5 Essential Technologies for Your HR Department

Human Resources Department (HR) employees are in charge of multiple tasks on a daily basis, all of which are high-responsibility duties. Organizing interviews for new employees, checking the overall employees’ satisfaction levels, and managing everyone’s salaries are some of the many responsibilities on their shoulders. This is why it is necessary to aid them by providing them with different tools so that certain processes are sped up. Automating menial tasks will not only make things run faster but decrease the chances of an error occurring in any of the areas they are in charge of. This means they will be able to concentrate on the tasks of higher priority which will make them more efficient. With that in mind, here is a list of 5 essential technological tools for a productive HR department.

Storing and organizing data

Employee-related data are the basis of any Human Resources Department’s operations so they must be treated with care. Gone are the days of endless dusty shelves of files containing crumbling papers with important information on the employees. If you have the latest software solutions at your disposal, why not use them? Storing and organizing numerous data, such as employee’ profiles, schedules, and attendance records can now be facilitated with the use of different comprehensive human resource management systems. They also allow quick accessing and revising and at the same time, the possibility of the appearance of human error is significantly decreased.

Recruiting process aid

If you decided against recommendations and wanted to go expand the talent pool you are choosing employees from, then an online ad about an open position will most probably result in hundreds of applications regardless of the business’ size. Each of them has to go through the HR department which also has numerous other tasks on their hands so streamlining the recruitment process is essential for both an efficient search for the right candidate and proper HR operation. A practical recruitment software would offer the possibility to post job ads, sort and accept applications, as well as manage candidates without having to track anything manually which saves a lot of time.

Communication with remote employees

If your small business’ goal is to expand the current talent pool, as mentioned, then you need to be open to hiring remote employees. However, it is sometimes challenging to make remote employees truly integrate into the team which means that HR has to be in regular contact with them so they are reminded that they are a part of that corporate culture. This is why a small business phone system which includes VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is a perfect tool to stay in touch with the remote employees without worrying about the call costs. These systems often come with different options such as video chat, remote file sharing, interactive whiteboards and many other additions that facilitate communication and integration of remote employees.

Payroll system organization

The payroll process is often a grey area between accounting and HR, so a strong structure is needed to avoid mistakes due to an unclear division of tasks. Another reason why a pristine payroll system is more than necessary is the importance of payroll itself – the employees might personally like or dislike the company they work for but the main reason they work for it is the salary. By applying automation tools to manage payroll, you will ensure that everything goes according to the payment schedule, regardless of whether some employees are meant to be paid on a monthly basis, while independent contractors might need a one-time payment. These tools are also essential when it comes to remote employees since their productivity and manner of payment might differ from the standardized office ones.

Performance evaluation tools

Although your HR department might have an overall idea about the productivity of employees, it is impossible to know the details of every individual by heart. The best thing is that you don’t have to because, with the right solution, you can store previous performance evaluation results and access them when necessary. This would also prove useful because you would be able to track everyone’s progress, as well as to organize additional training if necessary or propose payroll upgrades and promotions. If all of that would have to be tracked manually, the risk of making a mistake or a wrong assessment increases drastically because the number of employees usually grows as the business expands.

Conclusion

Each business department has specific duties but it seems as though the HR department has the most versatile tasks of most departments which sometimes can be challenging to balance. With different technological solutions at the grasp of our hands, it would be impractical not to take advantage of them and apply them to facilitate many operations.

Manually tracking employee performance progress can lead to unwanted complications in case of omissions, and not to mention the legal implications behind a serious error with the payroll process. These are just some of the processes that can be approached more systematically which would leave more space for HR department employees to concentrate on other tasks that need to be tended for personally or which are even more relevant.