Digitisation has affected just about every aspect of how businesses – large and small – are run. The management of probably your most critical resource is no exception and innovative technology has been employed in the development of Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS).
It may be helpful to look at the way this HR software can benefit your business by looking at how it has replaced previously time-consuming, largely paper-based systems for performing a whole range of HR functions.
Benefits
HRMS can improve your management of human resources across the board. In the process, you can automate those more routine, labour-intensive tasks, to free up your human resources department to work that really matters, or direct that workforce towards other productive areas of your business.
By coupling human resources management with the latest information technology, you can:
Manage the day to day needs of human resources
- reduce the man-hours and paperwork in a wide range of routine tasks – from timesheets to payroll, the management of sickness and absenteeism;
- this is likely to lead to improved cost-effectiveness, less human error in your record-keeping, and the maintenance of suitable levels of privacy and security for personnel;
Interactive record keeping
- a digitised HRMS allows scope for your employees to become more directly involved in the generation of their own personnel records;
- with suitable levels of access to the system, they may enter their own time-keeping and holiday schedules – “self-service” technology, as the website Workspace puts it;
Monitor performance
- one of the key functions of your human resources department, of course, is the monitoring of the performance of your workforce;
- the principal measures – Key Performance Indicators (KPI) – are especially suitable for recording, monitoring, and analysing through the medium of HRMS technology;
Staff development and training
- you have probably already discovered the importance of developing career progression for your members of staff – moving individuals from one role to another, especially if promotion provides an incentive, is key to preventing inertia in the way your workforce tackles its tasks;
- HRMS provides comprehensive ways for recording, monitoring and intervening to ensure that key members of your workforce receive the development and training as and when it is needed – prompting you when it may be time to make promotions;
Recruitment and retention
- the recruitment of new staff and the retention and development of existing staff are probably among the most important functions of your human resources department;
- recruitment and retention programs become simpler, more accelerated, and more cost-effective when you bring HRMS into play;
Integration of management systems
- the versatility and adaptability of modern HRMS means that they may be integrated into other, existing, and planned aspects of your overall business management systems.
Choosing your HR software
If you are sold on the many ways in which HRMS can help your business become leaner, meaner and more competitive, several sites offer reviews and comparisons designed to help you choose the HR software most likely to suit your particular business needs and circumstances.
These include, for example, Business Reviewed, which provides a comprehensive overview of the sector and in depth reviews of product features on eight different providers.
The comparison website Capterra, meanwhile, paints thumbnail sketches of some HR software packages which can be compared one to another.
Among the many software reviews and comparisons conducted by PC Magazine, an article published on the 27th of December 2019 stressed the extent to which HR software these days covers much more than management of your employees – it also embraces areas such as compliance and policy management, programming and scheduling of shifts, payroll, and performance management.
The PC Mag article goes on to compare its top ten recommended HRMS packages for 2020, together with several highlighted as an editor’s choice.
