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Technology is changing just about every facet of the business world and human resources is no different. Today’s HR departments are much different than the HR departments of yesteryear, with employees able to solve a lot of their own problems thanks to easy access to information and digital communication.
If you want to open your mind to some new HR tips for small business needs, then keep reading how you can take your organization’s HR department to the next level with technology.
1. Let Employees Self-Serve As Many HR Needs As Possible
If your organization isn’t utilizing an ERP system, then you’re wasting money on manpower to pay your HR staff to do tasks that employees could easily do themselves. Employees should be able to access their own tax, insurance, payroll, and other relevant information easily themselves by logging into a system.
When this data is digitized and automated, HR staff can spend less time pulling records and repeating information for employee inquiries and more time staffing the organization.
Plus, employees like to be able to access their own information independently of their HR rep. Allowing employees to access their own employee data easily and on-demand is hugely beneficial to any business.
2. Go Digital With Job Postings
If your organization is still depending on job fairs or college recruitment events for staffing needs, then it’s high time you get with the digital age and start utilizing technology for recruitment and hiring.
Your staff openings should be posted not only on popular job sites but also on your company’s own website. Digital job listings should be comprehensive and the application process should be simple.
Furthermore, if you require basic competency, personality or intelligence tests before scheduling an interview, you can easily host these on your website and allow applicants to take the test online themselves. By allowing potential employees to not only apply but to take preliminary tests themselves online, you can save a great deal of money on HR expenses.
Remember, the goal here is to give your HR staff the least amount of unnecessary tasks possible. Anything that can be automated should be.
3. Utilize Digital Communication Whenever Possible
Many employees feel like they need to schedule in-person meetings if they want to talk to an HR representative. While this was certainly true in most organizations for many years due to the sensitive nature of many meetings between employees and their HR reps, the times have changed. Thanks to encryption and secure networks within organizations, your HR staff can communicate with employees via digital mediums.
Your organization should encourage employees to utilize digital communication in lieu of an in-person meeting whenever possible. Digital communication tends to lead to a resolution faster and costs your company less money in the long run. When you use technology to make tasks simpler and more expedient, you almost always end up saving money on manpower.
4. Consistently Evaluate What’s Working
It’s important to use technology to help your business run more efficiently, particularly in the HR realm where wasteful spending and inefficient time management can often be problems. However, it’s important to constantly monitor what is and is not working.
For example, if you’ve moved to digital communication for employees and HR reps but are consistently receiving negative feedback that employees don’t feel their needs are being met, it might be time to evaluate whether or not your HR reps are properly trained in handling problems over email or messenger. Another scenario is trying a workforce management tool that will allow employees to see their schedules in real time. If employees don’t find the tool’s user interface friendly, then there’s no sense in using it.
Furthermore, stay in touch with your IT department if you’ve newly implemented a self-service HR system for employees. If employees aren’t receiving up-to-date or accurate payroll and insurance information, it could be a huge headache for your company down the road. It’s best to stay on top of these things to prevent them from snowballing into much bigger issues than they have to be.
5. Use Tech, But Keep HR Human
Using technology to make business easier is a no-brainer. Tech can take tasks and duties that used to cost a fortune and streamline them until they cost pennies on the dollar of what they used to cost. There’s no reason why a business shouldn’t try to streamline and automate as much as possible.
However, it’s important to remember the “human” in human resources. While you want to cut costs by using tech, you never want your employees to feel like they don’t have real living human HR reps in their corner should they need them. Your HR department and those who staff it still need to feel like real people who are familiar to the employees they serve.
Remember, just because you’re encouraging employees to use digital means to solve their problems and access information wherever possible doesn’t mean that in-person meetings with HR should be forbidden. This is especially important if employees find themselves dealing with something serious, such as a discrimination claim. Let technology save you money wherever possible, but remember that your employees need real human beings to help them with their issues sometimes.
As technology advances and more and more business tasks become automated, we’re likely to see HR change and evolve even more in the future. Keep your company’s HR department up-to-date with all of the new tech advancements that make life easier for both employees and their HR reps. In the end, your staff will be happier and you’ll save a lot of money.