HR management isn’t always easy for modern HR professionals. In the pursuit of optimized employee performance, today’s HR departments have to perform a huge range of activities from recruiting and training to planning and process design. You may have well-defined HR goals, but what seems like a straightforward concept could actually be highly involved.  To get the most out of the resources they have, companies have incorporated software into their HR plan.  Here are five ways HR software can help organizations and their HR professionals achieve greater things with the resources they have.

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1. Managing Unconventional Teams

Your staff may not all come to your company through the traditional corporate hiring process. In many cases, startups and other firms in pursuit of growth depend on outsourcing or crowdsourcing to populate their employee rosters with skilled personnel.

In turn, personnel management and recruitment has changed to accommodate the non-traditional workforce.  Modern recruitment doesn’t always have the same concerns as standard hiring practices, but it still requires smart management methods. Regardless of whether your HR department finds workers via LinkedIn or publish jobs on a case-by-case basis using crowd work platforms, researchers maintain that recruiters need to consider a range of factors.  These factors include worker-job suitability, training delivery and individual outcome measurement. HR software that tracks these factors makes it possible to build a more diverse workforce and complete your corporate mission effectively.

2. Strengthening Existing Human Resources

Even when it consists solely of long-term employees, a modern workforce isn’t just a group of people. Workforces also include the skills these individuals and groups possess. It’s crucial for HR managers and their teams to foster ongoing professional development.

Properly implemented HR software, such as learning and talent management modules, makes it possible to track and guide skills development. HR departments that integrate their hiring records with credentials find it simple to associate training data with individual personnel as employees pursue advanced instruction. They can also correlate different skills initiatives with changes in productivity to improve workforce-development ROI.

3. Modernizing Employment Practices

Modernizing HR techniques doesn’t just mean using human resource software as a substitute for paper hiring records. Some researchers suggest that software can serve as an effective tool for measuring the impacts of discriminatory hiring practices, improving corporate culture and even breaking the notorious glass ceiling.

Companies that use software to manage their employees can also keep track of complaints and their resolutions. For instance, a sexual harassment claim filed by a worker against their superior might be forwarded to high-level decision makers to determine how the individual who committed the violation should be reprimanded. Annotating an employment record with such incidents also makes it much easier to establish an effective zero-tolerance policy, avoid legal liability and create a more welcoming environment for future employees.

4. Making Workers Feel in Control

Many employers use HR apps to create corporate portals for their staff. These tools let your team members manage their health insurance, check accrued FMLA absence days, view past performance reviews and access other relevant career data. Reports say this kind of transparency is a critical part of keeping modern workers from seeking greener pastures. Using software to field these kinds of inquiries may also decrease your operational overhead so that managers have more time for vital processes.

5. Managing Day-to-Day Finances

While it’s not as glamorous as the other advantages on this list, effective payroll management is a huge benefit of software-enabled human resource strategies. Tying compensation to factors like worker skill levels and performance output makes you a fairer employer, and your staff are bound to appreciate the guidance. Your managers and accountants are also sure to thank you for letting them calculate compensation and taxes with intelligent tools instead of calculators and pencils.

How do you plan on using human resource software to make HR management easier? Share your ideas in the comments below, or get in touch for more inspiration and tips.

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