Technology is rapidly transforming the business sector and every industry in the world, so it should come as no surprise that HR experts are increasingly adopting new tech and digital transformation to elevate productivity, efficiency, and ensure employee success. From recruitment automation for the remote workforce, all the way to better employee monitoring and management, improved communication and a better company culture, HR specialists stand to gain a lot by adopting feature-rich software solutions that will help them achieve their goals faster while helping push the company forward as a whole.
That said, with so many proprietary tools out there, it can be difficult to select the best software for your needs, and it can be easy to overspend on the tools you don’t actually need. That’s why today we’ll be going over the five essential tech tools you should integrate into your HR department in order to ensure its long-term success, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.
Human resource management system
First and foremost, it’s important to note that a comprehensive human resource management system should encompass numerous processes and tasks – this is not a piece of software that does a single job, rather, it’s a system of tools that covers a range of HR processes. Within your HR management system, you can have several key tools (built-in or integrated from external tools) that include recruitment, training, attendance tracking and employee monitoring, payments and payroll, contract labor and remote work, appraisal, performance, shift, and absence management, and more.
Depending on your needs, you will integrate as many or as few tools as you need to manage an efficient and effective remote operation, but also to make in-house employee management a breeze. This is typically a cloud-based system with various integrations and add-ons you can use as you grow and as your needs start to change.
Advanced recruiting software
Recruitment strategies and tactics are always changing and evolving with the leading industry and market trends, but amidst a global crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, recruitment is bound to change drastically. Now that companies are forced to send their employees home or recruit remote talent from across the globe, HR specialists need to leverage recruiting software to make talent acquisition more efficient and effective, particularly for remote positions.
Aside from leveraging digital platforms like social media networks and specialized job-hunting websites, your HR staff should adopt recruiting software that has all the features they need for quick and successful talent acquisition. These features include candidate sourcing, applicant tracking systems, AI-driven recommendations, reports and analytics, enrichment features, and more.
Cloud-based communication tool like VoIP
Communication is the essential pillar of success in HR and your company as a whole, which is why you need to adopt innovative communication tools to improve productivity and efficiency instead of trying to make the old email-plus-phone combo work. The reality is that traditional phone systems simply don’t have the features you need to communicate effectively with employees and applicants, which is why companies are rapidly switching to VoIP (voice over internet protocol) nowadays.
Now, there are many VoIP providers out there, so it’s important to check out professional reviews and opinions to find what some of the best VoIP features are and which of the providers offer the most cost-effective phone plans. Ideally, your provider should equip your HR department and your entire business with features like low-cost national and international calls, video conferencing, chat tools, scheduling and analytics, mobile apps, and more.
Comprehensive payroll software
Some would say that payroll is nothing more than handing out paychecks, but in reality, payroll encompasses numerous processes that require meticulous management by your HR staff. Yes, handing out paychecks is one of them, but so is tracking and calculating bonuses based on performance, giving out perks and rewards, monitoring absence and overtime, and much more.
In fact, payroll is quite a complex process because it effectively shapes morale and influences your employees’ level of happiness in the long term, so you need to have the right payroll software at your side. The software should automate almost all of the aforementioned tasks to help you create personalized plans for every employee, and help you devise individualized advancement programs.
Onboarding automation tools
Lastly, never underestimate the potential of a great onboarding tool to help your new employees feel right at home and become productive members of your team. Onboarding automation not only saves time and money, but it allows your HR staff to bring a more well-rounded onboarding experience to the employee so that they can start contributing from day one instead of taking weeks or months to find their bearings in a new work environment.
Modern HR encompasses a wide range of mission-critical processes, and if you modernize your HR department with the right tech, it can help your company thrive on numerous fronts. With these tools at your side, you should have no problem acquiring and retaining the top talent in the industry.
