Many small businesses will handle their personnel administration processes, such as attendance tracking, contracts management, appraisals in a make-do and highly distributed system of Excel files, word files, document scans etc… This is not usually a conscious decision; it’s more likely that it has evolved that way through necessity as a result of the time pressurized small business leader not having time to give the process adequate thought.
If the business leader were to examine this higgledy-piggledy HR process and check out the modern HR software market they would see that there are many HR applications that can help small businesses manage their HR processes in a more efficient and more effective way. These systems contain features and functions that automate laborious HR processes, saving time and giving managers much greater insight into employee issues, helping managers to increase productivity. In fact, there are around 6 reasons why small businesses should start using a HR system today.
1. HR systems can significantly reduce management administration time
Best of breed HR systems will come with a self service option which means that staff can go into the system and view and: update their own personal data, make holiday requests, enter sick notes etc.. It is much more efficient for staff to maintain their records than to have them relay that information to a manager who then enters it into the system.(Double entry) One of the most laborious tasks in personal administration is tracking and entering holidays and calculating entitlements and remaining allowances month by month. Best of breed HR systems do that for you.
In fact, the entire leave management process is almost entirely automated by HR software. The HR HR software will also include holiday reports, making it much easier for you to plan leave across your team to ensure business continuity.
2. Used properly HR Systems can help you reduce sickness in your business?
For starters, the average UK employee takes 4.4 days sickness per year, according to ONS statistics. If you have 5 employees, that is a man month worth of sickness, which could be a significant slice of your profits. One of the best ways to reduce sickness in your business is to simply start tracking it effectively. Yes, if employees know that sickness is being monitored, this alone can reduce sickness levels. And also, by tracking it, you will be able to identify problems more clearly and take action.
Best of breed HR software systems will have a sophisticated attendance tracking system, enabling you to easily track sickness absences across your business. The system will offer easy to use reports and notifications making it easy for you to identify any issues with attendance.
3. HR systems make it easier to track and manage personnel documents
Never lose a personnel document again. Best of breed HR Systems allow you to upload scans of individual personal documents such as passport scans, contracts, appraisal documents and sicknotes so you can easily search for and relocate key documents. These systems will automatically organize your HR documents.
4. HR systems come with sophisticated notification systems and can act as an electronic PA
Best of breed HR systems will include notifications and reminders to help you remember key dates such as: a new employee’s start date, end of a probationary period, contract expiry, appraisal meeting and so on. The system can act as a PA, reminding you of your important HR responsibilities
5.HR systems are relatively inexpensive for small businesses
Good HR systems range from being absolutely free, or free for up to 5 or 10 users and then range in price from around £1.50 per employe per month to around £3 per employee per month.
6. Easy to use
Best of breed HR systems are well designed, intuitive and easy to use, and come with lots of tutorials and advice on how to use the system and on how to manage HR in your business. They are cloud based, meaning you can access them on your machine anywhere and many are now starting to introduce some level of compatibility with mobile devices.
So, as you can see, there are plenty of good reasons why small businesses should be using a HR system today.
This sponsored article is in collaboration with Zoho People providers of cloud based, and easy to use, HR Software for small, medium and large businesses in the UK and around the world.
