Essential Toolkits for HR Professionals

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, HR Strategy: Job Leveling (26-slide PowerPoint presentation). Job Leveling is a disciplined approach to gauge the value of work for individual positions across the organization. It entails ascertaining the nature of work done by each position, authority levels, and the effect of each job on business results. Jobs that are configured inadequately bread [read more]

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Technology is making the work of HR professionals easier by the minute. Reporting tools allow them to measure performance down to the last metric. Management tools allow people to track work in progress even when they’re not on the premises. More automation means less time working on repetitive tasks. This has made today HR workers more efficient than ever. Let’s take a look at some of the top tools for HR professionals.

Human Resource Management System

Businesses nowadays have a huge amount of data they have to deal with, and one of the most common ways to organise this data is by using a human resource management system. A good human resource management system will allow you to store, track, and compile employee data fast and easily.

Depending on the business, you could either use a software as a service solution that will allow you to pay per month and get the most up to date version of the software without buying the next version. Or, you could opt for a license. Either way, these are some of the most important tools for any HR professional, as it gives them quick access to things like schedules, attendance records, and various information on employees.

You also have human resource information systems (HRIS), which focus more on the data aspect. These will often have additional analytics tools to measure various metrics and can help with things like audits for instance.

Performance Solutions

Human resources are also in charge of monitoring performance, and there’s not much space for guesswork these days. Reporting tools are becoming better than ever and allow HR professionals to monitor day to day performance of departments and employees.

Performance evaluations should be more than just annual or bi-annual meetings between employees and supervisors. The objectives touched upon in these meetings should be followed through and evaluated.

Performance reporting tools are added to management systems like ADP for instance. They allow HR to track evaluations, add notes and feedback on employees, and help employees and administrators better keep up on evaluations and meet objectives.

Online Learning Tools

Online learning is one of the best ways for HR professionals to brush up on their knowledge or seek advancement. HR professionals can now get a master of human resource management online and move to become heads of a human resource department. They will also get all the tools needed to become better recruiters, learn how to adapt to the new realities of the workforce, and use the most recent tech tools to help in their tasks.

Recruiting Software

The type of recruiting software you use will have a direct impact on how fast and well you can find employees to fill positions. The goal of recruiting software is to streamline the whole process as much as possible.

A good recruiting software will allow you to reduce the amount of manual tasks you have to perform every day, such as looking up applications so you can accept or reject them, manage candidates, or automatically post job ads.

Small business owners however should be careful when implementing one of these solutions. First of all, they should pay special attention to how these are priced and what kind of features they have. Not all are suited for small businesses, and some may have features that will only benefit larger companies. In some cases, smaller companies would benefit more from using a lighter tool with fewer capabilities that will be able to handle all the essentials.

Payroll Service

Payroll is one of the functions that is a central part of all organisations. Thankfully, there are plenty of tools available to make sure that your payroll operates optimally. Investing in a good payroll software solution will make things easier for you and your bookkeeper. It will help them stay on top of bonuses and any exemptions. You’ll be able to keep track of deductions, vacation pay, and more. Some will allow you to automatically pay all of your payroll tax and report new employees directly to the taxation office. This kind of tool can be invaluable if you want to remain compliant and make sure that there are no payroll issues affecting your employees.

Benefits Management Platform

While a good payroll service will be able to take care of some benefits for you, it would be a good idea to also invest in a benefits management platform that will allow you to take care of certain benefits, such as paid leave, retirement benefits, workers’ compensation, and more.

Outsourcing benefits management could also be a good decision depending on your situation. For example, it may put you on par with some of the biggest companies in your sector and allow you to focus on what you do best.

Employee Engagement Tools

Employee morale is one of the most important things you should keep an eye on if you want a productive workforce. But it can be a very elusive metric and one that can’t be measured only through questionnaires. Employee engagement tools allow you to constantly work on improving morale and your workplace in general.

Some tools even allow workers to anonymously reward workers they feel are doing a good job. This allows you to identify which workers are the most esteemed by their peers and reward them accordingly.

This could also help with promotions – not only will it allow you to see which ones are performing their jobs the best, but you will be able to recruit people who have the respect of other employees. This will insure that promotions are as fair as possible and also make sure that employees work for people they actually have respect for, which can work wonders for any company’s morale.

As a HR professional, you will need to understand and master these tools if you want to be as efficient as possible. Make sure that you always stay informed on the most recent changes and tools, and don’t be afraid to make some recommendations if you feel some tools could help you or your department work better.

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The purpose of Human Resources (HR) is to ensure our organization achieves success through our people. Without the right people in place—at all levels of the organization—we will never be able to execute our Strategy effectively.

This begs the question: Does your organization view HR as a support function or a strategic one? Research shows leading organizations leverage HR as a strategic function, one that both supports and drives the organization's Strategy. In fact, having strong HRM capabilities is a source of Competitive Advantage.

This has never been more true than right now in the Digital Age, as organizations must compete for specialized talent to drive forward their Digital Transformation Strategies. Beyond just hiring and selection, HR also plays the critical role in retaining talent—by keeping people engaged, motivated, and happy.

Learn about our Human Resource Management (HRM) Best Practice Frameworks here.