Because of the exhausting tasks and responsibilities involved in any Human Resource department, an HR system is very essential. However, many HR system options before and some until now are hosted on the site. This system is also accessible to only a few of the many HR administrators. Though this can already be a great help in the department, it’s still not that effective.
Luckily, through time, HR systems have grown to be more accessible and more efficient than before. Spreadsheets, lots and lots of paper documents and post-it notes can already be helpful in managing tasks and responsibilities in your office. However, you can do so much better.
Most HR systems nowadays are already cloud-based and can be accessed securely by all employees through the internet. This makes all the human resource-related tasks easier to accomplish.
Human Resource Management Software Overview
Human resource management software is a solution to make the task of managing an already large or a growing workforce more efficient. It organizes and streamlines all the traditional HR tasks and functions. This includes applicant and personnel tracking, onboarding, managing time and attendance, payrolls and reviews of personnel performances.
HR software in the hiring process can also work effectively for HR persons. It helps you in developing and managing your most valuable resource in the business, your people.
There are three main categories in which an HR software solution can be applied.
- Core HR. The core HR solution covers three of the traditional functions of human resource management. This includes the payroll, benefits administration, and personnel tracking. You need the core HR function in a human resource management software in managing employees, time and attendance tracking, and regulatory compliance. This is an essential function if you want to do away with manually doing spreadsheets.
- Strategic HR. This software functionality is referred to as talent management. Strategic HR works on applicant tracking and recruitment, training and development, and learning and performance management. This software functionality organizes these human resource processes to make sure that the staff helps the company as efficiently as they can. This function is essential in letting employees grow and develop to increase satisfaction and retention rates.
- Workforce Administration. This software function is essential in scheduling and tracking your workforce effectively. This includes time and attendance tracking, the monitoring of compliance with labor laws, and payroll functions. Workforce administration in a human resource management also helps in efficiently managing personnel who work in shifts.
These three human resource management software are built for specific and individual functions. However, there are also integrated suites in HR management software that boast end-to-end functionalities for all aspects of human resources management.
HR Management Software Functions and Features
In choosing a human resource management software, there are certain functions and features that you have to look for. You want an HR management software solution that can accomplish its designed ability.
What does an HR management software do? To answer that question, here are the basic and key functions and features for every category of a human resource management software that can help you in organizing and managing your human resource responsibilities.
For a Core HR software, common functions includes:
- Personnel Tracking. This feature manages and stores your employee’s data in a central system like SSN, contact information, demographic information and past employments.
- Benefits Administration. This function of the software organizes all the information about the benefits of your employees like paid time off, dental, medical and life insurances and 401k participations.
- This software function helps you track employee salaries, bonuses and contributions and deductions. This also gives you the data for calculated withholding for your employee’s taxes and cuts paychecks.
For Strategic HR software, functions, and features include:
- Learning and Development. This strategic HR software feature provides a centralized system where all data and information of all training for new employees and ongoing proficiency development for existing employees are stored. This includes content authoring and management, certification path destination, testing, and reporting.
- Applicant Tracking Systems. Using an HR software systems centralizes all the data and information including all aspiring applicant’s information and all employment applications. This feature includes tracking of applicants, status monitoring, and integrations with other human resource solutions.
- Employee Evaluation. This feature helps you track and store reviews of your employees. This creates a centralized system for measuring, tracking and goals management of all employee performances.
The workforce administration category of an HR software has functions and features such as:
- Time and attendance Tracking. This feature will enable employees to check in and out of work in a central system where you can also track their attendance and absences. This can also give you alerts if your employee misses or completes the designated amount of time for work. Some software solutions also feature PTO and sick leave tracking.
- Employee Scheduling. This feature gives you a system where you can manage employee schedules and shifts to make sure that your staffing for a certain day is complete. This will help you schedule employees by department, location or project tasks and can give you notifications if there is a change in schedule or inadequate staffing.
Benefits of Using HR Software Solution
There are a lot of functions and features available in a human resource management software for you to use. But what exactly does it do for you? How does investing in an HR management software give a good turn for your business?
To help you decide if you need an HR software, here are the list of the benefits it can give you and your company.
- Centralized Information. Having an HR management software in the HR department of your company centralizes all the information. It creates a system where you can store all necessary documents and information which can be accessed by everyone through a network or a browser whenever they need to.
- Data Analysis. Having all the data and information in one system can help you create analytical points easily and more accurately. In using an HR software, various forms, and analytical results can be generated to help you foresee possible issues so you can address them immediately.
- Cost Reduction. Aside from saving you time and money through improved employee’s efficiency and productivity, using an HR software can reduce your expenses. Using the software, you can generate cost records and reports that will give you a clearer perspective moneywise. You can easily identify unnecessary expenses so you can minimize or cut them.
- Easy Access to Information. With a centralized system for all your business data and information, it makes it easy for you and your employees to access documents whenever they might have a need for it. Thus, by using an HR management tool, you allow more people to maximize the use of the data and resources you hold.
- Improved Communication. Having a central system for all business documents can also give you an organized place where you can get your contacts easily. Storing business contacts in paper and stacking it in a cabinet can get messy if you browse through endless papers whenever you need it. Using an HR system can help you avoid this hassle and improve your communication.
- Keeping all your important documents in filing cabinets is not safe at all. You can’t always know who accessed certain information and documents. However, if all your files are stored in an HR management system, you can be sure it’s secured. Some systems also keep database backups so you can restore your system quickly if ever a disaster may occur.
Market Trends to Look Out For
When buying a human resource management software, you want to make sure you purchased the best. How do you choose a human resource management software?
Aside from making sure you get the basic and necessary functions and features of an HR software, you might also want to look through the new trends of HR software in the market. There are additional functions and features that can help you get the most out of your HR system.
- Though there are three main categories in which an HR software can be used, there are also software providers that offer integrated systems. This will provide you all the functions of those three categories in one software system. The advantage of using an integrated HR software system is that it has a more seamless user interface, comprehensive analytics and it provides easy access to the data stored in the system.
- Cloud-based System. Having to purchase a one-time license for any software can be quite expensive. Using a cloud-based system, however, can let you subscribe to the system monthly or yearly. This can be an advantage especially for small businesses without a huge budget to upgrade to an expensive HR management system. Aside from a reduced capital investment, using this system also offers scalability and better functionality.
Incorporating an HR software solution in your business can amount to a lot of good things and benefits. Through this, you can improve your business’ effectiveness in terms of human resource management that is also a core for a successful business.
Visit CrowdReviews.com to know more about how HR software solutions can help you and read our human resource software reviews for a list of HR software available.
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