Human Resources (HR) adds strategic value to organisations, whilst playing a fundamental role in shaping company culture. It goes beyond managing employees to empowering the workforce. A fair and inclusive workplace attained through practices & policies, recruiting and retaining high-calibre talent, improving employee engagement and boosting performance is vital to a thriving HR function and, more broadly, contributes to organisational success.
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Concurrently, poor management and ineffective execution of HR policies and processes can adversely impact employee retention, business performance and bottom line gains. As Australian businesses strive to stay ahead of the curve in a dynamic environment that is constantly disrupted by new and innovative technologies, it’s imperative for employers to instil process efficiencies across departments.
Not all practice makes perfect
HR teams utilising manual processes find themselves bogged down by hours of administrative tasks and maintaining paperwork. Not only is this counterintuitive to achieving organisational efficiency, but also takes away time and effort that could otherwise be invested in creating strategic value.
Here are four ineffective HR management practices that cost businesses tens and thousands of dollars every year:
Manual onboarding
Manual onboarding usually involves heavy paperwork and administrative tasks, consuming the time and energies of both new employees and employers. The effectiveness of manual onboarding processes is reliant upon the efficacy of internal procedures and communication pathways, and the willingness of internal line managers and HR team members to actively participate and contribute towards each stage of the onboarding process. As a result, this has the potential to create scope for error, and deliver a disjointed onboarding experience.
New employees, especially from diverse backgrounds, discern a sense of cultural and organisational fit during their initial weeks. A fragmented onboarding experience can cause an emotional disconnect and disorientation amongst new starters, adversely impacting their engagement and productivity at work.
A well-structured onboarding program has the potential to accelerate employee productivity, drive engagement and improve retention. That’s where HRIS platforms, such as Flare HR, enables businesses to create and deliver a seamless, consistent and memorable onboarding experience, which leaves a lasting impression.
Poor employee data management
Management of employee data is an essential component to HR and payroll efficiency. Maintaining, reviewing and updating employee data – ranging from work contracts, training & development records and leave management to performance reviews – requires immense effort on the part of employers. An HR infrastructure reliant on manual record-keeping increases the possibility of data gaps and loss of essential employee information owing to irregular or incorrect updates.
Integrity of employee data is critical to ensuring that salary and benefits are accorded accurately by an organisation’s Payroll department. Incorrect HR records can result in the under- or overpayment of salary. In turn, this requires employees to follow-up with HR and Payroll teams in order to rectify data and payment errors, bringing undue stress and negatively impacting upon their wellbeing.
A digital HRIS platform offers essential data management capabilities, enabling organisations to resourcefully manage employee records and mitigate the risks arising from people-dependant processes. These platforms provide organisations with the solution that allows them to seamlessly integrate HR processes with their Payroll function, streamlining data flows between the two departments and achieving enhanced efficiency.
Compliance issues
Securing compliance with government, tax and statutory regulations is essential to avoiding potential legal liability. HR and Payroll policies and procedures are amongst the most heavily scrutinised by auditors to ensure adherence to legislative requirements. Inaccuracies in record management resulting from manual updates weakens compliance. This presents the potential to disrupt operations, leading to profit loss and weakened morale.
Businesses must also continually stay on top of new regulatory changes that impact ongoing operations. One example is the implementation of new Single Touch Payroll (STP) reporting requirements for businesses with 20 or more employees from 1 July 2018 onwards.
The new regulation requires businesses to report employee salaries, PAYG withholding and superannuation directly from their payroll solution. Cloud-based HRIS platforms are designed to provide modern day businesses with agile and scalable solutions that possess the tools and capabilities to flexibly meet changing regulatory requirements.
Ineffective training and development
Continual training and development combined with regular and transparent feedback is essential to building an engaged workplace. The traditional approach to learning and development, with intermittent training sessions over sporadic intervals, often results in minimal to no gains for employees. The 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey (Australia) reinforced that employees who were least satisfied with learning opportunities at work were more likely to leave the organisation within two years.
Advanced HRIS platforms capture employee training and development records through in-built data repositories. This enables HR teams to identify and conduct relevant training & development programs that foster innovation and skills development amongst employees.
Let HR efficiency drive business growth
Flexible and scalable solutions are essential to the agility and responsiveness that businesses of the future demand. Improved employee mobility and technological disruption requires organisations to emerge as “the employer of choice” by creating an attractive and engaging environment in order to retain staff long-term. Enhancing the strategic capabilities of the HR function by automating routine tasks is the first step in the right direction.
