-Vishakha Goswami
In the last decade, HR technologies have evolved rapidly alongside other sectors. HR technology moulds the way business and people operates. Additionally, the SME space is elevating in adopting HR technologies to run everyday operations and employee management. Most small businesses use HR tech solutions such as payroll, attendance and leave management, employee data management and so on. SMEs have realised that HR tech plays a vital role in the growth of their business. One of the reasons for the growth factor is that HR tech-enabled companies streamline certain practices which engage with their employees in various ways. HR technology is also empowering HR professionals or CHROs to contribute to business growth.
Since the start of the pandemic that had imposed financial stress on businesses – streamlined, digitized and transformed HR operations has become an imperative for meeting and exceeding business goals. A comprehensive change has been observed in the way companies coordinate with their workforce. For companies, hiring and managing the workforce have become a lot more complicated. Therefore, HR technologies are helping SMEs and small businesses with innovative tools that serve the employees and employers to work efficiently.
Technologies such as automation, robotics for different verticals and associated data management and cloud technologies were already adopted in the Pre Covid timeline but the unchartered events have boosted the adoption of this tech in organisations. As per the Gartner study: 16% of employers are using technologies more frequently to monitor their employees. Even before the pandemic, organizations were increasingly using non-traditional employee monitoring tools, but that HR trend will be accelerated by new monitoring of remote workers and the collection of employee health and safety data.
Managing Hybrid Workforce:
Hybrid work models and temporary workers aka Gig workers are emerging, making shift and OT management becoming difficult to handle for companies moving towards a Post Covid workforce management for productivity. Gartner study cites this: “Our research finds that 32% of organizations are replacing full-time employees with contingent workers as a cost-saving measure. While gig workers offer employers greater workforce management flexibility, HR leaders will need to evaluate how performance management systems apply to these workers and determine whether they will be eligible for the same benefits as their full-time peers.”
According to S.V.Phani Kumar of Hyderabad based S.P.M.Enterprise, “I am interacting with many business owners who are mainly SMBs. A traditional Bio-metric device that was connected towards their attendance is now replaced with software that tackles theirs in and out time. However, there is a huge demand for software that tells if they are working or not. But overall, their investments in HR technology had multi-folded after the pandemic. We cannot find companies with 100 employees without HR software already in place. However, what is lacking is an HR technology that meets the business objectives of an organization as most of the HR teams work in silos”
Hiring The Right Talent:
From shortlisting of the candidates to the final onboarding of the right talent, HR tech makes this process easy by using artificial intelligence and machine learning. The HR software can be used to reach a wider audience and get the right candidate for the required role. One of the main technologies is the ATS – Application Tracking System that allows companies to post jobs on various platforms. It also makes it feasible for the applicants to apply and for the program to sort out those applications based on the right match for the job role.
“One major pillar in building enterprise is people handling or managing people. Effective HR practices have become key for the growth of SMEs. Automation in HR is playing a vital role now from conducting interviews to exit from the company. Major documentation, the legality of HR issues is important to handle through effective HR tools. It is saving time, keeping systems in place, better talent handling and effective review mechanism for retaining best human talents”, says Dhiraj Vijayvargia, Managing Director, Priyam Infosystems Pvt. Ltd.
As Organizations operate in a competitive market, there is also competition increasing for the same resources. The Employee experience has become crucial as finding new Talent is time-consuming, can be expensive and hence existing resource engagement and retention have become more important than ever.
Monitoring Employee’s Performance:
Managing the performance of the employees is an important aspect of the company’s growth. HR technologies provide this important tool for HR personnel that enables them to focus on talent development and individual’s growth. With the help of HR software, SMEs can track the productivity and performance of their employees. Also, employees can access the feedback from their respective team leads and senior management. This nurture transparency within the organisations.
“Developing deeper connections with existing talent benefits in increasing employer branding. By monitoring and developing high performers through HR tech leading in delivering better results for clients and revenue growth. A holistic approach for employees’ experience can lead to their well-being at a physical, mental and work productivity level thereby transcending work and personal goals are overlapping to create a synergy and a Happy employee. Sharing a common purpose with employees can be engaged for talent addition, referrals from their network, training and on-boarding as buddies.”, says Gopalakrishnan N, CEO, Velmayil Infosystems, Coimbatore.
Automating The Routine Administrative Tasks:
SMEs are using ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions to automate administrative tasks that require a lot of manual data entry work which includes payroll management, invoicing, leave scheduling and so on. An ERP software presents all the employee information across departments in one place, keeps a track of records as well as updates them automatically. It minimises the risk of data redundancy and duplicity and ensures that the data can be accessed quickly. This allows the HR managers to focus on areas of strategic importance rather than spending time on mundane tasks. Similarly, payroll management is a daunting and time-consuming task when done manually, hence HR technologies can help automate the payroll by streamlining the process. Most of the HR technologies that provides payroll management tools are cloud-based, which enables employees to access the information. Hence, employees can access information like salary taxation, sick leave and more.
Make Employees Self-Reliant:
For improving the overall employee experience, SMEs should invest in ESS i.e., the Employee Self-Service portal. This is a paperless platform that allows authorised users to access the basic HR transactions such as payroll, paychecks, updating personal information like names, addresses, sick leave and other leaves using their login id without intervention from the HR department.
“Managing human resources is a quite hectic and time-consuming job. You have to keep track of the in and Out, out-duties, leaves, multiple shifts of all of your employees. Failing that can cause you money or may upset your employee. Implementation of technology will do all this with great ease and visibility. Keeping everything at one place provides accurate results which save your valuable time and lead to Employee Satisfaction”, says Amrut A Maktedar, Director at Peddletech Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
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