Every organisation reaches a point when it can no longer sustain itself with manual processes to manage people-related data. As a company grows, it won’t be easy to manage attendance and payroll with a haphazard system of spreadsheets, documents and post-it notes.

Relying on a paper-based system to manage a dozen people can become an administrative nightmare if each of them seeks payslips for a particular period, take different types of leave and work fewer hours than required. The HR team will only end up creating silos of information that are not easily manageable.

Also, how secure can confidential employee details be inside a filing cabinet?

36% of HR professionals blame insufficient technology for their inability to conduct onboarding programmes better.

New-age HR solutions allow companies to carry out tasks related to the attraction, retention, and management of their employees and HR data—in varying degrees of sophistication. The HR goals, functions and activities differ a great deal depending on the size of the company. A 200-employee organisation cannot have the same HR tools as a multinational company with 20,000 employees. Using a specialised software can improve the efficiency of your HR team.

The latest trends in HR tech

You can automate all sorts of HR processes, from employee punching data to performance reviews, for all employees in the organisation. HR systems are now available in the cloud and can be accessed securely by any employee via the Internet.

There are over 20 types of HR software, including time-tracking software, employee benefits and employee wellness.

Companies are now increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to identify data opportunities, improve internal workflows and increase employee productivity. AI-embedded HR systems can also enhance the employee experience, from recruiting through offboarding. An AI-powered HR system uses data to learn and identify patterns and make decisions. This reduces the quantum of human resources needed to perform jobs quickly and effectively while also increasing response time and access to information.

Why your investment in HR tech is justified

While recruitment is necessary to grow your talent pool, developing your current employees is more cost-effective since they are familiar with your company’s workflows and policies. Employee retention is one of the key priorities for every organisation. An Interesting stat says that more than 50% of organisations around the world find it challenging to retain their most valued employees. Losing employees can mean losing valuable institutional knowledge, lower morale in remaining team members and lost productivity.

A workforce management software allows you to match candidates with the skills required for specific jobs more effectively. With increased efficiency in terms of project goals and better accessibility for employees, creating a sense of accomplishment make employee retention measures more effective. Feedback and pulse surveys, effective performance appraisals, teleworking, and streamlined workflows also make employee retention easier.

Time fraud is a serious problem that businesses often overlook. A time attendance software saves you money by putting an end to buddy punching, tardiness, inaccurate time reporting, time abuse and overpayment. A scalable SaaS-based solution continues to manage the time and attendance of your workforce while your business grows.

No two HR software systems are alike. The features and capabilities vary to a great extent. Apart from the obvious benefits, a sound HR system can save you real money. You require only minimum HR personnel to manage even large multinational companies when you have a central HR software in place.

Cloud-based HR software can help you secure employee data and their attendance records if there’s a natural disaster. Most HR systems incorporate disaster recovery features such as hosting on mirrored servers and keeping database backups at separate locations. This enables the system to be restored quickly.

You can do more with your HR software

HR professionals are always dealing with change. Listed below are some of the critical areas they may tend to overlook while using HR tech.

Analytics

Collecting employee data offers analytical opportunities that will assist you in making informed decisions. You might discover that one of the teams has an unusually high employee turnover rate. Did all the members report to the same manager? Were these employees recruited from the same place? Did they attend all the training sessions during probation? You can easily find out all these and more using your workforce management system.

Internal communication

You can create unique roles for employees and reorganise teams to boost efficiency and employee engagement. Employee directories help teams reach out to members of other teams who have a particular skill set. This improves internal communication in the organisation. HR software can bridge the gap between traditional channels of communication and the demands of the new workforce. It allows you to accommodate remote workers and create a virtual work environment for them.

Legal transparency

Inaccurate attendance records can cost your organisation a lot of money in overtime payment or law violation, resulting in expensive legal fines. Advanced time attendance software ensures airtight time records, minimizing the inevitable and costly manual errors.

HR software allows you to invest in your culture. It is vital to foster a culture of transparency, keeping information accessible to your employees. In the unfortunate event of a legal dispute, you can prove that the employee was made aware of a particular policy on the HR portal.

From automating repetitive admin-intensive tasks to certifying absence to self-service functionality, HR software not just makes your life easier but also improves the employee experience. A user-friendly and well-designed HR platform can transform your employees’ perceptions of the HR team. HR software can also be integrated with your biometric time and attendance system, expense management system, and learning management portals.