Sometimes it can be difficult to get the wheels turning at work for a new year. From time to time, we need a helping hand to build productivity momentum.
We believe that one of the biggest myths is that you can keep consistent motivation based on good intentions alone. In reality, everyone needs tools and strategies to help keep their performance strong. This is where HR software plays a part in improving employee productivity.
Employment Hero’s dynamic suite of employee engagement tools do just that. Our HR software is purpose-built to help the teams of small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) stay driven. Here’s how we can help your team start with a bang and smash their goals this year.
What is HR software?
For the uninitiated, HR software (or HRIS – Human Resources Information Systems) is a cloud-based tool that everyone on your team can use to enhance performance, benefits, administration and compliance. It’s your digital update to all things HR.
To gain a deeper understanding of the transformative power of digital HR, explore our guide on taking HR digital.
There are lots of different types of HR software, some – like Employment Hero – also integrate with payroll systems. Our suite of tools can help your HR team streamline and automate the time-consuming parts of employment. By providing easy-to-use digital solutions, we can supercharge your efforts in recruitment, management and productivity.
How can HR software improve employee productivity?
Let’s break down our top tools to help your team stay focused and engaged this year.
1. Create a culture of reward and recognition
It’s a tried and tested truth; reward and recognition motivate teams.
Employees that don’t feel recognised or appreciated are less loyal to their employers than their appreciated team members, whereas employees that feel recognised are more engaged, leading them to be more productive. Companies that effectively appreciate their employees were also found to be 20% more profitable than those that don’t.
Stay ahead of the curve by implementing the latest employee engagement trends to keep your team motivated and productive.
Recognition can go far beyond a manager sharing encouraging words with their direct reports. What’s much more powerful is creating a culture of peer-to-peer recognition, and Employment Hero’s tools can help you do exactly that.
Using the Company Feed, your team can shout out a job well done that’s visible to the whole business. These thanks can be submitted on either mobile or desktop, making it super easy for your team to appreciate one another.
For outstanding work, your team can also nominate Values Champions. Based on an incredible performance that’s aligned with your company values, approved Champions will receive $10 HeroDollars that can be used on any item in our Discounts store. Though $10 is a relatively minor cost, employees are motivated to keep up their good work and increase their total amount of HeroDollars.
Read more: Introduction to effective HR management
2. Getting effective feedback
Any good manager knows that constructive feedback is an essential part of keeping employees on the right track. It can easily be forgotten, however, to provide it consistently and keep easily accessible notes to refer back to.
Employment Hero’s One-on-One (1:1) tool solves this issue, creating a solid feedback structure between your managers and their direct reports. 1:1s will guide managers and employees through structured and regular meetings, with the goal of providing an environment for coaching and feedback.
The tool asks recurring questions for employees to answer and allows their managers to document a response or any relevant notes. These responses are then confidentially stored under the employee’s profile, allowing easy reference at any time through the desktop app.
Although we believe that regular feedback is the key to great productivity, formal annual reviews still play an important role in employee coaching. That’s why we also have a Reviews section on Employment Hero, where you can conduct an official review and keep a secure paper trail of all feedback.
Read more: Future HR trends to look out for
Prepare your business for the future with insights on HR automation and how it will transform the HR landscape in the future.
3. Defining OKRs and goals
Objectives and Key Results (ORKs) are a high-impact goal-setting framework used by companies like Deloitte, Asana, Netflix and Salesforce. OKRs consist of an Objective, which defines a big goal to be achieved (the ‘what’ or ‘where do we want to go’), and up to 5 Key Results, which measure progress towards the objective (‘how do we know we’re making progress?’).
We wanted to reimagine OKRs for easy use by small businesses; because why shouldn’t SMBs use the same high-growth framework that has scaled businesses across the world?
Employment Hero’s user-friendly OKRs tool makes it easy for you to set and assign OKRs to your team within the platform. With full transparency, you can create objectives that are aligned throughout your organisation. Employees can update their progress in real-time, ticking off key results as they are achieved and noting down all movements that get them one step closer to their goal.
Read more: Creating a HR strategy plan
4. Encourage learning and development
When you invest in learning and development (L&D) for your team, you give them the tools to work smarter and more efficiently, not harder.
When highly engaged employees are challenged and given the skills to grow and progress within their chosen career path, they are more likely to be energised by new opportunities at work. Well-trained employees show both quality and quantity in performance – leading to less wastage of time, resources and money.
One of the challenges with (L&D), however, is keeping it consistent and accessible for your team. Enter HR software with Learning Management Systems.
With Employment Hero’s Learning Plus, you can build custom learning pathways to ensure that your team’s knowledge is always expanding. You can also empower your team to upskill with thousands of online courses, all available on-demand from our desktop app.
Read more: Evolution of HR and people management
5. Free up time from HR admin
Choosing a solution with an employee self-service feature is a must. Self-service functionality allows your employees to perform routine HR tasks. This includes updating personal details, as well as acting upon HR documents – such as viewing and acknowledging workplace policies.
By reducing your employees’ reliance on you to perform administrative support tasks, you cut costs and response times while improving efficiency, productivity and compliance.
Plus, with employee self-service, your managers can make certain decisions regarding their team, such as approving requests for annual leave or training. This means approvals are more relevant to the person in question and a lot quicker too!
Read more: More reasons to switch to cloud HR
For comprehensive guidance on selecting the best HR software for your needs, check out our resource on choosing the right HR software.
6. Manage employees remotely
You can free up a whole heap of your day with cloud HR software. In fact, using online HR software allows you to save an enormous amount of time across a range of HR tasks 100% remotely.
This includes everything from hiring and onboarding, to managing time and attendance, to processing payroll, and even administering employee benefits. By using cloud HR, you can be confident that your company’s HR policies, HR documents and letters tick all the boxes when it comes to being totally compliant with awards and employment legislation.
And with accurate reporting at your fingertips, you’ll save so much unnecessary administration time, not to mention double handling costs.
Read more: Role of digital HR in a flexible workplace
7. Reduce time lost from data breaches
Although data breaches should be a rare occurrence if your company’s security policies are up-to-date, data breaches have a high impact on employee productivity as the team will need to spend time and resources investigating, resolving, and fixing the issue.
Another great thing about online HR software is that it offers considerably better security than having your sensitive data locked away in filing cabinets or even password-protected on your computer.
When choosing an HR solutions vendor to manage the security and integrity of your HR data, a cloud HR provider like Employment Hero uses the same level of password protection, encryption standards and firewall security that banks use.
Plus, since all your HR data resides in the cloud, you can access it from anywhere, at any time. Online HR software also makes it much easier to control who has access to certain data.
You’ll never misplace an HR file again, and as everything carries an electronic trail, all your data and access are easy to track, minimising the risk of security breaches.
Learn how to safeguard your business against common pitfalls by reading about avoiding common HR mistakes that can hinder your productivity and success.
Read more: Avoiding common HR mistakes for your business
Make this year your most productive ever.
Implementing dynamic HR software is one of the best ways to keep your employees engaged and productive, whatever the year throws at them. But HR software is not just about employee performance – it can also transform the way that you run your business.
Learn more about our tools for recruitment, HR admin, payroll and benefits – or talk to one of our business specialists to learn how our platform can meet your business’ specific needs.
From the Employment Hero team, we wish you great success and all the best!
Guide to Choosing The Best HR Software
