Human Resource Management to Empower People and Performance

HR solutions to transform your people processes

You probably find yourself constantly seeking ways to improve organizational efficiency, engagement, and employee relations. The key to achieving these business goals lies in having a strong and capable workforce, which is where HR solutions can make all the difference. From recruitment and onboarding to performance management and employee development, HR solutions offer your organization a range of tools and strategies to manage human capital effectively.

This guide provides an overview of the benefits and features of HR solutions, business-growth success stories from companies that have adopted them, and tips for choosing the right HR software for your needs.

What are HR solutions and what should they include?

HR solutions are tools, strategies, and processes designed to help you manage your human resources effectively. Traditional HR functions have been weighed down by paperwork, red tape, and manual processes. But digital HR solutions have evolved to simplify these processes and make them more efficient in organizations of all sizes and industries.

Some HR solutions are designed to manage a specific task such as payroll; others offer an all-in-one platform to handle several functions without the need to enter data into multiple systems. Here are some of the HR areas your solutions may cover:

Talent management

Talent management is the process of attracting, developing, and retaining top talent, which is the secret to your organization's success. HR solutions can support the following talent management activities:

• Recruiting and onboarding new employees
• Performance management and goal setting
• Succession planning and career development
• Employee retention and engagement strategies
• Providing data analytics to identify top performers, skill gaps in the organization, and areas for improvement.

Payroll

Paying your employees accurately and on time is critical to your business operations. This can be simplified by automating calculations, payroll tax deductions, and direct deposit options. Look for a payroll solution that also includes compliance with local labour laws, which gives you much-needed peace of mind if your business operates in multiple locations.

Compliance

HR departments are responsible for ensuring their organizations follow labor and employment laws, which is easier said than done in an era of constant regulatory change. Effective compliance solutions keep up with new standards and streamline compliance processes to help you create future-ready policies.

Scheduling

Flexible schedules enable your people to have a healthy work-life balance. Without technology, it would be challenging to keep track of your employees' time off requests and shift changes. Scheduling solutions allow employees to manage their schedules digitally, reducing the need for paper schedules and increasing team communication. Even better, they also enable managers and supervisors to make smart staffing decisions using forecasting capabilities to ensure the right people are in the right place at the right time.

Reporting and analytics

Reporting and analytics solutions provide real-time dashboards, customizable reports, and predictive analysis to measure progress toward your goals and identify areas for improvement. Business intelligence reporting also tracks key HR metrics such as employee turnover, talent acquisition success, and productivity levels. With this data at your fingertips, you can make informed decisions to drive your organization forward.

Time and attendance

Employers must keep records of employee hours worked, including breaks, overtime, and absences. Manual timekeeping methods can be error-prone and time-consuming, leading to inaccurate data and potentially costly compliance issues. Time and attendance solutions automate these processes, making it easier for employees to record their hours worked and providing managers with accurate data for payroll processes and scheduling purposes.

HR service delivery

HR service delivery solutions provide employee self-service options for common HR tasks such as requesting time off, updating personal information, and accessing important documents. Access to these tools empowers employees to control their HR needs.

What should human resource management software include?

Human resource management software gives you the tools to focus on your people, making work more efficient for everyone to help your business grow. Here is what human resource management software should include:

Centralized people data

Centralized people data allows you to manage all your people processes in a single employee record without having to enter the same data repeatedly. Track all HR-related employee information in one convenient place, including personal details, employment history, performance reviews, benefits choices, and time and labor data. This minimizes compliance risk and makes your day-to-day easier.

Flexible workflows

Flexible, built-in workflows easily automate your business processes and guidelines, enabling you to streamline routine tasks such as approvals, policy updates, and timely changes within your workforce.

Reporting and analytics

When there are data gaps across your organization, it can sometimes seem as if decisions depend too heavily on gut feelings or intuition. Intelligent reporting and analytics tools can provide solution-wide transparency, giving you insights into critical business areas so you can get ahead of potential issues.

Employee self-service

Employees no longer need to knock on HR’s door for every question. With HR solutions, your people have access to modern, easy-to-use self-service tools that empower them to update personal information, check their benefits, request time off, and even enroll in training programs, all at their fingertips.

Compliance

Compliance promotes trust, employee wellbeing, and organizational success. Built-in rules engines can help you follow all relevant employment laws and alert you when you’re not. This is supported with access to a single source of truth that provides reliable and accurate data, the latest government forms, and automated leave management tools from anywhere at any time.

Learning and development

HRM solutions can offer learning and development content and notify employees of available courses they can take on any device at any time. It’s designed to meet your people wherever they are on their learning journeys. You can also track their progress, identify training gaps, and tailor development plans to keep everyone growing.

What are the benefits of using HR solutions?

A modern human resource management software streamlines HR processes by automating tasks, leading to increased efficiency and time savings. It ensures you stay compliant with labor laws and regulations, creating a fair workplace. Plus, it boosts employee engagement through personalized learning and development opportunities, empowering employees to be self-sufficient, strengthening communication, and creating a strong company culture. Here are some of the top benefits you can expect when you adopt a quality HR solution:

Streamlined processes

HR solutions offer speed, efficiency, and accuracy by automating manual processes. This frees up valuable time for your experienced professionals to focus on more strategic initiatives and improves the overall employee experience.

Case study: Orthopedic practice, EmergeOrtho switched to the UKG Ready® HCM suite to ease the strain of employee onboarding. With automated processes to welcome and onboard new hires, the company has saved one full day each week, an estimated annual cost savings of $26,000.

Simplified payroll

HR solutions automate complex payroll calculations and tax deductions, ensuring accuracy and legal compliance. Instead of inputting data into multiple systems, data is entered once and shared across departments. This automation reduces the risk of errors and saves time for HR teams to focus on other tasks.

Faster onboarding

Employee onboarding can be slow, with the average new hire expected to complete 54 separate tasks during this crucial period. HR solutions streamline the process by automating paperwork, document signing, and new hire training tasks. This upgraded approach allows employees to hit the ground running and reduces the burden on HR teams.

Enhanced employee experience

Technology gives your team members the transparency they need to manage their employee journeys. HR solutions empower entire workforces to access their individual information on demand and complete tasks without needing HR for support. The result is reduced employee frustration, improved communication, and strengthened employer-employee relationships enabled by a culture of trust.

Case study: Leslie’s Pool and Spa Services started using UKG Pro with the goal of empowering employees throughout their work journey so they can focus on delivering exceptional customer care. Using our HR Service Delivery, employees now access a library of self-service tools at any time, including recruiting and onboarding information, real-time pay data, benefits administration, scheduling, learning tools, and performance reviews.

Improved company culture

Seamless communication channels bridge gaps between departments. With all team members on the same page, you can enhance operational efficiency and foster a collaborative company culture where everyone feels free to express their ideas and opinions.

Case study: TravelBrands adopted a UKG Solution after going through a merger and acquisition. Chief Human Resources Officer Diana Valler told us,

“We wanted to partner with an organization that aligned with our core values of harmony, integrity, and success. UKG’s purpose is people and that is exactly what TravelBrands believes in, so it was a perfect fit. We know we cannot achieve our goals alone. It takes a village and UKG works collaboratively with us, so we are constantly innovating together.”

Limited turnover

Smooth internal processes remove friction for employees, which reduces employee turnover by improving hiring cycles, creating opportunities for development, and boosting employee satisfaction.

Case study: Portillo’s Restaurant Chain serves customers across 70 different locations in nine states. The hospitality space is well-known for experiencing high turnover, which can impact business operations. Additionally, attracting people to work in the sector has been challenging since the pandemic. Portillo's gives employees access to crucial data via the UKG Pro mobile app, where they can view pay statements, shift information, or access benefits information. With detailed analytics, managers can quickly access reports to make informed staffing decisions that are key to retaining employees.

Stricter compliance standards

Compliance responsibility becomes less of a hassle with HR solutions that are designed to stay updated with federal or local requirements, using automated updates and reminders. This reduces the risk of non-compliance penalties and ensures that the organization's policies align with the latest legal requirements, including those related to payroll.

Case study: Major League Baseball team Miami Marlins has a dynamic workforce which doubles in size during baseball season. This changeable headcount requires payroll teams to be on the ball, managing varying work schedules, pay rates, and bonuses. Chief Operating Officer Caroline O'Connor explains the value of using UKG Pro to handle its complex compliance requirements.

"Pro's out-of-the-box features for managing compliance enable us to save internal efforts. This enables our payroll team to work independently."

7 Steps to develop an HR solution strategy

Selecting and implementing an appropriate HR tool for your organization isn’t something that happens overnight. Follow the steps below to create a robust people strategy that enables you to research, test, and roll out the right solution for your business:

1. Understand organizational goals and objectives

Identify what your organization needs to achieve by adopting an HR solution, which will vary from one company to another.

Examine your broader business strategy and how HR supports your goals. For example, if you're expanding into a new market and need employees with a particular skill set, you might focus on talent acquisition systems.

To zone in on your key goals and objectives, engage with stakeholders across the organization to gather insights and identify pain points in your current HR processes.

2. Analyze your current HR capabilities

Unless you're a new business, you'll already have some HR functions in place, such as performance management, talent acquisition, and payroll. Review your current practices, systems, and technologies to identify any areas needing improvement. For example, you might discover that open enrollment season is always a major headache for your teams and decide to find a better way of managing your employee benefit communication.

3. Define HR system requirements

Determine the technical requirements for your HR solutions based on what you already have in place and your future goals:

• How many HR users will need to access your HR solution?
• How many employees will it serve?
• Do you expect your business to scale in the near future?
• Do you require employee service capabilities?
• What other technologies will your HR solution integrate with, such as accounting or ERP systems?
• Will the end-users of your HR solution require training?
• Do you require mobile access?
• What data security requirements must you comply with?

4. Research compatible HR solutions

Research relevant vendors in the market and compare their solutions. Budget will be a huge consideration at this stage, so you must understand your preferred solution's pricing model. Consider:

• Does the vendor charge per user or a set fee?
• Are discounts available if you pay an annual subscription?
• Are there any hidden costs, such as setup, training, or maintenance fees?
• Is it easy to change your plan if you need to?

Another consideration will be how quickly your users feel comfortable using the new system. Review third-party software platforms like G2 or TrustRadius to learn how other customers have experienced a specific product. You’ll gain detailed insights about ease of navigation or what features are missing from a platform. Best of all? User reviews reveal how quickly or extensively companies handle customer service issues.

5. Develop an implementation plan

Outline how you’ll integrate your new HR solution into your organization and the steps needed to get there.

• Which teams will be involved in the implementation process?
• How much time do you need to migrate existing data into the HR system?
• Will you run a pilot program before full deployment?
• Who is in charge of change management and communication to ensure a smooth transition?

6. Roll out your HR software

Install your new HR solution across your organization. Remember that change management is critical at this stage, as employees must adapt to a new way of working. Ensure proper training is provided to HR staff and end-users and communicate the new system's benefits to boost adoption rates.

7. Monitor and adjust

Once your HR solution is live, keep a close eye on how it’s performing. This can be achieved by:

• Creating mechanisms to collect regular feedback from your users, from which you can identify any employee issues.
• Establish metrics and KPIs to monitor the performance of the human resource software against the expected outcomes.
• Regularly review and update the HR solution’s strategy to adapt to changing organizational needs and technological advancements.

FAQs about human resource management