Show:

Innovative Software Solutions for HR Professionals

December 26, 2020 Business, Career

For businesses and organizations, software solutions have become a necessity. Be it small businesses or large scale industries, they rely on various software solutions to enable efficient and seamless management of various activities. From marketing to accounting, procurement to warehousing, software solutions have become essential tools. HR departments also benefit significantly from software solutions. While it may seem that such solutions are required only for large corporations that have a large number of employees, they also prove to be very productive for small businesses. Incorporating such solutions can simplify and automate various arduous tasks, saving time, and precious man-hours.

Human resource software solutions are categorized into three sets, which are not independent of each other. These include Human Resource Information Systems and Human Capital Management which are subsets of the third category, that is, Human Resource Management Systems.

Human Resource Information Systems

Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) are software solutions that are used to collect, store, and manage employee data. Expanding on that, an HR software system often encompasses a broader suite of tools tailored to streamline various HR processes. Except for collecting and storing data, these systems can facilitate functions such as benefits administration, talent management onboarding, and others. As organizations grow and HR tasks become more complex, the need for such integrated solutions becomes apparent. By automating and optimizing numerous HR tasks, businesses can achieve greater efficiency and accuracy in their operations. HRIS is not a single software, but a package that contains basic software solutions that can help a company in managing its employees, procedures, and relevant policies. Here are some of the software solutions that make up the HRIS.

Training and Development

Training and development software solutions commonly referred to as Learning Management Systems, provide flexible platforms to impart training in order to develop an effective, capable, and efficient workforce. They have specially designed tools that enable an interactive and organized form of learning. Employees can participate in courses based on their schedule and can easily track their progress. Further, courses can be assigned to them based on their capabilities and requirements.

Also, with the Absence Management System, they can also notify their supervisors about any upcoming absences that might affect the training schedule. These systems also have features for performance evaluation, which can help organizations identify areas of improvement and recognize employee achievements.

Attendance Management

The software helps manage the attendance and absence of your employees, from planned leaves to sick leaves. They also provide tools to employees through which they can submit leave requests and tools to their supervisors where they can approve or reject said requests. The advantage of these software solutions is that they allow both the employees and their supervisors to track their attendance on a common platform, enabling better and easier organization.  

Benefit Management

The software solutions under this category help manage employee compensation and benefits. This includes refunds, insurance, bonuses, and incentives. Benefit management software solutions let the employees track all these aspects and provide interactive tools that help save time and improve efficiency. Given that a corporation can have thousands of employees, each having a different compensation scheme, automating this process can save a lot of pointless effort.

Human Capital Management Systems

Human Capital Management Systems (HCMS) are software packages that are essentially a superset of the HRIS. In addition to all the tools provided in HRIS, they include a few more tools and are consequently also more expensive. Here are some of the additional software solutions provided as part of HCMS.

Talent Management and Analytics

These are a comprehensive set of tools that provide human resource managers a bird’s eye view of their talent pool. They help manage and track the journey of an employee in the company all the way from application tracking and onboarding to professional development and performance assessment. This allows human resource managers to identify potential development paths for employees based on their talents and skill sets. Employees can then be assigned specific courses and development programs using the Learning Management System.

Talent Acquisition

Corporations receive thousands of applications every year. Filtering through these applications and finding the perfect match is not an easy task. Recruitment focused software solutions can simplify applicant tracking and onboarding, allowing the human resource personnel to coordinate between departments and track the applicant through various stages of the recruitment process. They also help with the onboarding process.

HR and Global Services

These software solutions contain tools that provide easy access to the company’s data, policies, and documentation. Further, global tools are also provided which provide access to multi-currency features and multilingual interfaces. This becomes particularly important if your organization has a presence in more than one country or if some employees are deputed overseas.

Human Resource Management Systems

Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS) are a superset of the HCMS. The software package contains all the features of HCMS and HRIS in addition to a few extra tools that can automate and simplify the tasks of human resource executives of a corporation. They are also the most expensive package of the lot. Here are the software solutions that are provided as part of the HRMS in addition to the software solutions that are part of the HCMS and HRIS.

Payroll Management

Payroll Management Systems allow you to automate the process of calculating and distributing the pay of your employees. Such systems can help save a lot of time as the pay of various employees varies depending on their grade and contract conditions. Further, depending on their pay, their income taxes have to be calculated which can depend on the region and the country. To further complicate things, to save on taxes, the pay of the employees is often distributed as a combination of housing allowance, travel allowances, and basic salary. While such payroll management systems are indispensable for large organizations, they can be useful for small businesses as well.

Time and Labor Management

Time and Labor Management Systems allow you to automate shift scheduling, recording of employee work hours, and control how employees enter their work hours. Employees have access to their timesheets via the internet and they can themselves fill in their work hours. The software can further sync up with compatible Payroll Management Software solutions to make the necessary adjustments. This offers the added flexibility of calculating the pay of employees depending on their work hours and shifts.

Although such software solutions for HR professionals can involve a significant investment, they can help automate various repetitive tasks, saving crucial time and effort. Depending on the size and complexity of your organization, you can opt for different packages. If your organization is not very large and has a small number of employees, you can opt for the Human Resource Information System. While on the other hand, if you have a large and complex organization, you could benefit significantly from a much more comprehensive package, like the Human Resource Management System.