More Organized Onboarding Process
Onboarding is a crucial part of HR teams’ work. It is where HR staff gives new hires a glimpse of what the company and their department do. It’s essential to have an organized onboarding process because it will become part of the new hires’ journey.
It’s also important to note that the onboarding process is one of the biggest HR tasks because it involves the government registration of new hires, making them legally eligible to work in the company. HR software lets you have a smooth and systematic onboarding flow.
Here are some of the onboarding tasks you can do more easily with HR software.
- New hire profile creation
- Online requirement submission
- Company ID picture taking
- Government registration
Prevent Poor Database Management
As mentioned earlier, HR teams work on large amounts of data every day. One simple mistake in a database can cause a domino effect on succeeding data storage, which can become a problem if not managed properly.
While Microsoft Excel can keep employee data, bigger data needs more proactive applications for smooth processing. HR software can keep and organize massive amounts of data while allowing HR staff to retrieve information in just one click, avoiding delayed transactions with employees and serving them better.
HR software can ensure that tasks and assignments are done accurately, thus also boosting productivity.
5. Keep Confidential Data Secure
Gone are the days of filing documents in rows of cabinets. Most HR staff have completed transporting important data onto HR software for easy access and retrieval. These databases can be accessed anywhere and anytime, which is convenient for daily transactions.
Cloud-based HR software has improved security, which is crucial for storing large amounts of important data. It also protects your documents from physical catastrophes, such as floods, earthquakes, and other fortuitous events.
HR software also gives you an excellent document management solution. Storing documents on them also lessens the need for printing, which can improve the company’s sustainability and eventually lead to a paperless working environment.
6. Provide Easy Access to Important Information
An HR team’s job is routinary. HR staff process tons of files every day. There are also instances when employees from different departments suddenly request something, which can happen several times in a day. Storing important files manually prevents you from getting the job done as quickly as possible.
As mentioned, HR software is a central place for company databases. The ability to safely keep and store information in software that you can access anytime and anywhere is convenient, especially for remote workers.
Conclusion
HR team members don’t have to be tech-savvy to know how to use HR software, they just have to be computer-literate. More often than not, the application is designed to be user-friendly because it will be used by all employees. Therefore, it’s usually developed for easy navigation and mobile access.
At present, everyone processes everything virtually. We need software to make our jobs more convenient. HR software makes daily business processes provide excellent service to both internal and external stakeholders.
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