Why your company needs a human resource software?

If we talk about the most important department in a business organization, it is undoubtedly the human resource department. The reason is that the human resource department is responsible for hiring, training, and rewarding the staff members. And in case the right type of employees is not hired, the consequences can be dreadful.

To introduce utmost ease in the operations of the human resource department, experts have developed HRM software. Such a software assists the human resource department in numerous HR tasks such as hiring, payroll, and employee benefits.

While most companies are using an online HR software in their human resource departments, some companies are still reluctant to use it in their companies. They regard it as an extra expense rather than an investment. Let us look at some of the reasons why companies should use an HR management software in their businesses.

Workload management:

An HRMS software helps to reduce the workload of the human resource department. Such a software provides them a single place, where they can organize and record all the HR activities. Thus, such a software helps them to organize all the tasks very effectively.

Hiring:

Hiring is the most important task a human resource department needs to perform. Such a software provides you with a space, where you can post all the job advertisements. Through the same software, you can receive CVs of the interested candidates and track them. So you need to use such software in your organization for the purpose of making hiring easier.

Information hub:

Handling bulk of information regarding employees can be troublesome at times for the HR department. To solve this problem, you may use a human resource software, because it also acts an HRIS software. So it will be very easy for you to handle all the important data regarding the employees.

Productivity:

If the clerical tasks, such as record keeping and payroll, are performed by the software, then the employees in the human resource department can focus on more important issues such as employee training designs and crafting job designs. This increases the productivity of the HR department.

Many businesses are able to achieve superior performance by using an HR management software. Using such a software helps the HR department to be more effective in its operations, which in turn has good impacts on the overall business performance. 

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EmployWise: Save Time & Energy with Good Prioritizing Skills

Prioritizing tasks is an important skill that not only helps to focus what is important, but also allows doing tasks on time with more attention and energy. For dealing with time management problems, prioritizing can facilitate in making better use of time, along with eliminating gaps in productivity. With this skill, you need not to work faster, but schedule your time in a way that you can dedicate time for various activities.

The 80/20 Rule...

When we are overburdened with work, we are not able to dedicate time and energy to all of them. At times we are even short of resources, which start hampering the work and results in several things left undone. Prioritizing is a way that helps solve all these problems and reduce frustration.

Prioritizing all the tasks in a way that this 20% contribution from our activities is properly scheduled can help us spend more time with family and produce better value outputs. In addition to this, it will help us understand what is important and what is urgent.

Prioritizing Tasks

For prioritizing skills in a useful manner, you should be able to differentiate your work as important and urgent. To prioritize work as important, you should focus on work that provides value, think for long term and one should have a clear vision. Rather than wasting time on different things, one should understand that first things always come first.

Usually when the tasks are given they all seem urgent and important, but in fact, most of the urgent activities that keep us involved are not really important for the long run. Tasks should be prioritized in such a way that they help us achieve long-term goals or may have long-term consequences.

Therefore, Good prioritizing skills facilitates everyone to finish the urgent tasks as soon as possible that may cause a problem if not taken care at time. These skills always prove helpful in saving time and energy and also reward us in the long run.

EmployWise is an Online HR Software for the life-cycle of an employee including Leave and Attendance software, Employee Database, Travel and Expense Management. Start Your Free Trial for 30 Days

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EmployWise: How Corporate Recruiters Can Prop-Up Talent Management?

Talent management is an important section that is increasingly gaining attention and is helping organizations to bring management initiatives and human resources together. These days, companies utilize different types of talent management schemes so as to develop high potential employees. But only 56% organizations are able to rate their talent management activities as effective, while others are experiencing a downturn in talent management.

The fact is that organizations are not successfully integrating their succession planning and talent with their strategic business plans. Sometimes, it can be due to disconnect in the hiring process between hiring manager and recruiters. But companies need to understand that talent management should always be seen as a long-term process, in order to achieve success.

Role of Corporate Recruiters in Talent Management

Corporate Recruiters can always act as a bridge between cultural changes and employees. They tend to have a better understanding about the corporate culture and new employee’s expectations in relation to work culture.

For example, when a new employee experiences a change of culture, recruiters can help the new employees by managing their expectations as per the organizational culture. At the same time, they can also have a discussion with the managers to make them aware of how they can assist the new team members and facilitate them in making cultural adjustments. This kind of proactive behavior can always help organizations to manage their talent pool for a longer time span.

In addition to cultural adjustments, job and career expectations in the new employees also raise issues, which sometimes affect talent management schemes. In such scenarios, recruiters can guide the new team members to be flexible and talk to managers regarding highlighting the job role to the employees.

This way, new members will have the idea of how their job role will be different in future as compared to now. Managers will also be able to develop and nurture their team members, thus managing the talent pool effectively.

EmployWise is a complete Human Resource Management system for the life-cycle of an employee including Leave and Attendance software, Employee Database, Travel and Expense Management. Start Your Free Trial for 30 Days

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Importance of human resource management software

With the increasing globalization, it has become difficult for the business organizations to cope with the challenges of the modern world. In other words, businesses now need to pay more attention to their policies and operations, in order to be successful in the business line they are operating.

To meet the increasing challenges, the use of technological advancements has increased a great deal in the businesses. The human resource department is the most important department of the business, and to cater its needs, many businesses are making use of a HRM software. It is very important to use one or more HRMS solutions in the business, due to a number of reasons. Some of the reasons are described below: 

Cost:

Businesses are adopting the practice of one-time investment, so that routine operating cost can be decreased. This can be effectively done by implementing any of the HR Software solutions.  Such a software lets the employees to post their leave applications, which can be easily tracked by the supervisors. Moreover, attendance system is totally automated if you use an HR Management Software in your business.

All this shows that you can significantly cut down the cost of paper in business, which helps you to create a paper free environment in the business and in turn reduces the operating cost of business. This shows how important it is to use such a software.

Reduced errors:

No business wants to have errors in its operations. Error-free operations are only possible when most of the operations are automated. Automation can be introduced in the business with the help of a SAAS HRM Software. When there will be least human intervention in the operations, the errors will be reduced to a minimum.

Quality human resource:

Hiring efficient and well-trained human resource is always critical to the success of the business. A SAAS HRM software lets you post all the new job post advertisements through this software. Interested candidates can then post their resumes through the same software.

  

Information database:

Such a software also lets you to manage all the employees’ information in a single database. You do not need to manage a pile of files to maintain information regarding employees.  

Time factor:

A lot of time can be saved by the use of an HR Management Software, which can then be utilized on other important issues such as employee training programs and job designs.

To meet the challenges to today’s business environment, it is very important to use a human resource management software.

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How a Human Resource Software is useful for your business?

It is of no doubt that the human resource department is the most crucial part for the success of an organization. It is the department, who designs all the policies for a company and they also put policies into practice. So every business needs to have well-trained, dedicated, and useful human resource. But it is not always easy to hire good employees!

Fortunately, technology has helped us in this regard. A Human Resource Management Software helps you in performing the functions of HR department in a very efficient way. It has a number of features and benefits, which will help your business flourish by leaps and bounds. Some of its uses are described below: 

Hiring: 

A HRMS Software provides you with a platform where you can post all the advertisements. People then put their resumes on the same place. This makes it easy for you to track all the job applications very efficiently. This helps you to hire such employees, who are fit for the job.

Leaves and Attendance: 

If your business makes use of a HRM software, you do not need to keep any attendance register in your company. Everybody marks his attendance through the software. Moreover, it also lets employees to put forwards their leave applications. Supervisors can then approve or disapprove the leave through the same software.

This adds automation to your business, decreases operating cost of the business, and lets employees divert their attention towards something more constructive such as job designs and training programs.

Payroll:

An Online HR software also lets you to make payroll calculations of each employee by taking into account all the important details such as leaves and employees’ benefits. This helps you save a lot of time of your business.

Information database:

Such a software not only adds automation to the HR activities, but also works as a HRIS Software. With such a software, you can add all the important information regarding employees such as their addresses, contact numbers, employment history, payroll information, and other such details.

Customization:

It is not the case that you need to adjust your business according to the software. Rather you can adjust this software according to your business requirements. Every business has its own unique needs, and such a software carries a number of templates, which you can use according to your business needs.

Many online HR softwares are available in the market. A good example of such a software is Employwise. 

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EmployWise - Key Elements to Become Proactive At Work

We deal with two kinds of people in our daily life, Active & Passive. People within the first category look at the future, predict outcomes and prepare for consequences, while others react to the events happening around them. People within the first category also prefer making conscious decisions as part of a long term plan and such people, being proactive are the most valuable for a company.

Being practical and positive is a practice where people develop the capability to manage situations by causing things to happen their way. Such people do not need others to hand them an instruction manual to do their job, they simply start gathering information, predict outcomes and strive hard to get positive results. They constantly move forward and make things work.

Being Proactive At Work

Being involved in the office or staying away from everything is entirely up to you. . There are some scenarios, when you need to make decisions immediately, but apart from that, it is crucial for you to be flexible and adapt to the changing environment. Being upbeat at the workplace not only provides you the edge over others but also makes you strong and not to forget your managers can always trust with any task that needs to be done. Here are few points that could help you to become more proactive at workplace.

• Anticipate Problems: Your first step towards being proactive requires you to adapt the capability of anticipating problems, opportunities and events. Understanding work, recognizing daily practices, gathering information and coming up with different scenarios can always assist you in this matter.
• Foresee Obstacles & Finding Solutions: Initially, as you start with anticipating potential obstacles, your next step is to find several ways to overcome them. This will always help you in future and one can avoid such obstacles from becoming a roadblock.
• Planning For Future: This would always keep you one step ahead and will help you predict the long term consequences. In this scenario, you can always focus on your current actions that can ensure success in future.
• Active Participation: Getting involved in activities, taking initiatives and becoming a part of the solution again boosts your proactive capabilities.
• Effective Actions: Taking timely and effective action, being decisive and willing to take up the responsibility to produce good quality results is a quality of a proactive person. You should always stand behind your decisions and take the ownership of your performance.

These are just a few things that can be done in the workplace. Apart from this, you should be able to take thoughtful steps and develop the capability of choosing the appropriate path.

Employwise is a complete Human Resource Management Software for the life-cycle of an employee including Leave and Attendance software, Employee Database, Travel and Expense Management. Start your free trial for 30 days....

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EmployWise - How HR Analytics Contributes Towards Improving Performance?

If you think that HR Analytics is just another management view, then you are absolutely mistaken. The latest trends state that HR analytics are massively contributing by driving insights to action. These days, organizations are bringing these analytics into play for effectively managing and improving performance.

When workforce investments affect operational costs...

This new trend is helping organizations in improving profitability by balancing the lowest effective headcount and efficient workforce cost control along with ensuring delivery of services in a satisfactory manner. If executives and line managers wish to have a view of top and bottom performing employees, HR analytics can assist them at every step.

This not only allows them to retain their key talent pool, but also addresses various looming gaps that affect the development of organization. If there is a need for event-based and scheduled alerts (push technology), then this analytics solution can proactively send these alerts via email, text messages or even personalized dashboards.

When HR Analytics Addresses Information Needs...

Organizations can dig into issues using HR analytics and use the analytical workflow to gain insight on various matters and then accordingly take an action. But there are various aspects, when HR analytics can be of a great assistance, for example:

1. To develop a strategic workforce plan, analytical workflow can provide an insight on current headcount level, turnover trends and even projected turnovers, so as to forecast the capacity of different teams.
2.  These workflows provide a high level metrics of newly hired candidates, average time and cost of hiring, best candidate source and much more. Specialists can always use this information to have a view of the recruiting pipeline and can develop a recruitment plan.
3. Effectiveness of learning programs, organizational skill maps, development plans, employee potentials and much more. All these analytics can be brought to play while developing workforce capabilities and increasing employee engagement.

These days, various business intelligence software applications are easily available for HR departments that tend to improve work performance and assist people with Business Acumen, as well.

Employwise is an Online HR Software for the life-cycle of an employee including Leave and Attendance software, Employee Database, Travel and Expense Management. Start your free trial for 30 days....

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Why use Human Resource Management Softwares?

In the ever changing business environment, it has become tough for the management to meet the current challenges. To come up to the expectation of the business clients, you need to have a well-trained, dedicated, expert human resource.

Hiring the right type of employees has been always crucial for the business enterprise, as employees are the ones who are designing policies and then execute them. Most of the business functions are performed by technological advancements these days, and HR Software are used these days for performing different jobs of human resource management. 

Using HRMS Software has a number of benefits. Some of these benefits are detailed below: 

Productivity:

Many companies use HR solutions because they feel they can increase their productivity. Using such software introduces automation in many routine tasks such as payroll and administration. So in this way, you do not need to hire HR clerks, and your HR experts can focus their attention on major HR issues such as training tricks and tools for employees.  

Accuracy: 

To err is human. This old cliché is quite right in fact. Nobody would like the situation if his business has to face loss due to a human error, whether clerical or logical. In this situation, HR Software can be used to reduce the amount of errors, for example, in the payroll information. Such Software makes sure that everything is working as it should. 

Information Database: 

Gone are the days when you require a bundle of reams of paper to record information regarding employees. You do not need to handle a lot of paper files containing all the employees’ data. The reason is that such software also acts as HRIS Software, and all the information regarding employees such as performance appraisal results, important dates, and other such information. This is the value added function of a good HR software. 

Time: 

Automation not only increases productivity but also saves a lot of time. It is beneficial to use HRMS Software because they provide you with a single place, where all the employees can post their leaves and the managers can mark their approval or disapproval as well. It also provides you a place where management can post all the new job advertisements and track all the resumes online. So it definitely saves a lot of time. 

Using an HR software, such as Employwise is very beneficial for the business enterprise, as it reaps a number of benefits for the business.

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What is an HR Management software?

An HRM software is probably the most important software, which has the potential to contribute greatly to the development of business. It has contributed a lot to success of many business corporations, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations.

Human Resource software is a revolutionary software, which has the ultimate capability to meet the increased needs of present era with regard to human resource department. This software can reduce the manual labor in terms of time of work and amount of work done. Such software is designed with the ultimate purpose of making improvements in the human resource department. It is made with the basic premise that human resource department is the most important software in the organization (whichever the type of organization is), and can make business progress with leaps and bounds, if goes properly.

Functions of Online HR software:

A number of functions are performed by human resource software. All these functions are performed with total accuracy, so business managers can completely rely on the results and functions of these softwares. Some of the functions of a HRMS Solution are listed below:

Attendance:

If you use an online HR software, you do not need to have an attendance register in your organization, and rely on the signatures of the employees. Device attached with human resource software are used to track the attendance of the employees. Biometric attendance systems produces far better results than manual attendance systems, as manual signatures can be forged. On the other hand biometric system of the software records attendance with the help of thumb impression, which cannot be forged.

Payroll:

Salary calculations are also very easy with the help of an online HR software. You HR clerks will not need to perform hectic and bulky calculations of salary. It also introduces accuracy in the system of salary calculations. So it adds accuracy and also saves a lot of time, which can then be consumed on something more important such as designing jobs and making appraisal strategies.

Hiring:

The process of hiring has become very convenient with human resource software. This software easily handles online and offline recruitment procedures. It provides you with a space where resumes can be posted and then managers can track all the job applications.

Information database:

This software also acts as very effective HRIS solutions, as all the employees data can be very effectively with it. So if you have such a software, you do not need to manage any HRIS solutions.

Employwise is such a software which can effectively serve all the important functions of Human resource department.

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HR Automation - Your Strategic Step Forward

Organisations now have to be more proactive in terms of its approach towards its employees, their aspirations and meeting their expectations.

With the opening up of economies and employees having more exposure to international trends, it is sometimes a challenge to meet their expectations. Large multinational companies bring with them global practices that are efficient and scalable and allow these companies to quickly scale up as per the requirements. There is a reason why these companies have managed to run successful businesses not only within their own countries but also beyond their boundaries. 

So what is it that they have that makes them so successful and robust and that they have the caliber to challenge local players. It is their ability to quickly align themselves, re-structure, re-organize, re-think, re-schedule and meet the ongoing challenges. And all this is possible because they are not dependent on people but on processes. These organisations have now become process centric. Given the large geography that these organisations now operate in, it is practically not possible to be people dependent and not having a robust system in place. Be it establishing their inventory control mechanism or the quality control or for that matter putting up a process for Finance control etc. Anything and everything is now process dependent.

But what is a process if its not adhered to, and that’s where the technology comes to salvage the situation. Technology allows an error free, controlled flow of processes that can be tweaked as per the requirements and allows interventions when required The Need for HR Automation While organisations can continue to work in the way that they traditionally have been working but there are some serious benefits that organisations can derive when they choose to automate the HR processes. It has been observed that a lot HR people’s time is spent on transactional HR activities that practically add no value to an organisation.

A simple processes like leave and attendance, if not automated consumes a lot of time. HR professionals will have to handle queries relating to leave balances, leave entitlements, policy clarifications, reimbursements management in person.

Similarly, in more complicated processes like performance management, training and development, it takes more time for HR to collate the data than to actually make sense out of it. Adding to it are the task of chasing managers for a timely completion of appraisals while handling other processes manually. And once the appraisals are finally done, HR ends up with huge heap of paper appraisals with lots of texts written in free hand and then it has to make sense out of the overall developmental needs of the organisation. It’s simply not aligned and it’s simply not scalable!

If automated, HR will simply control the flow and not push the processes in the organisation. HR acts as an enabler to a process that is supposed to happen rather than loose sleep over something that is beyond its physical control.

Automating a process not only saves the precious time but also makes it error free. If you’re interested in learning about what Key Traits you should be looking out for in an HR software or HR automation process, we invite you to join us on www.employwise.com

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EmployWise: Anointing the Bruise of Performance Appraisal

Performance appraisals induce strong tremors as aftershocks which have known to cause cracks in the mental state of employee’s. These cracks soon transcend and escalate into wide gorges, which cause rifts between the employee and his company.

Majority of the company’s employ an appraisal model, irrespective of its effectiveness and even its implementation. But no matter its finesse in execution, the truth remains that the factor of subjectivity will play spoilsport in maintaining an impartial and unbiased appraisal review.

The factor of subjectivity is bred in our human nature, and the outcome is directly proportional to the vibes between the manager conducting the review and the employee being reviewed.

Companies have learnt to pause recruitment drives post immediately after their performance appraisal, as they are expecting resignations form employee’s, who have fallen victim to the cracks from their appraisals.Therefore it’s essential to practice damage control which perhaps may mend and prevent the loss of an employee which may cause a talent deficit in the organization.The best antidote is to invoke a fair feedback system immune to character assassinations of managers due to the rage of employee’s.

Indian corporate has established a dogma which is far fetched from the fact of introducing these feedback systems. This is due because, feedbacks systems turn volatile as they need to find balances between being negative or constructive irrespective of it being the truth. And the skill of diplomacy is not something everyone bags.

The best remedy is to create an anonymous feedback system which confines the feedbacks in an enclosure as options given and to provide a quality and fair canvas to the employee’s. Prominent measures need to be taken by the HR to provide testament to the worthiness of the feedback which may in turn be a reassurance to the employee’s.

Job satisfaction has a direct impact upon the manager and employee relationship, its the prime ingredient in cooking up resignations and causing alarming talent deficits. Good performers fall victim to subjectivity and often cause a large void in the talent pool of the company upon their withdrawal.

Upon introspection it can be noted that the performance of an employee is a complex equation harnessing the variables such as motivational factors, training, expected outcomes, resources, delegates and the extent of empowerment. If an employee fails to meet the relevant and required competencies it’s rather absurd to blame the employee unless it is a case of voluntary underachievement.

The crucial litmus test of an organization in an employee’s mind lies in the way the company treats its departing employees. Therefore the outcome of this test is what defines the rate of corrosion in the employee pool.

Employwise is a complete HR Software for the life-cycle of an employee including Leave and Attendance software, Employee Database, Travel and Expense Management. Start your free trial for 30 days....

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EmployWise: Performance Appraisal, the Necessary Evil

Performance appraisal has always been deemed as part of performance management, due to the fact that it was the only window a company could employ to understand the performance and manage resources bestowed on its employees.

But rather than posing itself as part of performance management, the fact remains that’s its only a tool to manage performance.

Performance appraisal is known for its inflammable nature, which might turn relationship between the manager and his subordinates into ashes. It proved a hostile environment for talent recognition and earned itself a contemplation to extinguish it completely from the pages of performance management.

But recognizing talent remains a crucial aspect in a company’s step towards its growth, it’s imperative to seek out an employee’s forte and reference it with the competencies required. Therefore it’s apt to label performance appraisal as necessary evil.

In retrospect, a survey done among fifty firms concluded that all of them adopted some model of performance management, while it had worked for some but others had to rethink their model or to discard the appraisal system. Performance management lays out the canvas to paint a more efficient organization. It sets the goals and provides the talent and workforce requirements with a great deal of specificity.

The success of the model adopted relies on the way it’s sold in the company. The theme is to be objective. Goals need to be transparent and clear and should be conveyed to the employee’s without any degree of ambiguity. Lately conventional review systems are being discarded and a more employee friendly reviews are being conducted. It’s religiously followed and the cycle continues every year. It helps the employee to understand their strengths and aids the company to align these strengths towards the betterment of the organization.

When a working model has been discovered, the company switches gear and takes off in stealth mode towards the destination of growth. When competencies and employee strengths are aligned, a profound sense of worthiness blooms within the workforce which yields more productivity and harvests a better profit for the company.

Therefore rather than criticizing and curbing the appraisal system it’s advisable to make it in a way that covers all the facets of performance management system such as goal setting, performance feedback and goal based appraisals.

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EmployWise: Performance Appraisal Software

Performance Appraisals can briefly be summed up as a periodic formal interaction between a subordinate and supervisor in the form of an interview, in which the performance of the subordinate is examined and discussed, with the aim of identifying and improving on weaknesses and at the same time building on strengths and other skills.

While this can often transform into a dreaded exercise involving plenty of paperwork, we at EmployWise provide a Performance Appraisal Software that can transform this process into a simpler and systematic one that yields better results. 

An effective employee performance appraisal system is one in which the goals of the employee are aligned with those of the company through a standard system of goal setting.

EmployWise provides a complete employee life-cycle management solution. Winner of the 2008 Beacon Award, it works on the simple premise of maximizing ROTI-Return on Talent Investment. We at EmployWise have created a Performance Management module which provides a flexible and efficient performance management system that allows employee and manager a self service enabled performance evaluation system while reducing the burden of mountains of paperwork from the shoulders of HR. Appraisal forms and reviews can be filed and obtained online. It also manages all computations and aggregations therefore saving the organization of the time involved in compiling company-wide performance data. The performance management module performs the task of creating, executing and analyzing a systematic, transparent and confidential performance appraisal process. As an automated, employee self service system, it provides the flexibility to choose from KRA, competence or Balance Scorecard method based management systems.

Employee performance is a crucial element of any organization. And performance appraisals act as the yardstick for determining individual performances at a macro level and also focus on identifying individual weaknesses.

The performance management module also enables systematic, efficient, regular and frequent reviews and candid and constructive feedback to the employee. The combination of the Performance Management module with the Learning and Development module creates a comprehensive employee capability development system.

All employees and managers of the organization can be ensured of complete confidentiality throughout the entire process and the EmployWise module enables employees to keep track of their career growth within the organization. It enables the mapping of role KRAs and KPIs as well as role competencies and also allows managers to get complete and easy access to KRAs to maintain consistent and good performances from employees.

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EmployWise - The Rise of Employee Self-service portals

HR being the resourceful department first used employee self-service portals as a cost cutting method.  With the surge in technology, these SSPs are emerging as the new generation tools and proving to be contributors to productivity and greater employee satisfaction.

The SSPs  within the human resource framework allows the automation of the ever growing administrative tasks like payroll, benefits administration, corporate information, employee data base and training material. It points the Human Resource team in the direction of becoming a strategic and focal point within an organization.  These SSPs provide direct access to the employees to important information and eliminate the unnecessary HR processes that increase time and add to delays in these transactions.  This in turn frees up the HR team to work on value-added tasks like talent management, succession planning, staff development, performance and retention strategies and compensation & benefits policies.

A well-structured HRIS would allow employees to access the information through a completely web-based model using a web browser. The other kind of data that HR would be able to upload would be performance appraisal documents, all employee emails, employee handbooks containing update HR policies and guides.  Without these self-help portals, HRIS would only be useful for the HR team who would still need to labour to get these across to all employees.  With an EIP the onus to keep up to date with the happenings in the company, lies with the employees.

The automation of these regular administrative processes reduces the turnaround time for each transaction, saves on valuable man-hours being spent on a rote task, increases awareness and satisfaction both for employees and management and saves on the cost of possibly outsourcing these tasks.  HR leaders would be able to invest time in putting together metrics to accurately assess the cost savings and effectiveness of this self-help portal to justify its existence within the HR realm.

The automation of these processes eliminates mundane paperwork, streamlines routing and approval processes, enhances tracking and compilation of data for HRIS and replaces the old time consuming data management processes. With such accurate data in place the possibility of error is largely reduced and hence the stream of calls to the HR team to rectify such errors also becomes a forgotten story.

In addition to the lowering of administrative dependency on HR, it’s is putting the employees in the driver’s seat.  They feel a sense of empowerment as their vital information and details along with accurate business information is at their fingertips and is available to them to peruse whenever they are free to do so.  These portals also increase the sense of responsibility on the part of the employees with whom the onus lies to keep their personal information updated and also to keep abreast with the latest happenings in the company.  Since first hand and precise information is readily available, divergent information and rumors are kept at bay, leading to an increase in employee satisfaction and retention.

Self-service portals within the HR realm are highly recommended and would be desirable for many organizations.  HR is a crucial function and all the transactions, like other critical business transactions, require supporting data, are time bound and are part of a larger framework that support organizational goals.  The software on these portals must be easy to understand and use, keeping employees motivated and spurred on to keep it constantly on their radar.  Companies can think of allowing access of this self-service portal via mobile devices too.  This will empower the users even further and will reduce the time taken for information to be available to all concerned.  These Self Service Portals make for effective collaboration between the company’s processes and its most valuable resource – the human resource.

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EmployWise - Streamlining the Process of Performance Management

Every company’s Holy Grail has been increasing efficiency, productivity and quality. The gold rush has always been in automating processes which result in achieving their targets. Automation provides a steady and constant outcome irrespective of most factors which can affect employees. Since automation has engulfed most processes in companies, is time to look at automating processes linked with managing human resources.

Considerable success has been felt lately with the automation of talent management, which involves recruiting, employee performance, learning management, compensation and succession planning. All these entities in the past were performed by HR pro’s and supervisors. Until recently automated software can perform the above tasks with minimal flaw and a significant increase in productivity. It also decreases the time taken by a landslide.

Organizational Alignment

Automating performance management software aids in providing an alignment in the workforce by tethering employee goals with required competencies to provide a streamlined path towards achieving company’s objectives. Employees can also link their individual skills with the company’s goal and visualize how they affect the company’s targets.

Supervisors are provided with complete details about how each employee is achieving his set targets and are given regular updates on progress. Overall, they tend to provide an increase in employee engagement and deliver higher performance.

Bench Strength and New Leadership

The importance of setting bench marks is to be aware of the required competencies and available resources instilled as skills among employees. Automation fits rightly in just doing so it could provide a common forum listing all the objectives and the required skill sets needed to achieve the objectives.

Employees can regularly refer to this forum and make adjustments to achieve the set goals.

Quality Employee Feedback

To provide moral support in order to ensure employees always remain focused, providing accurate feedback is crucial. Feedback provides a platform which not only boosts the morale of the employees but also provide relevant information based on how they are performing. Employees can use this information to alter the efforts so as to increase their efficiency and earn a good feedback.

Feedback systems are saturated and highly subjective when performed by supervisors. It is a highly time consuming process, but complex algorithms can be employed in automation to provide a worthy feedback and cut down immensely on the time taken.

Skill Training

Automating sets clear and precise goals and conveys the relevant competencies required. Supervisors and employees can visualize skill gaps and can deploy necessary measures to provide a bridge that can overcome those skill gaps. Tools can even provide managers the available resources such as training programs available which an employee can take.

Optimizing performance management process by automating it is one of the great ways to achieve it.

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EmployWise: RIP Best Practices?

In a world dominated by Facebook and LinkedIn, there is no doubt that the Human Resource department, as we know it, needs to evolve. HR mainly comprises of two important objectives – personnel management and business execution. Personnel management has become completely automated, as a result of which, the services that needed face-to-face interactions earlier are now online anywhere and anytime thanks to web-based HRMS which offers ‘self-service tools’. Business execution has also become a round-the-year continuous process as it is easy to map individual goals and align it with the company’s strategic goals with the help of an effective employee management system.

HR, as we know it, is dying a slow death? No instead, it is slowly becoming a more powerful, significant and strategic unit for any company as the various processes are getting streamlined and updated data is available to the HR manager 24/7 for informed decision-making process to drive employee as well as company growth.

High-performing companies can now free their Human Resource team from transactional functions to focus on processes that support business execution like re-planning company goals, organization design, career progression, succession planning and goal alignment. These areas have been traditionally neglected in India till now but with the benefit of HR software, managers can accurately plan the training, development and coaching activities. They will also get more time to monitor employees through continuous activities and three sixty degrees feedback which can assist in identifying the right candidates for rewards and promotions.

One of my previous blogs dealt with the importance of applying technology in HR functions and I will say it again- “Technology has made it impossible for the Human Resource Manager to function the same way it did ten years back”. But technology in itself is not enough. It needs to be driven by the HR manager to make it more relevant and effective. Chuck Palahnuik, American journalist, once said, “right now, getting killed would be redundant”. I don’t know about him but it certainly holds true for HR in India right now.

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EmployWise - Nothing suits me like a suit!

While many companies are turning to a more relaxed, casual work environment, a majority of companies in India have a strict dress code policy although there is very little employee acceptability for such enforced rules. Clothes have a way of reflecting a person’s personality traits and at the same time there is a definite psychological influence on the wearer as well as the audience.

Harvey Specter and Don Draper; two powerful men with good looks and important clients have a knack for closing business deals by their sheer presence. What else do they have in common? A love for suits! The two best dressed men of our times have a fetish for impeccable designer suits and not just because the dress code is so. Even Barney Stintson, America’s favorite lady killer chose his suit over a hot girl. Suits, the epitome of power dressing symbolizes confidence, success and ambition, all at one go.  In India, power dressing is reserved for once-in-a-month events like big-client meetings, conferences and ofcourse job interviews.

While many companies are turning to a more relaxed, casual work environment, a majority of companies in India have a strict dress code policy although there is very little employee acceptability for such enforced rules. Clothes have a way of reflecting a person’s personality traits and at the same time there is a definite psychological influence on the wearer as well as the audience.

Appropriate dress codes are important in a workplace as they reflect the company’s intention to stay focused on serious about their business. A compulsory dress code helps in enhancing and maintaining the company’s public perception and image.  This holds true especially when there is a lot of consumer interface like in banks, educational institutes, retail or consultancies. There is no direct link between dress code and productivity, but surveys point to the fact that casual clothes have a negative influence on the employee’s attitude and energy level. Many firms in India are flexible in their formal dress code attire and do not insist on female employees wearing suits, trousers and shirt or formal skirts. Indian formals (i.e sari and kurti) are also equally acceptable as long as they are not accessorized.. Quite a few firms in India even give out extremely detailed dress codes defining the appropriate heel size for shoes, necktie style or the acceptable jewelry designs. These restrictive policies do not work well in India as employees refuse to accept these given parameters most of the time. 

To avoid the hornet’s nest many companies just ask their employees to ‘dress professionally’. Then there are firms that encourage their employees’ uniqueness by simply asking them to ‘wear something’ like Google India does. Infact until a few years ago, employees of IT firms, dotcoms and even advertising firms could walk in to the office in tank tops, shorts and flip-flops. While such casual clothing attitude does encourage informality and a heightened level of casualness, employers should be proactive in creating and circulating a list of non-acceptable cloth items also. Specific dress code standards should be set up so that employees can differentiate between relaxed, casual and informal dressing styles. Also, the employer needs to lay equal stress on neatness and orderliness as things like unpolished shoes, dirty nails, uncombed hair are also a big no-no in the work-place but in India these things are pointedly ignored as they are too personal in nature.   

It is imperative to have a definite dress code in the office so that employees know what is expected from them and what is not acceptable. It should not follow a specific fashion trend but instead focus on the business environment as it should be appropriate. The employer needs to remember that the employees need to be comfortable in what they wear or productivity will suffer.

EmployWise is the only HR Software delivered in the HR SaaS Software model that provides total employee life-cycle management capabilities. Start your free trial for 30 days....

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EmployWise - 5 Key Factors to Increase Employee Motivation

Employee motivation is a tricky subject for most managers and organization heads. Yet it is imperative for them to handle employee motivation diligently since it forms the core for organizational success. Employee Motivation essentially means developing effective ways to recognize and applaud the contributions of your employees whereby they are encouraged to perform better and contribute more productively to their organization.

According to entrepreneur.com, employee motivation is “using both tangible and intangible rewards to keep employees enthusiastic, loyal and interested in continued improvement”.

One way organizational heads can improve the level of employee motivation in their organization is by first ensuring that there is a definite structure or setup that is well implemented within their organization for understanding, assessing, measuring and rewarding employee activities and achievements.

J P Maroney, the founder of People Builders has listed down five success keys to effective employee motivation. According to him, the key factors for employee motivation are satisfaction, appreciation, recognition, inspiration and compensation.

Satisfaction: When employees are happy at work, they are always motivated and productive than those employees who are unhappy with their work. Therefore, organizations must increase and innovate ways to keep their employees happy. There are different ways to improve satisfaction at work. Organizations must understand what the workforce needs – may be flexible hours, rewards and recognition scheme, opportunities for career growth, open-door policy or anything else – and “satisfy” these needs. This way, when you have satisfied employees, you are also likely to have satisfied customers.

Appreciation: Employees like to be recognized for their efforts and their contributions to the organization. Therefore, managers and organization heads must make honest attempts and take every opportunity to openly praise and appreciate their employees. Appreciation is an effective morale booster. The more frequent it is, the better it motivates employees. A pat on the back, a few encouraging words, a thank you note, a mention in a meeting, a write up in a weekly newsletter are all simple ways to convey to your employees that you care for them and hold high their services to your organization.

Recognition: Employees like to learn that their work in the organization is taken note of, and that they are considered as assets of the organization. Managers and organization heads must honor this innate employee attribute and have a sound rewards and recognition system in place. They must find ways interesting ways to motivate their employees to perform a task and when the said task has been accomplished successfully, it must also be rewarded appropriately.

Work and non-work related contests, in-house rewards for various contributions and even recognizing their contributions outside of work will increase employee motivation by leaps and bounds. 

Inspiration: Employees always look up to their seniors and the organization head for inspiration. But more importantly they also look for inspiration in their organizations and the values it stands for. Keeping this in mind, organizations looking for improved employee motivation must have a strong mission statement and the heads of the organization must sincerely abide by these values and missions. When leaders lead form the front, employees will be inspired to follow them. Employees will be happy to work for an organization that is true to its beliefs and works towards realizing its dreams. Since every employee aspires the same, he will take inspiration from the organization itself. Inspired employees are also motivated and loyal.

Compensation: Monetary rewards or tangible rewards are one of the important factors of employee motivation. Therefore, organizations can use this means well to their benefit. Performance bonuses, promotional raises, salary hike, enabling profit sharing, giving gifts and distributing reward coupons are some of the effective means of compensation.

Employwise is a complete HR Management Software for the life-cycle of an employee including Leave and Attendance software, Employee Database, Travel and Expense Management. Start your free trial for 30 days....

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