Employee management software

As the company grows bigger, the more work the HR department has. To automate activities and work more efficiently, it is a good idea to use employee management software.

What is employee management software?

Employee management software is a system that is composed of various tools to support the management of HR processes, or individual tools to support a selected process.

However, companies that are gradually increasing the number of employees mostly use comprehensive systems that automate – among other things – recruitment, onboarding/offboarding of employees, performance reviews, employee evaluations, OKRs/KPIs, employee requests, leave policy, time and attendance, etc.

In addition to supporting processes, software for employee management also functions as a database and is a source of valuable and strategic information for the company.

Types of employee management software

There are as many business HR solutions as there are needs. We have different types of employee management software, such as TMS (Talent Management System), ATS ( Applicant Tracking System ), LMS (Learning Management System), but the three most common in HR departments are HRIS (Human Resource Information System), HCM (Human Capital Management) and HRMS (Human Resource Management System).

While TMS focuses on managing employee development, ATS on recruiting, and LMS on managing knowledge within the company, the other systems support more HR processes.

• HRIS ( Human Resource Information System ) – a system designed to manage human resources, HR policies, and procedures. It supports processes such as recruitment (it has an ATS module – Applicant Tracking System), benefits administration, payroll, absence management, workflows, training, employee development management, employee self-service, and reporting.
• HCM ( Human Capital Management ) – contains all the elements of HRIS, but in addition, has talent management functionality, supports employee onboarding, allows expense control, performance and goal management, compensation planning, and analytics.
• HRMS ( Human Resource Management System ) – is a solution that offers both HRIS and HCM functions, enhanced with payroll and a project time management module. It allows you to fully track employee activity, development paths, and efficiency. It is a comprehensive solution that, in addition to data collection and management of many processes, allows for insightful analytics, reporting, and efficient internal communication.

Features of employee management software

• Before you decide to implement any solution, consider what your company really needs.

• Create a list of your business' pain points to be solved with automation.

• Add to it the questions that the software provider should answer for you, such as: Do I get the help of a consultant as part of the product support? Does the system follow legal guidelines such as GDPR? Does the system have integrations with other platforms or applications?

Here's a list of essential features that good employee management software should include.

1. Internal consistency – make sure that data from one system module, will be available in another, for example, whether data from the recruitment module will later display in the module containing employee data. Lack of such consistency within the software complicates workflow and generates unnecessary costs.

2. Comprehensive process management – one system should be able to handle all your HR processes.

3. Efficient reporting – make sure the system will allow you to efficiently create reports and analyses on processes and users. A perfect HR solution will be a customized activity dashboard, where you can track selected HR metrics each time.

4. Ability to integrate with other applications – the HR software should have native integrations with other most popular applications, such as instant messaging or sales systems, or job portals. If it does not have native integrations, it should at least offer the ability to expand on the user's request (developer options, webhooks, etc.).

5. User-friendly configuration – the employee management software must be user-friendly! If you are having difficulty getting your employees to use the system options – it's the wrong system. Be sure to replace it with one where setting options, granting permissions and making requests are easy, so as not to complicate life for the team.

6. Management tools – make sure that the system will allow you to quickly access data on time usage in projects, on planned vacations, and on the status of time records, among other things. This will allow you to make decisions based on the most up-to-date data.

7. Performance and development support – look for a system that, in addition to typical HR functionalities, will also support you in organizing employee development paths and enable you to control the performance of each employee, e.g. by setting KPIs/OKRs or through employee evaluations.

8. Availability: whenever and wherever – to take full advantage of the system's functionalities bet on a cloud-based solution. Access anytime, anywhere, on a variety of devices will enable all employees to communicate efficiently and smoothly workflows.

9. Always up-to-date data – one system to manage employees means better communication on many levels: employer – employee, employee – HR department, HR department – decision-making departments, etc. Everyone has a view of always up-to-date data, making decision-making based on evidence rather than hunches.

10. Employee self-service – automating HR submissions and making the process easier for employees will ease the burden on your HR department. Be sure to choose a system that will have such a feature. You will also find it useful if your team works remotely.

Benefits of employee management software

The use of employee management software has a number of benefits. We have divided them into 4 areas:

• The economic benefits – always up-to-date data to enable decision-making, a greater labor economy, reduced employment costs, reduced administrative costs (e.g., elimination of paper documentation), etc.

• The organizational benefits – automated, efficient work of the HR department = more time to personalize care for employees, better coordination of teams, better talent management, etc.

• Technological benefits – quick processing of information in the internal employee database, elimination of errors due to the „human factor”, improved security of confidential data, thanks to the use of a hierarchy of system authorizations, etc.

• Non-material benefits – better communication within the team, a better understanding of employees' needs, etc.

How can employee management software improve company culture?

Implementing employee management software in a company is providing a consistent experience for all team members. Everyone has insight into their data, and their requests, and can easily communicate with co-workers or come up with ideas for new activities. Transparency in the hiring structure, clear rules for promotions, defined development paths, and clarified goals – all of this help build a company culture.

On top of that, there is the positive experience of candidates, handled by the recruitment module, as well as the experience of newly hired employees, going through onboarding using the system.

The whole thing creates a clear message – we are a modern company that uses the best solutions to facilitate the work of our team members.

Summary

A tool or a system – that is the question. There is a long list of benefits awaiting a company that implements employee management software. And it will continue to get longer because the development of HR technology means that more and more activities can be automated.

Create your list of pros and cons. List the HR and payroll needs or problems that require attention. Compare the offers of available products using our hints.

If you want to learn more about building an HRM system, we invite you to read our blog articles or simply contact us.