HR Expert David Ulrich put it best – the main goal of human resources is to “drive innovation, productivity and share prices through mobilizing the workforce towards excellence”. Employee management has come in to focus lately as research continues to demonstrate that engaged employees can have a huge impact on organizations. For example, Gallup polls show that organizations with engaged employees out perform competitors by 147% in earnings per share, and have higher customer ratings, higher productivity, better patient outcomes, and lower safety incidents.
Organizations aware of the impact of good employee management processes start with recruitment.
HR departments know that the candidate experience is important for employer brands, referrals, and employee tenure. Designing inclusive hiring processes and making future hires welcome is more important than ever. Onboarding and performance management systems are now designed to be interactive and focus on the skills needed to be successful on the job. Feedback on the learning process is important to help improve the process and increase positive outcomes in a timely manner.
A common concern among employees is that HR can be too bureaucratic and does not play an active part in an employee’s day to day work life. From our experience and research, there are
3 simple things HR systems can do that immediately impact employee management and engagement
1. Provide Visibility
A lot of frustration over HR processes stems from data collection and the inability to get information that employees and managers need to make decisions in a timely manner. Providing employee self-service and/or manager self-service capabilities reduces the number of calls to HR and allows employees and managers to get the information they need for planning and decision making.
2. Provide Flexibility
As organizations grow, they start to lose the flexibility that they enjoyed when they were just starting out. The right HR system for your organization can provide the tools and information required to remain flexible as your workforce grows and possibly spreads throughout the globe.
3. Smooth Change Management
Every organization undergoes changes as they evolve and react to market conditions. Some of these changes require new technologies or changes to management structures. Having a system that tracks changes and keeps employees informed during the transition, can lessen the negative reaction to the change.
Every great business leader knows that the success of any new endeavor or strategic initiative requires a buy-in from all those impacted. Keeping people informed and providing them ways to make changes and requests easily online can give employees a sense of empowerment and responsibility for their own success at work.
HR software is just a small piece of a bigger HR management strategy but it can definitely make a huge impact on the organization and employee management processes.
If effective employee management is a goal for your organization then learn what works and how to leverage HR systems towards that goal in our Employee Management white paper.
