Introduction
How to choose the best software for your business needs? Choosing the best HR and payroll software is a pivotal decision for the future of your company. Hence, in the quest to search for the software suited most to your needs, you first need to know the basics of HR software. Then you’ll need to be well-versed in the common features of HR software.
Subsequently, you’ll need to know how you can choose the perfect HR software for your company. Finally, you can sift through a bunch of HR software to see which one suits your needs the best.
Let’s start at the beginning for now. What is HR software, and how can you choose the best one? Keep reading to find out.
What is HR Software?
HR Software is your solution for automating common HR tasks that are otherwise tedious to do. It’s a digital solution for HR professionals to decrease manual paperwork and increase efficiency and profitability.
Simply put, HR software is a kind of software that can automate all HR tasks. Common tasks like the hiring process, to more advanced processes like encrypted data, can all be automated through HR software. Some of the features HR software can automate and streamline are listed below:
- Recruitment
- Talent Management
- Attendance Tracking
- Leave Management
- Payroll
- Performance Management
- Security
- Documentation for Regulatory Compliance
The benefits which are important when you’re going to choose HR software are explained more thoroughly in the section below.
Importance and Benefits of HR Software
1. Improves Efficiency
We have outlined all of how HR can be streamlined. This is one of the major reasons why companies want to choose HR software for their businesses. Many aspects of HR can be made more efficient by streamlining.
Think about the recruitment process. HR software can help automate interview and questionnaire questions, it can auto-accept and reject applicants based on those questions. Furthermore, it can also consolidate applicant data and store it in one place.
HR software can also help with attendance, tracking, payroll, etc.
2. Cuts Costs
Cutting costs is one of the biggest reasons companies are rapidly turning towards a digital solution for their HR needs. Think about all the onboarding training that can easily be streamlined using a specific kind of HR software. This means there will be much less costs needed for setting up entire training processes.
It’s not just for onboarding. There are touchless attendance systems that use facial recognition technology. How are you going to choose a touch-based or a manual attendance system now that you know an alternative exists?
Online payroll processing made possible by HR & payroll software is also a helpful tool in cutting costs. Not to mention, huge amounts of paperwork can be reduced by just shifting everything digitally.
3. Easily Integrates into Existing Systems
When you’re going to choose software for your company, you’ll opt for one that won’t require you to completely overhaul your entire current HR system. This is why HR software is really useful. The best HR software won’t need you to change everything about your system. It will only work to enhance it.
The best part about HR software is that it can also work as a standalone product. We have discussed below already that there is some specialized HR software. So they can be streamlining that one specific part of HR, while your team can do the rest!
4. Fewer Errors
A big problem with manual HR systems is their susceptibility to human error. Thankfully, HR software doesn’t operate like a human! There is no manual data input necessary when everything is digitized. This means, there is zero chance of human error occurring.
The best part? In cloud and web-based HR software systems, all your data is encrypted and easily protected, and stored offline. So even in the instance of power failures or internet blackouts, your protected data will never be lost.
5. Better Employee Experience
Overall, a digitized experience is better for employees. The best HR software are all mobile-friendly, which means your employees can be connected through their phones and tablets. A touchless attendance system is more hygienic, which makes your employees feel better about checking in every day.
Not to mention, things like performance evaluation and management become easier and more objective. This works as a direct incentive for employees for boosting their performance. Have we also mentioned that HR & Payroll software can automate payroll?
Steps of Choosing the Best HR Software
How to choose HR software for yourself? You cannot choose the best HR and payroll software on a whim. We’ve listed the five essential steps to choose the best HR software for you below! When you’re going to choose HR software, these five steps will be your guiding light.
1. Identify Your Specific Requirements
Before diving into how to choose HR software for your company, you’ll need to analyze your current situation. You’ll need to break this down into two sections.
Firstly, look at your current HR system, if you have one. What is the current problem with your HR system? Where are the cracks in your system? To choose a different HR system, you’ll first need to dissect the one you’re currently using. You’ll need to identify where your current system is failing you. Which aspects are the most time-consuming and inefficient?
Secondly, look at your team. What are some of the employee-related complaints you’ve been getting? Can your team handle technology-related work well?
This will help you get a feel of what you’re looking for. You’ll also need to see if a new software can be easily integrated with your current human resources management system.
2. Research Vendors
After dissecting your toolbox, now you can turn to research to choose which software to turn to. You’ll need to look through the top software in the category you’re looking for. Additionally, each software has a different set of features, so make sure to go through them all. You should also carefully look at customer reviews. Do the reviews look real or generated?
Research is a time-consuming process. You’ll need to look into the user experience as well. The best HR software has an interactive interface, but they’re also easy and appealing to use. If you’re an SME, is the vendor you’re looking at suitable for you? Are they within your budget?
It’s also important to look into free trials. Most reliable HR software offer free trials.
3. Shortlist
Once you have researched enough vendors, it’s time to make a shortlist. Your shortlist should be well-curated. This step also requires a lot of research. You need to look at comparisons between different vendors. Look into the specialization of each HR software and see which one best suits your needs.
You should also consult with your current in-house team. Which specific vendors do they think will be a good fit for you? Which HR software can easily be integrated with your current framework without the learning curve being too big? To choose a specific vendor, you must be patient and work well with your team. It’s not a solo effort.
4. Analyze Your Shortlisted Vendors
Remember when we talked about looking into whether your vendor has a free trial? This step is when you make use of that. When choosing the best HR software, you can’t just go in blind and buy the software immediately. You need to test the waters to see if the software is truly compatible with you. Look at the free trials and demos and tutorials that are listed for free on your vendors’ websites. This will help you understand the capabilities and limitations of the vendors you are testing out. Not to mention, you should always engage in a feedback loop with your employees. If you are leaning towards specific vendors, try out their free trials to see how it works out for you.
5. Implement
This is the best part of choosing the best HR software for your company: getting to finally use it! Make sure you are making your employees comfortable with this new software. Communicate with your employees properly what this means. Let them be familiar with the new HR software.
Make sure you are taking full advantage of any onboarding training that the vendor provides! This will help ease everyone in. Another important tip is to delegate someone as a point of contact if the employees are facing any issues.
Types of HR Software
There are a few different kinds of HR software. There are more specialized software that focus on streamlining specific tasks like recruitment and talent onboarding. Additionally, some offer a more holistic approach to HR automation.
It may be tempting to opt blindly for software that is all-compassing and can perform all HR activities. We do, however, think that there are specific benefits to specialization. There is no right or wrong answer when choosing the software for your company. However, it’s important to be knowledgeable about the types of HR software that exist.
So let’s look at the types of HR Software that exist.
1. Core Software
This type of HR software refers to storing all data that are related to HR in a centralized database. This database includes all employee-related information. Your employee profiles, contact details, tracking their leaves, etc are all put together in one specific database that you can access. Payroll is a large subset of core software.
Core software is often called HCM (Human Capital Management) software. This includes both HRMS (Human Resources Management Systems) software and HRIS (Human Resources Information Systems) software.
2. Recruitment Software
Streamlining the hiring process is of utmost importance to HR professionals. An applicant tracking system through software can help make this process efficient. Recruitment software involves tools that help you manage the recruitment and onboarding processes efficiently.
You can facilitate job list creation, filter applicants, and manage and track applicants. You can also automate the process of scheduling interviews. Not to mention, The right HR software for recruitment can also automate the selection and rejection of applicants based on answers to preconfigured questionnaires.
3. Onboarding Software
Onboarding is a difficult task for HR professionals. It’s a tedious process to get the new employees familiar with the work while having a mountain load of paperwork waiting for them. Onboarding Software streamlines this entire process by eliminating the manual labor attached to it.
Onboarding software can help with managing employee profiles, making them aware of their roles, workflows, company policies, and onboarding training materials. Additionally, other information such as tax deductions and benefits can also be supplied through forms.
4. Performance Management Software
Manually evaluating employees is a long and arduous process. The best HR performance management software will help with employee evaluation by streamlining and digitizing this entire process.
This kind of software will have features that can translate progress into KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) tailored to the individual employee. This way, tracking their progress can be made even more objective.
Furthermore, automating performance reviews and assessments makes the process more efficient as well.
5. Learning and Development Software
Equipping employees with up-to-date knowledge and skills with excellent training facilities is pivotal. Therefore, learning and development software is the best HR software to have when your target is making sure your employees are being well trained.
You can use training materials for in-house training, and you can also outsource training to a different company that specializes in this. A learning management system (LMS) helps you to organize all your training material, videos, folders, etc. It can also help you track all the training material you provided.
Conclusion
We hope you’re not wondering how to choose HR software for your company anymore! HR automation software is pivotal for your company if you are looking for cutting costs and increasing efficiency simultaneously. In this day and age, there is no alternative to automizing and streamlining common manual everyday tasks.
With companies trying to outcompete each other with their USPs, having the best HR software puts you a leg above your competitors. However, just having software isn’t enough. You’ll need to have the best HR and payroll software for your company.
This is why knowing how to choose the correct software is such an important decision! We hope you will follow the steps carefully. Good luck with your search.