Tech can be a phenomenal tool—but only if it’s making your processes easier and providing new insights. Jenna Squires, president of World Payroll & HR, an outsource HR services company based in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, has some straightforward ways to make sure you’re getting the most from your HRIS system.
Squires spoke with StrategicCHRO360 about how to cut through all the options, maintain disciplinary consistency throughout the organization and help employees feel that you’re being transparent with them.
How do you choose the best human resources information system for your company’s needs and budget?
To begin the process of choosing an HRIS platform, the business must first decide what their top goals are in implementing a platform. If the primary goal is to ease the onboarding process, or if the primary goal is to improve compliance, these could lead to two different HRIS options. Taking time to build a priority list and identify the business HR needs around an HRIS platform is key to cutting through the noise of all the HRIS options.
How can compliance be improved through automation?
A good HRIS platform creates workflows, tasks and communications that require managers to stay on top of daily activities that then feed to larger compliance projects. For example, if the HRIS system is tracking monthly ACA compliance around affordability, offerings and hours, then the 1095 Year End process is a breeze.
Another example is around discipline communication. If a business has multiple locations with multiple managers, it’s hard to ensure that each manager is treating discipline issues the same and according to company policy. If you build an HRIS performance management system, then managers are forced to stay “within the lines” of the company’s discipline process.
How can a company successfully implement hybrid work?
Hybrid work brings many benefits but also many challenges. Maintaining communication and compliance are one of the largest challenges. It’s easy to have a lack of communication with those who are not sitting in your office, but utilizing an HRIS platform that also has a strong communication tool is crucial for the hybrid model to be successful. The HRIS platform could communicate tasks, measure goals, send celebratory messages and overall help employees stay engaged.
Another key to success would be to have weekly huddles with the entire company, departments or teams to make sure there is interaction between peers and leadership on a regular basis. Both of these strategies will not only help increase engagement, but all ensure they are maintaining compliance. Good communication ensures that each employee is receiving the same message, and processes are followed in the same manner to reduce the event of over or under reach.
Why is records-keeping key to successfully managing change in the workplace?
There are two reasons this is important. First, everyone within a business these days is extremely busy and pulled in a million directions. The idea of having to stop what you are doing to deal with a compliance issue that arose from lack of good record keeping practices can be crippling to a business. Businesses should strive to make HR record keeping a daily part of their management practice.
Second, being able to have a snapshot view of your employee’s life cycle can help businesses make quick decisions around projects, promotions and succession. HRIS platforms can truly help businesses track items like attendance, pay rates, performance reviews, employee surveys, etcetera, and then take that information and convert it into an “employee happiness” graph. This is a snapshot of the entire workforce to help management determine which employees are engaged and which are not engaged and may need more attention. Using an HRIS platform in this way allows not only the management to have a bird’s eye view of the health of the HR practices, but also allow the employees to feel management is being transparent in their documentation and communication.
