HRMS - Human Resource Management System has now become a buzz-word. It has made its way into the daily vocabulary of businesses and without a doubt, to that of HR personnel. Fundamentally, an HRMS is a management system, a type of HR software that simplifies and automates all the crucial HR processes starting from hiring to retiring. An HRMS, as discussed, is a type of HR software that enables the management of several HR functions through the use of information technology.
The advent of technology brought along a plethora of changes and the advancement in technology has elevated the changes. The unsettling and perennial questions on how to screen through gazillions of resumes while being fair to the job seekers, impartial performance appraisals and many more have been answered with the onset of HRMS. To put it simply, HRMS is more or less a magic wand which has been handed over to the wizards of the workplace; the HR. In short, HRMS revolutionizes workplaces. It helps do away with paperwork, reduces workload, binds and gathers data and more.
Different functions of HRMS
Payroll processing
The payroll process is tricky. It starts right after a candidate becomes an employee. Every employee must be paid for their work based on a calculation of the hours they work and their pay rate. Before giving the employee a paycheck, however, there are a lot of things to be considered. Taxes, cut-offs and provisional funds for instance.
As discussed, the payroll process is tricky and not easy. The deductions have to be made and the employer has to calculate the net pay of the employee and further credit the employee with the amount in whichever means suitable.
The time taken for processing the payroll will depend on whether you are doing it manually or using software. HR software can reduce the amount of work by a great extent. It is not necessary that all HRMS offers this, but, it is an important function which the systems are capable of handling. Payroll is a crucial yet mundane task and automating it will help in keeping the employees free for doing more important tasks.
Recruiting / hiring
Hiring can often be a tiring process. It is very difficult to manually go through countless resumes and reach out to candidates. Perhaps it is even possible that in the midst of all the bustle you will lose the good candidate. It can be an honest mistake but it will cost an employee to the company. With HRMS/ HRIS, resume parsing and selection is easier than ever.
Onboarding
On the most basic level, onboarding is how a new recruit gets accustomed to the new company, with the policies, with the new profile and likewise. It is how the employees are brought up to speed with the happenings in the company, the teams, the process of integrating them into the new atmosphere, handing email ids and more. HRMS helps in all these aspects. The onboarding becomes seamless with the right HRMS platform.
Attendance tracking
Gone are the days of tracking employee attendance manually. Leave applications and approvals are a finger click away with HRMS software. They really do make everything easy and simple. Details pertaining to the number of leaves taken, number of leaves available, PTO, Work from home and like are kept track of easily without confusions. This way, employees can request for an approval and the managers can plan ahead for an absence with ease.
Employee self- service
The employees don’t have to go the HR every time there is a need. They can raise suggestions and opinions through the HRMS platform. They can submit feedback, update their profile, details, etc. within a click.
Performance appraisals
Performance evaluation is a systematic activity which helps in understanding how much an employee works in resonance with the organizational goal and analysing the results they have been producing. Setting up goals and tasks is made easy by HRMs platforms. The managers can assign task and the employees can confirm once they are done.
Upskilling / training
The greatest gift humans have is the ability to learn and unlearn. One has to continuously polish their existing skills and learn new skills to be able to thrive in this competition-driven world. HRMS platforms give the space for employee skilling or assigning training.
Rewards and recognition
Employee recognition is an important aspect which has a direct impact on employee retention. Recognizing someone for their efforts should never be tough. However, with the onset of HRMS platforms, it has become more easy than ever. peopleHum, for instance, makes rewards and recognition extremely simple and ensures that the entire company gets to know about the recognition and provides the provision of reacting and commenting about the recognition.
Analytics
Some brilliantly curated HRMS platforms put the statistics on screen. It tells you in detail about the engagement index, attrition rates, performance analysis and more so that there is clarity over things and one can act accordingly.
Employee exits
As discussed earlier, with the advent of technology, the HRMS platforms have got brilliant and serves as hire to retire platform. It helps in easy retirement and termination. The team leaders and managers can place requests for new talent requirements and plan for the void in advance. A sudden termination can be handled effectively if there is an efficient HRIS/ HRMS software at your workplace.
Impact of HR Automation
The present-day organizations and the organizations of the future have a tenor to do fast-paced business or rather are forced into the fast lane. However, they require strategies that are consistent and agile at the same time. These processes need to be able to adapt quickly to changing business priorities.
Providing an understanding of the corporate vision and having a clear goal-setting process will help employees correlate their work and contributions to the larger picture. It is difficult to achieve goal alignment with so many moving pieces, this is where automated performance management systems can be of help. They enable managers to communicate more effectively and align goals across the organization and improve employee efficiency.
Let us take a look at the benefits of HR Automation:
1. Effective goal setting
With automation, you can simplify existing complex processes or create an entirely new and more effective goal-setting process. Some of the best HRMS software come with functions that allow you to set goals and track their progress. This will be a great relief for both the managers and employees. They can set specific strategies with measurable goals that are in resonance with the company’s vision and mission.
With HR automation, you can automatically remind employees and managers about their goals at relevant times helping keep the performance management process on track.
2. Boosts collaboration
When you eliminate redundant efforts, HR can concentrate on developing strategies for inter-department collaborations and focus on teams achieving their strategic objectives faster. Coupled with features like peer recognition and 360-degree feedback, a boost in company-wide collaborative efforts will definitely drive employee performance and provide a platform for nurturing talent.
3. More productive employees
When you automate HR using HR platforms, you get dedicated tools that help managers gauge employee performance with respect to their assigned goals in a more effective and real-time manner.
This enables managers to have a deeper insight into the ways that each employee performs and allows for accurate feedback. In other words, HR automation helps managers give insightful feedback to employees and improve their future performance.
4. Quick, agile and continuous feedback
Millennials are transitioning into important roles in the business landscape all over the world. The new-age employees and managers both crave proactive feedback. HR automation platforms allow you to shake off the old, irrelevant and jaded annual appraisal system. It is neither accurate nor suited for the fast-paced businesses of today let alone the millennial crowd.
Employees themselves crave for agile and continuous feedback for every task completed. It helps them correlate their efforts with the results that the business is trying to achieve and providing such feedback keeps them engaged and motivated.
5. Talent management powered by data analytics
When you make decisions, what is your driving factor? Emotional bias or data? If you are still making decisions based on emotional bias, you are living in the past. Ask any HR professional, they execute new strategies by showing the ROI and not asking the company to follow their gut. Data-driven decisions have a greater rate of success and hence attach more value to your approach. HR platforms come with tools to measure everything, be it talent management, engagement or performance. It helps HR professionals come up with rewarding strategies and manage talent better.
6. Numbers, Numbers, Number
Building an organization with low turnover and good retention rates is the number one concern of HR departments all over. HR Automation is the most effective way to reduce costs while increasing productivity. If you are still not convinced that HR Automation is the gate to HR transformation, here are some numbers that might help put things in perspective. (Also, who doesn’t love numbers?)
- Employee turnover costs are increasing. Organizations spend one-third of the employee's annual salary recruiting the replacement for every employee that leaves,
- Diversity is in, we mean really in. It’s just not a trait of international companies anymore. Almost 80% of organizations are actively prioritizing diversity in the workforce to improve work culture. HR platforms in recruitment can get rid of any bias.
- Redesigning the performance management is of the highest priority across all companies. 79% of managers believe that incorporating continuous feedback, employee-driven communication, and features like goal setting and tracking should be part of the new strategy.
- Over 85% of employees around the world feel disengaged at work and that’s just poor employee engagement.
Conclusion
If you want to increase your employee engagement and productivity, clear plans need to be laid out for the same. This is possible only when HR professionals are free from performing repetitive and mundane tasks. HR automation frees up time for planning high-value activities, creating talent experiences and building talent strategies.
Train people well enough that they can leave; treat them well enough so that they don’t want to.