4 Tell tale signs that you need a new HR system

These days, managing HR in a growing business is a constant task. As an HR manager, you’re probably overloaded with work and you never seem to get to the bottom of it all.

It’s not unusual to rush from meeting to meeting, extinguishing fire after fire. You’re always checking your e-mail and making countless phone calls.

But there’s a big difference between being productive and just being busy. And if you’re always busy being busy on admin-based HR tasks with no time for strategic HR thinking, it probably high time you made a change.

Here are four telltale signs that you need a new HR system.

Sign 1. Onboarding is all paperwork

The onboarding of new employees is a crucial time to time to give your new hires a thorough understanding of your company’s history, culture, and mission, and how they fit into the bigger picture and can contribute to the greater success of the company.

But, in too many workplaces, onboarding is all about paperwork. And much of a new employee’s first day, is all about completing one document after another. This includes:

• Signing a letter of engagement;

• Acknowledging your code of conduct;

• Filling out the tax declaration form;

• Completing their superannuation choice form; and,

• Giving us their bank account details.

For new starters, it’s dull, and it’s tedious, and for some, it’s a real let down. But it doesn’t have to be this way when you enable new hires to complete onboarding essentials online, allowing them to fill out and sign all of their onboarding paperwork well in advance of their start date.

Tip: It’s important to make an employee’s first days, weeks and months, memorable for all the right reasons. By streamlining your onboarding process with an HR system, you can save yourself so much time, free yourself up from tedious paperwork, and  make your new starter’s time with you more productive and enjoyable from day one. 

Sign 2. The data you need is always hard to find

If you’re still filing everything away in paper files in a bank of filing cabinets, it’s not only inefficient, but you’re probably putting the business at risk. Paper-based filing systems are only as secure as the people who have access to the office where they are located.

Even if you’re the holder of the key, when bulky filing cabinets start to fill up with overflowing manila folders, it becomes difficult to keep the information organised. If you face an underpayment claim, or are undergoing an audit by a Fair Work inspector,  think of the time it takes to hunt down those important documents. It can be seriously stressful, and seriously time consuming. And with no audit trail, who can say that it hasn’t been altered?

Tip: With cloud HR software, you can free up your day and have meticulous files at your fingertips whenever you need them. In fact, online HR software like Employment Hero can save you an enormous amount of time across a range of HR tasks. As all your HR data is encrypted in the cloud, you’ll also have peace of mind that everything’s secure from login to logout.

Sign 3. Human errors keep tripping you up

Sometimes, the sheer volume of paperwork and duplication from manual processes can be simply overwhelming and keeping you away from doing more strategic work. Spreadsheets are probably a large part of why you’re always busy doing busy things. They are also notoriously prone to human error.

With manual data entry, any kind of formula mistakes can seriously mess with everything from managing holiday allowances to your payroll calculations. And it can take ages to unravel it all when something goes awry.

Tip: If you’re still doing payroll manually or keeping data in spreadsheets, it’s high time for an upgrade. For many businesses, the answer lies in having a single platform with integrated HR, rostering and payroll which eliminates the need for data double-handling. 

Employee self-service is all about helping employees and managers build a more self-sufficient work environment. Having HR self-service functionality is a must as it allows your colleagues to perform routine HR tasks themselves, rather than relying on you to do it for them. This includes updating their personal details, as well as acting as viewing and acknowledging workplace policies and other HR documents.

By reducing your employees’ reliance on you to perform day-to-day support tasks, you cut costs and response times while improving efficiency, productivity and compliance.

Tip: With a cloud-based employee self-service system, your employees can access the system from home. They can view work schedules to see when they’re rostered on, view payroll information, and request annual leave, all without calling on you.

Free eBook

If you’ve recognised some of these telltale signs, it’s a good time to start thinking about the right HR software for your business. For help doing this, download our free eBook, The HR Manager’s Ultimate Guide to Choosing HR Software. It’s a step-by-step guide on documenting your requirements, shortlisting your systems and ultimately choosing the right HR software for you and your business.

Employment Hero is Australia’s first all-in-one cloud HRIS offering a comprehensive HR software, payroll system, and employee benefits platform in one easy solution. Trusted by Australian businesses, Employment Hero is about making rostering, onboarding, performance management, time tracking, payroll, and award interpretation a snap. Employment Hero’s HRIS also integrates with Xero, MYOB, KeyPay, and Accountright Live. Stop wasting time with spreadsheets, and request a demo today.