If you want your business to grow, you must allow your core departments to grow as well. Since your business will rely on a star team to reach its potential, it becomes critical to enable your HR with the right tools to gather and nurture those star players. Not so long ago, paper and email-based human resource management was the norm across businesses of all shapes and sizes but the leaps in the technological advancement of the past decade, coupled with the intense war for talent has brought about an unprecedented dynamic shift in the world of recruitment.

Paper files and email log sheets don’t make the cut anymore and offering candidates a job is not a favor anymore either. Your HR needs a diverse suite of software to function at its optimum and this article covers all the different kinds of solutions that are conducive to helping your HR deliver on its many responsibilities.

Software that simplifies Benefits Management

Software from this category covers all tasks relating to managing employee compensation. They help HR track and manage employee compensation and benefits like paid leaves, provident funds, health insurance, incentive programs and salary planning. They are usually modules of a more complex HR suite that manages employee payroll as a core function where the payroll software takes care of managing salary disbursements through direct deposits, checks etc. and oversees tax compliance.

Zenefits is an online HCM software that provides a single place to manage payroll, benefits and compliance. The platform covers complex benefits management by automating aspects like disability insurance under corporate policies and also eases computation of commuter benefits through pre-tax dollars loaded on an easy-to-use debit card. Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) help cover unexpected out-of-pocket medical and dependent care expenses and allows employees to track and manage their funds through their online dashboard.

Software that eases recruitment

Software from this bucket assists recruiters in talent sourcing, management and evaluation. They’re commonly referred to as Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) or Recruitment Software and are growing increasingly popular among SMEs and Enterprises alike. Through a high caliber ATS, recruiters can develop job ads, post them across multiple job boards, evaluate candidates through standardized tests, shortlist relevant profiles, schedule interviews and send out mass letters, all from the ATS platform. These features are particularly useful when recruiters are dealing with a vast talent pool and require candidates for jobs that are difficult to fill.

Talentera is a one-stop-shop recruitment solution that provides a platform that can be customized to the client's’ unique recruitment needs and processes. The software assists development of requisitions for new jobs, obtaining hiring approvals, developing hiring budgets, manpower planning, task management and candidate score carding alongside all other core recruitment-related tasks. The software also furnishes rich reports that elucidate recruiter performance through quantified HR metrics along with reports on talent quality and detailed candidate source/demographic breakdown.

Software that helps track employee performance

The features in this bucket allow HR to track, monitor and reward employee performance. Through these tools, it becomes extremely easy for HR to collect employee feedback from managers, subordinates and peers. They also formalize the process of recognizing top-performing employees through objective tools like leaderboards, reward points and nominations. What’s best is that the module keeps all employee appraisals in one place which keeps information organized and centralized making goal tracking and compensation planning seamless.

Spidergap and BambooHR are two popular software that excels in enabling HR to collect, analyze and act on feedback with the help of individualized reports on each participant, reminders and robust form builders. Through the pre-packaged and customized performance assessment tools that these suites offer, the employee review process becomes simpler, smoother and transparent which keeps HR from producing great work without the needless paperwork.

Software that enables employee training and development

The software is designed to facilitate the training and development of an effective workforce. Broad categories covered by the software include course authoring and learning management through which companies can build training material and classes to train employees, allow employees to take tests and monitor performance to grant rewards and certificates. Some training-based software also includes an onboarding module which streamlines the collection of forms and the overall induction process of new employees to acquaint them with the culture of the organization.

Oracle Taleo Cloud Service is one of the most popular Learning Management and Onboarding systems around. With its guided implementation methodology and broad toolkit that includes modules like Blended and Mobile learning, Skills Tracking, Social Learning and Progress Tracking, the HR department is equipped with all the resources they need to groom the star players that can take the company forward.

Software that streamlines routine HR tasks

These solutions cater to the everyday tasks performed by HR. This includes attendance management that allows them to manage items like paid time off, sick leaves and vacations. They also cover employee engagement tasks that aid in managing wellness programs, employee surveys and retention plans. Some solutions are also adept at managing contractual employees that work on an hourly basis as they enable the tracking, assigning and scheduling of tasks that the employees are required to do on specific days. An extension of this suite also facilities ‘Time and Expense management’ that facilitates expense tracking, computing billable hours and preparing invoices.

Zoho’s diverse suite of solutions completely cover all routinely HR tasks from attendance and leaves tracking to project management and invoicing. The best part of their solution is their exceedingly user-friendly interface which consistently ensures a high employee adoption rate and stellar customer support that keeps the HR and Administration satisfied. The software is one of the most top-rated HR Solutions across functions owing to its broad feature-set and top-notch support.

Final Thoughts

Although this might look like a hefty list of solutions to dedicate to one department, it’s important to understand that this department acts as the backbone of your employee’s productivity and your organization’s strategic growth.

The good news is that you will be able to find many of these broad categories in one competent HR Solution and so your employees won’t have to log in and out of multiple systems. On top of that, the tradeoff you’ll make by relieving your HR from the tedium of manual data entry, collection and analysis will also pay off in spades because the automation will inject the department with the much-needed productivity that it needs to make your organization move to new heights all whilst running like a fine-tuned machine.