Unlocking Human Potential through HCM

In a fast-paced world there are many challenges that companies / business leaders must rise up to meet. Business infrastructure, cutting edge communication systems, information enriched processes etc. Though business confidence of leaders has been very high, they are concerned about sustaining performance.

Performance can be sustained by harnessing Human Capital within the organization rather than cost-saving-dominated IT agendas. This is a complex task for business leaders and HR who have to manage teams across geographies and cultures.
The solution to this complex task is Human Capital Management (HCM) software. Organisations are expanding their use of HCM. Some are using sophisticated tools to identify and implement people programs that impact business results directly and dramatically. These organizations produce significant return on investment and revenue growth.

The changing role of HR
Increasingly, HR professionals are required to be strategic partners in managing the people resources of an organisation. In this new role, HR is responsible to
• Automate key strategic and administrative HR processes
• Streamline and decentralize employee services & practices
• Communicate effectively and transparently
• Provide on-demand reports and analytics

A HCM technology helps HR make a paradigm shift from being processes managers to strategic partners. Companies are web-enabling their HR function to get rid of complexities, and boost productivity.

Strategic HCM processes including performance management system, training management, will see more aggressive adoption and would be linked to business plan.
Organizations with sophisticated requirements for strategic processes such as performance management and training management can usually find more robust functionality from a specialized HCM vendor.

Getting the Most out of HR Software

To receive organization-wide endorsement and financial approval for new investments in a strategic HR solution requires a thorough business case that pinpoints all costs, potential benefits, and even project risks. The case for investing in HR software in your company depends on certain key parameters:
· Do you consume over 20% of your total operating costs on your people?

· Does hiring and retaining talent feature regularly in your strategic &meetings?

· Are you looking for way to better align individual performance to business goals?

· Are you creating a new performance culture within your company?

· Are you looking at cutting costs of delivering HR services and processes?

· Do you wish to forecast and plan people programmes to deliver measurable outcomes?

As a first step, define your company's goal for investing in new HR software. Next, be sure that all stakeholders are committed to the project. Lastly, create the cost-justification business case - a time-honoured financial analysis to assure that an investment will meet certain payback criteria for the organization.
A credible, realistic business case arms the IT and HR teams with the quantification needed to win over skeptics -- most often a CFO or even a board of directors. It also helps the core team move beyond their emotional connection to the solution and make the case pragmatically, enabling others to perceive the wisdom in the investment, and make a rational decision. However there are certain guidelines you should consider:
Project costs by measuring the one-time and on-going investments required in the solution. What are the tangible benefits like HR productivity improvements, improve employee retention, strategic business impact, lower employee turnover costs, reducing training, administration and total employee costs, compliance and error reduction. Apart from that you need to check the intangible benefits too like brand and strategic advantage, competitive advantage, intellectual capital.
Also the need to consider Project risk is of utmost importance. Risk adjusted analysis is a critical element of the business case, especially with our low tolerance for failure in today’s business environment.
Proven HR software should provide payback between 12 to 24 months, with a 3-year ROI of 150% when deployed to suit specific business needs.

Performance Management

In this fast moving competitive world, performance management is the key to ensure employee productivity in an organization. It provides an objective platform for setting, tracking and appraising employee performance. It helps HR establish an objective performance culture, develop career plans, allocate compensation efficiently and nurture outstanding performers.
Some features include:

• Employees can identify and set goals aligned to corporate objectives, in collaboration with the managers.

• Collecting of feedbacks from various angles is possible thereby making it a 360 degree feedback system which helps to identify leadership potentials.

• Generate on-demand margin analysis report for realistic budgeting.

• Organizational as well as individual performance is aligned through the normalization process.

• Goal status and modifications can be reviewed periodically.

Performance management is sometimes confused with Performance Appraisal, but Appraisal is just the final part of the management cycle. In short, Performance Appraisal is a backward looking process, whereas Performance management is a forward looking process.
Through performance management organisations can align their workforce to goals and objectives, with the power to be responsive to business opportunities and deliveries.

E-Reqruitment - The Hottest Trend

The hottest trend in the recruitment business is the ‘E-recruitment’, also known as online recruitment. It is the use of technology for assisting in the recruitment process.With the passage of time, many job portals have been launched in India, be it Naukri.com, Shine.com, Monster.com, they all are acting as a tool for providing job opportunities to people. Many organizations also use there own website or its own intranet for the same.
eRecruitment transforms the recruitment function into a faster, simpler, effective process by aligning the process with organisational benchmarks, right talent and position requirements across locations.
Here are a few pointers to gain maximum effectiveness from eRecruitment:-
• To measure the effectiveness of online recruitment, set up the metrics for recruitment spending.

• In order to attract the right candidate, a detailed job description should be given.

• Give a precise and unambiguous questionnaire to reduce time in searching for a suitable candidate.

• Applicant tracking system should be of a high quality and should be integrated with the back-office.

• Develop a comprehensive website to receive and process job applications whether through direct or online advertising.

There are many benefits of eRecruitment as it is much faster than traditional modes of recruitment. Despite the fact that Internet has a low penetration in India, e-recruitment is picking up speed due to its flexibility and cost benefits and looks like its here to stay.

Shift Management

Shift work is a form of work scheduling involving a process in which a group of workers succeed each other at the same workstation in shifts. The shifts can be organized either in a rotating, a continuous or a discontinuous fashion. Notwithstanding the patterns of work scheduling, it has been unequivocally accepted that shift work in general disrupts biological rhythms, sleep and social life. In addition, shift work leads to a number of clinical and non-clinical problems. It retards human performance and increases the chances of occurrence of major industrial accidents.

However in order to get rid of such occurrences, firm’s are seeking software’s which provide them with Shift Management facility. By using such Shift Management Systems the company can gain complete control of rotating employees, know availability with easy linking to departments like transport to facilitate people management.
Some systems have features like:

• Assign / Rotate employees through various shifts

• Present overview of employees working in any shift

• Link shift roster to the transport department and schedule pick-ups.

By applying such systems to use, there can be optimization of human shift work which in turn would minimize the occupational health hazards among shift workers. This will result in increasing their performance and augment the productivity of their organization.

Payroll Software

In this world of mergers & acquisitions and increased employee mobility, the payroll system is becoming complex and tedious to administrate. But technology has considerably eased this as it is now possible to run payroll software from a single point for the entire network using no more than a single database.

Such software has many advantages, which help firms deliver accurate, secure and punctual payroll services without the administrative tedium. Some of the advantages are:

• Companies can easily create multi-company payrolls with unlimited number of employees.

• Calculate tax, gratuity and medical credits calculation

• The software is fully compliant with statutory and legal requirements.

• Considerably reduces the workload on HR and Accounts staff, facilitating privacy, error-free information and speed in accessing payroll details.

• Define formulas with Formula Builder for custom calculations, specifying special conditions

• Reports – Bank transfer reports are prepared bank wise, currency wise

• Apart from HRMS security, User Level Pay Group security (access) is available in payroll. This facilitates the user to view only the pay groups to which they have given rights.