Rapid growth. Rapid Problems?
It goes without saying that as businesses mature, so should their systems.
Yet, despite the growth of cloud-based systems in other business areas, many organisations across New Zealand still battle with unconnected and manual (paper) processes when managing employee information.
In the last couple of years, there has been an exponential growth in ‘SaaS’ (Software as a service) applications in this space. The problem is that most systems are not compatible with one another, and this makes it difficult to share data between them.
For example, if a company wants to make an update on their payroll system, they will need to update every other system too and then hope that all of those updates go well. What if there’s a mistake? It could take hours or even days before someone notices and fixes it. That leaves your employees in limbo during that period of time without accurate information.
Without an effective HRIS (Human Resource Information System) organisations are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost productivity. There is also a compliance perspective to consider when improving these systems. Many businesses now have a legal obligation to ensure their staff is qualified to do their job; on an ongoing basis.
So what is preventing businesses from using a HRIS?
Ten years ago, an ‘all inclusive’ HRIS was restricted to large corporations with big budgets. The cost of cloud-hosted applications now means that businesses with as few as 50 people can leverage a single HR platform in a cost-effective way.
In this article, I look at the key stages of the Employee Lifecycle and give you some tips on things you need to consider at each stage.
#1 Pre-Employment
For organisations in industries that have a high ‘churn’ rate (Hospitality, Retail etc), managers can spend hundreds of hours each year at the recruitment stage. For any organisation, any tool that can reduce the cost to hire and time to hire can only be a good thing
In the Recruitment stage, an HRIS can be used here to manage the following:
- Requisition requests – Manage approval to hire which allows you to then advertise.
- Advertise – Post job adverts to the company website and job boards like Seek, Trademe etc
- Candidate Selection – Manage the application process. As a result, applicants are screened for their qualifications using automated checks or past work experience that has been entered into your system by employers who have responded to applications online.
- Interviews – Manage the interviews and feedback from managers.
#2 Onboarding
So, you’ve found the candidates. Great! Whats’s next?
This stage you need to get your documentation right legally, as well as making a good impression.
In the Onboarding stage, areas that a HRIS can dramatically improve efficiencies include:
- Pre-Employment Checks – Making sure all employees undergo security and background checks before they start working in your business. You should also consider automating processes such as health screenings, drug tests etc with cloud-based systems so that these tasks are completed quickly and easily without any member of staff having to do any manual inputting afterward.
- Offer and Contract Generation – HRIS systems can be set up to automatically generate a legally binding employment offer letter and contract, which includes the terms and conditions of your company’s policies. They also have templates for contracts that are required in different roles
- E-signatures – For when you don’t need to sign a document in person. You can just type your name and press send. Applicants can sign their offers and contracts virtually, without having to print them out. This saves your company time in terms of paperwork processing
#3 Employee Tools
Simply having a way to manage employee records, get access to all of your HR documents in one place. This makes it easy for you to share information with employees and managers alike. Features include:
- Employment Records – All documentation is stored in one place. This effectively becomes an ‘Employee Self-Service’ tool. Employees can view their own data within the system and update their personal details as they choose.
- Rosters – Managers can create and maintain roster schedules with ease.
- Payroll Calculation & Administration – Managers can control all aspects of payroll, including managing the company policy for leave and working hours.
- Timesheets – Employees can input their hours into the system for approval. Managers can then view this data when creating a report.
- Absence / Leave Requests – Employees are able to see their leave balances at all times, making it easier for them when they need time off. Employees are more likely to take leave when they know it’s easy for them to do so and they have sufficient leave balances.
- Performance Reviews – Complex, cumbersome and time-consuming Performance Reviews are a thing of the past. Managers can conduct performance reviews with employees. This process is made more efficient when a cloud-based HRIS system stores employee information and policies in one place. Managers and employees alike will have access to performance reports that show an employee’s progress over a period of time in one easy-to
- Remuneration Reviews – These can be done online, and are much faster than paper-based reviews.
- Contract Adjustments – Employee contracts will need to be adjusted to reflect an employee’s new status. A cloud-based HRIS system will make this process easier when updating multiple employee records at the same time as well as getting the required approval
Conclusion
Your employees are your most valuable asset.
They deserve a workplace that is up to date, on-trend, and provides the best possible experience for them in every situation.
As you consider what cloud-based HRIS tools can do to help your business grow and thrive, think about where you need assistance the most.
- Do you want to find new talent?
- Make sure everyone has access to their benefits information?
- Improve performance reviews or compensation discussions?
The list of things employers want from an HRIS system goes on and on – but if any of these sound like they would improve your organization’s employee lifecycle management (or just make it more efficient), we’re here for you!
Get in touch with our team today so we can start discussing how Solar Workplace could help you with some of these challenges!
