Having the right HR and payroll solution is pivotal to the success and overall flow of workforce management. If your business is currently expanding, it is highly likely that you’ll be expanding your team in order to accommodate business growth. With growth, having a reliable and flexible HR and payroll platform that can handle your increasingly complex needs will become essential for managing your workforce.
The solution that your company chooses to implement should, at the very least, make it easier for you to decrease the number of human-made errors made whilst simplifying compliance and increasing productivity. How will you know when it is time to upgrade? We’ve gathered three signs that indicate it may be time to make a change to your HR and payroll solution.
1. Your headcount is growing but the software isn’t scalable
The more employees you have, the more complex your HR needs will become, and the more crucial it’ll be to have a scalable solution that fits your company’s unique needs. There are several aspects of business management that tend to become more complicated with growth. Some things to think about as you grow would be absence management, benefits management, and compensation management. In addition, how will you manage employee development, discipline, engagement, retention, and training?
As you think about these aspects, consider these other essential management tasks that’ll grow and scale alongside your employee count.
- Payroll
- Health and safety
- Leave administration
- Timekeeping
- Onboarding
- Performance management
- Recordkeeping
- Recruiting
Is your current HR and payroll platform scalable with these activities? If it’s not, your business could become subject to frustration among your HR team, and with this, higher rates of employee turnover may occur. An overstretched HR team, or employee base in general, can also lead to penalties stemming from compliance-related mistakes.
2. No employee and/or manager self-service
We live in a technological world, and as employees become more and more accustomed to self-service software, your HR and payroll solution is no exception to the rule. Giving employees the ability to perform certain HR and payroll-related tasks on their own can empower your workforce and allow them to focus on more important high-level tasks. At the bare minimum, your employees should be able to perform the following tasks with the help of your HR and payroll platform:
- Complete their tax withholding forms and make adjustments when necessary
- Enroll in benefits and update their information if or when it changes
- Make changes to their personal data, including contact information, mailing address, and bank account information
- Review their payroll data and access previous paystubs
- Submit direct deposit changes
- View their work schedules
- View time off accrued and submit time off requests
If your HR and payroll platform doesn’t offer these options for employees, then your HR team will be tasked with the remaining responsibilities. Your HR employees will have to then allocate a lot of their time toward activities that the right HR and payroll solution should allow employees to do on their own.
It’s equally as important to optimize your managers’ workflow as it is your employees. Ensure they have access to self-service tools as well. Consider the following examples of what kind of tools and capabilities are essential for managers that could easily be optimized by the right HR and payroll platform:
- Employee leave
- Employment status changes
- Employee onboarding
- Employee Training and event management
- Employee scheduling
- Time and attendance
- Reporting (labor expense and PTO balance reports)
- Time and attendance
Not only do employee and manager self-service tools save time for the HR department, these resources also substantially reduce paper clutter, which contributes to the economic and environmental friendliness that digital tools create. For these reasons and many others, a self-service HR and payroll solution is a win-win all around.
3. Your HR and payroll platform isn’t cutting it
There are two main types of HR and payroll solutions: on-premise and cloud-based, which is also known as software-as-a-service (SaaS). It’s important to choose the option that best fits your business’s needs, but how do you know which one that is?
It starts with learning more about the two available options. For example, with an on-premise solution, the HR and payroll system is installed onto your in-house servers. The system is highly customizable, which provides you with more overall control. However, on-premise systems can be incredibly time-consuming to implement and expensive to maintain.
Alternatively, with a cloud-based or SaaS solution, the HR and payroll platform is hosted in the cloud, meaning it’s far less invasive than an on-premise solution. A cloud-based solution doesn’t require a lengthy implementation period, which allows you to get started with the new software very quickly. Furthermore, fewer resources are needed with the SaaS solution as the provider handles all things concerning system support, updates, and maintenance.
The correct HR and payroll solution is essential to run a successful business. Having one that’ll support your workforce as your company grows is imperative. If your HR and payroll platform is no longer meeting your needs or improving your overall operations, it’s time for an upgrade! To learn more about Inova’s fully-unified, cloud-based HR and payroll solution, request a demo or contact us today for more info!
