Compliance with HR legislation. Compliance, a term increasingly used in Romania as well

The HR department is responsible for identifying, hiring, and retaining the personnel that an organization needs to fulfill its mission and achieve its objectives. Timesheets, payroll, and staff management or integration of new employees are other essential functions within HR’s responsibility. Add to this internal communication, evaluating employee performance, or establishing programs of benefits. Critical but perhaps less apparent aspects include developing and monitoring compliance with labor protection rules, training programs related to occupational safety or hygiene, or drawing up codes of conduct and behavior within the organization.

One of the common characteristics of all these activities is the fact that they must always be carried out in compliance with legislation in force. HR professionals must be aware of and abide by numerous regulations – laws, government decisions, or emergency ordinances.

From the rights that the employees have regarding taxes paid to the State or the registration of their presence in the workplace, all activities within the department must be performed in compliance with legislation in force.

An advanced HR software is one of the solutions that HR professionals have to ensure that everything is in order in terms of compliance.

Compliance. What is this, and what are the responsibilities of the HR Department?

The term compliance in the HR field defines the process by which the department must ensure that both legislation and internal regulations and policies are respected. Preventive behavior is required from the HR department, which involves a lot of responsibility. From this point of view, the use of an advanced HR software, updated according to the latest legislative changes, will prove extremely valuable for HR compliance.

If we think about compliance and process automation, the first thing we consider is a human resources software, which includes a payroll module. We can add employee management and a timesheet module. However, lately, HR platforms cover several areas, also playing an important role in the field of compliance.

Recruitment, employee relationships, performance management, labor protection, you can support them all by an HR software. A professional supplier will consider aligning them with the latest legislative changes. HR experts can be relaxed knowing that the risks of non-compliance are minimal, with the help of the HR application used.

How does an HR software help you comply with regulations in force?

Compliance with regulations in force is one of the monotonous tasks of the HR Department. The challenge is all the more, as they are numerous and constantly changing.
Add to this internal policies and alignment with company values. This area can also be a challenge, especially in large companies, with headquarters abroad.

An HR software program will prove to be a valuable tool for the HR Department. In addition to its role in data digitization and workflow automation, it can play a critical role in compliance.

Thus, an HR application:

1. Is constantly updated regarding regulations and legislative changes

Legislative regulations can undergo major changes, which must be implemented quickly, in the most diverse fields. HR Sincron business consultants, for example, permanently incorporate current know-how into the software platform.

For example, the GDPR (concerning the protection of personal data) is implemented since 2018. HR Sincron has aligned the software solution offered with the provisions of the regulation so that the related processes and activities are in line with the requirements of the new legislation. Our solution helps you legally and securely manage the personal data of your applicants and employees.

2. Compliance with occupational health and safety legislation

Occupational health and safety is an area with a major risk from the perspective of compliance, treated very seriously by the Romanian authorities. The law establishes the obligations of the members of the organization to guarantee the occupational health and safety, and the employer must carefully document their compliance.

The current legislation drastically sanctions failure to comply with the rules in this field. The software provides traceability of all measures taken by an organization to guarantee the health and safety of its workers in the workplace, centralization of all necessary and available documents for each employee, along with features such as reminders related to the expiration of critical documents.

3. Recording, reporting, and payment of worked time

Article 119 of the Labor Code, updated by GEO [Government Emergency Ordinance] No. 53/2017 regulates the obligation of the employer to: “Keep records of the hours worked daily by each employee at the workplace, stating the start and end times of the work schedule, and submitting such records to the labor inspectors, whenever requested.”

The law does not expressly provide for the automation of these procedures, but only a strict record of them. To minimize the risk of errors, the use of a timesheet software solution is essential. It will also provide you with the necessary documentation in case of inspection, in an organized and easy-to-access manner.
The time and attendance application can also be a good starting point for the correct calculation of employees’ wages.

4. Payroll and benefit software

A major benefit of a payroll software program is the time saved by it, by automation. However, the software must also ensure permanent compliance with the legislation by the organization.

Changes related to insurance and the responsibility for the payment of its installments, taxes, and fees, other legislative changes. All these must be integrated into the HR software as soon as they appear.

5. Organization of training programs

A software program will help to organize yourself properly so that the employees benefit, at least from the training provided by legislation. Under Article 194 of the Labor Code, employers should ensure the participation of all employees in training programs, under certain conditions and with a certain regularity.

Besides, the software will provide you, in due time, with information on the status of employees who need certain training courses to carry out an activity. Or, on the contrary, concerning those for whom a certain permit has expired and need a new exam or training program.

6. Decisions made can be better documented with the help of an HR software program.

The software will permanently reflect employee performance evaluations, their entire professional path, and any absences. Those responsible will be able to be sure that the decisions made can be supported by documentation. This documentation will always be well organized and available at any time in the system.

7. Regulating the relationship with employees

A people management software is also a formal communication tool with your employees. The documents created (related to personnel policy, company values, official announcements, employee manual) will be posted online and accessible to all.

The employee may receive notifications of any changes and confirm acknowledgment. In this way, the software will regulate formal communication with the employees. At any time, you will be able to prove that employees were up to date regarding an announcement or change.

In short

Compliance with legal regulations in force, continually changing, is a permanent challenge for HR professionals. The HR trends for 2019 have also aimed compliance – constant efforts to comply with the legislation.

The HR department must be constantly aware of these regulations, adapting to them. Alternative? Fines applied to the company and, thus, damaged reputation – at the individual and organizational level.

HR Sincron treats every new regulation with the utmost seriousness, our consultants quickly incorporating every change in the software platform. The constant effort of our experts goes in the direction of the regular integration of all adjustments while maintaining the quality standards of the software platform and continuing its development.

An HR software program permanently adapted to legislative changes is one of the critical solutions to comply with the regulations in force. When things are all right in terms of compliance, HR department experts can focus better on other tasks.

© 2019 Sincron HR Technologies Inc.

• HR Compliance
• HR Software

Digitalization transformed the business landscape of the last years radically, and the HR department is no exception from increasing online exposure. We see more often how electronic folders replace the files and the stacks of paper. Human resources software is turning company data into digital output and automates workflows.

A cloud-based HR software, natively oriented towards integration with other applications, facilitates the professional transfer of the human resources department towards the digital business environment.

HR experts now benefit from the necessary tools to simplify administrative tasks. They can use integrated software platforms such as Sincron HR Software, which adds solutions oriented towards talent management. Such an integrated platform offers solutions for sourcing, recruitment, onboarding, performance management, training activity management, career plans, or internal communication.

Why use cloud technology?

Cloud technology is used more often by companies in Romania, helping them get aligned with the international trends from this perspective. This trend allows replacing applications or software previously downloaded and stored on the computer or the company server with Internet applications. The approach grants access that can be changed instantly by authorized persons.

Using cloud technology will increase the efficiency of the human resources department, while the human error risk goes down. You keep your data safely, and they are more accessible to recover when needed since you don’t store them on a physical server or computer. At the same time, you make sure that you observe the regulations in force, along with integrating legislative amendments in due time, which is particularly important.

Moreover, cloud-based human resources software enables you to centralize the information and KPIs related to employee performance, and do it quickly. Having access to this type of data is the first step toward an analysis of making future strategic decisions.

Using cloud technology provides you with the opportunity to use some of the most advanced software solutions or platforms as business tools, even when your company is still developing and has few employees. The business may evolve, provided it maintains high flexibility as regards the number of employees. You don’t need to make technology investments directly proportional to or dependent on the number of employees. Scaling resources upwards or downwards is very flexible.

8 advantages of a cloud HR software for the development of your business

Using cloud HR software brings numerous benefits to the modern human resources department. It simplifies every process and ensures the crossover towards a proactive human resources department, opening new horizons.

As the “Z” generation, the first considered to be natively digital, occupies a more prominent place on the workforce market, this change becomes not only necessary but mandatory. Companies that seek to evolve in the competitive market must take into account the expectations of these candidates, including that the future employer is modern enough to have already achieved a certain standard of digital professionalism.

Data security and quick recovery thereof

Data security is one of the main concerns of any business, and as technology advances, this component becomes critical.
Especially small and medium-sized businesses find many advantages in implementing cloud technology – it is safer, more flexible, and less expensive than the one where organizations rely on their infrastructure and manual back-ups.

Less paper, increased efficiency

Soon, large metal cabinets hosting stacks of folders to be perused by the HR experts to find the desired information shall become a mere memory.

With cloud-based HR software, you store the information digitally, and the HR expert only needs a few seconds to access and print it out if need be. Each file is organized, safely kept, and accessible immediately with the support of the integrated storage systems.

We are talking about saving precious time, increased efficiency and more flexibility for each member of the HR team, which can gradually increase contribution in those areas of human resources processes that can never become fully automated.

Possibility to assess employee performance in real-time

One of the critical functions of the Human Resources department is to evaluate employee performance. Once advanced cloud-based HR software is integrated, we say goodbye to endless documents that require us entire days of collecting the necessary data. The HR team will need a lot of time to analyze and correlate the data, drawing conclusions, and formulating recommendations based on them.

Let’s not forget however that the indicators related to performance management are a hot topic for any top management team; furthermore, the speed in obtaining and accessing such information is a significant factor for the human resources department as a coordinator of the process.

With the support of an HR software, employee performance is monitored in real-time. Data analysis is done quickly, using dashboards and customized reports, and if the software is integrated with an HR Analytics system, things become even more accessible. The HR experts can analyze data from the software platform to be able to improve the quality of the decisions made and to support them with accurate data, building at the same time their own data analysis and interpretation system.

The HR team may propose measures to correct a specific situation or an additional training program very quickly, having available all the data that can be accessed at any time and from any device – because we are talking about a cloud-based HR solution.

24/7 access to employee data

HR experts will continuously have access via the cloud-based HR software, to employee data – from the employee file to timekeeping and payroll, but also the performance assessment tools or training activity management tools.

At the same time, employees can access their file, according to the rights assigned to them, and they can view in real-time their holiday requests and the status of the approvals, the employment agreement, the number of days off remaining during a particular year or data on wages and benefits.

We should not neglect the positive experience that the company employees will have by increasing the transparency, which may contribute to strengthening the employer brand.

Employees can work remotely keeping permanent contact with the team

Generations change, and the flexibility of the place of work is one of the most highly regarded advantages for those who have just joined the workforce but not only for them.

The law adapted to this trend, telework was regulated, and companies offer more often the possibility to work from home or co-working spaces on certain days.

Cloud technology allows those who are working remotely to be connected permanently to their co-workers, with secure access to the data and information necessary in their work. Experts estimate that by 2020, a significant part of the workforce will operate remotely, whereas the business infrastructure will radically change from this point of view.

Already implementing telework solutions, your business can benefit from significant competitive advantages shortly.

Data analysis possibility, especially with the HR Analytics component

A professional HR Analytics tool will provide you with valuable business insights that may represent significant advantages against the competitors.

For instance, the company’s recruitment system can be improved by identifying the most suitable candidate profile for a particular position; a more efficient process, saving time during recruitment; growing, in time, the retention rate of the staff, as a result of increased affinity of the candidates for the open positions.

Accessing critical HR data will allow following the evolution of various indicators in time actively, and the department will be able to understand the causes of the changes that have occurred, supplying proposals for improvement based on actual data. The decision-making process is thus shortened, and there is more trust in the accuracy of the measures proposed.

The HR department will thus have the occasion to analyze, monitor, and report data in a modern and up-to-date manner, actively using them and turning them into a definite competitive advantage.

Document traceability and control

The higher the number of employees collaborating to make up a document, the more important it is that they should find a common denominator. Before cloud-based applications existed, employees would send various materials on which they were working as e-mail attachments, being processed by a user, and afterward, another colleague would make changes and so on.

Various issues could come up in this manner, starting from small inadvertencies to ignoring a set of changes proposed, which could lead to an entirely different format of the document reaching part of the users.

When you work in the cloud, all documents are stored in the same place, and every employee views a single version thereof. It is easy to identify who made specific changes, the responsibilities are clear, and the long-term results are visible.

Automated software updates

A significant benefit of a cloud-based HR solution is the fact that it updates automatically and regularly. These updates envisage both data security and the observance of the regulations in force; an example to this effect relates to the GDPR that the HR departments must comply with, considering that, due to the particulars of their activity, they are processing a large volume of personal data.

The Sincron HR Software human resources platform pays special attention to complying with the GDPR requirements and with the other legal provisions in force constantly.

Conclusion 

Using a cloud-based HR solution, natively open towards integrating with other applications, is one of the solutions facilitating the evolution of the HR department towards the digital business environment. HR experts benefit, due to such a platform, from an especially designed solution that will satisfy their current digitization needs.

Sincron HR Software is a cloud-based platform that you can integrate with your other applications easily. You can access your data any time and on any device – including all the benefits of such solutions, irrespective of the scope of business.

© 2019 Sincron HR Technologies Inc.

• Cloud-based HR software

When searching for a new job, it’s not always about the money. Of course, money remains an important factor, but it’s not the only one that attracts valuable candidates and motivates employees in the long run. Nowadays, you need to have a proper benefits package, not just promises that sound good in the job ad.

At this moment, candidates have control over the market, so you should develop a strategy for attracting and retaining the most valuable candidates. We’ve prepared a list of recommendations.

The possibility of career advancement within the company

Candidates searching for a new job are often more interested in the possibility of advancement than in the basic salary. People need challenges and the joy of reaching a superior level, they don’t want to retire from the same position. As a company, you need to offer a sure way of moving up the ladder, a structured training program, a mentoring system and examples of other employees who have been promoted.

Job security

Each employee that you attract needs a certain budget to cover his monthly expenses and will appreciate job security. Studies show that almost 90% of candidates between 21 and 35 years old consider that job security is almost as important as how much money they make. Prove that your company appreciates loyalty and that you are looking for long-term collaborations.

Flexible working hours

Flexible working hours, along with work-from-home programs, give people the possibility of finding a balance between their work and their personal lives, with positive effects on both. As long as the work is completed, there’s nothing to worry about. Think about how much parents appreciate this benefit and how appealing it is to all the categories of qualified candidates that you want to attract.

Volunteering

Now and then we all need a break from our everyday tasks and problems. We need to offer some of our time to the community that we are part of. This is an activity that employers should promote and encourage. This is a human side, proof that you are people-oriented, that you are empathetic. Include volunteering days in the corporate events. This is a part of the organizational culture that will attract a lot of candidates.

Programs that support a healthy lifestyle

More and more employees pay increasing attention to their health. Offer benefits such as a gym membership, private corporate health insurance, vouchers for healthy food, provide breakfast, lunch and healthy snacks at the workplace. A healthy employee with a balanced lifestyle is a happy, much more productive employee.

Maternity/Paternity leave

This is an extremely important advantage for young candidates. If they know that you are going to be there for them if they decide to conceive and are expecting a baby, they will be much more motivated to sign. At a global level, one can observe a growing flexibility and company policies that are more and more generous in supporting young families.

Travel cost reimbursement

Distance can sometimes get in the way of attracting the most valuable candidates. If you don’t want to lose talent, offer to reimburse their travel costs when remote work is not possible. Your employees can spend minutes or even hours on the way to their workplace and back, so you need to compensate them for the time spent in traffic and for their travel costs.

Celebrating accomplishments

This is one of the most important advantages, that is often overlooked by companies and is maybe one of the least costly benefits that you can offer. Employees need their efforts and successes in the workplace to be recognized. A lot of employees leave their companies because they do not feel appreciated. Prove to your candidates that small and great accomplishments are always appreciated by your company, whether it’s signing a contract with a new client, staying late to finish material or shifting your schedule to get to a meeting.

Which of these benefits are you going to include in your package? All of them are real benefits, that contribute to building a healthy organizational culture. Avoid making empty promises. Rethink your recruiting and retention strategy and pay attention to benefits packages that you know you could provide in order to attract the most talented candidates.

© 2019 Sincron HR Technologies Inc.

• Achievement Award
• Employees Allowance
• Health Insurance
• Meal Breaks
• Paid Vacation
• Pay Raise
• Perks and Bonuses
• Social Security

A Sincron HR Software Case Study

Pathway Community Services Ltd. (PCSL), a name synonymous with providing residential support services to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, is constantly focused on the recruitment of front line residential workers. The one constant over that period of time has been change.

PCSL decided to start using Sincron to help save their HR Manager time in collecting, filtering, and preparing for interviews. Focused on increasing the speed of receiving new applicants, Sincron HR connected its career page with popular online job boards that PCSL uses in order to draw in candidates resumes and cover letters directly into the Sincron Human Resources Information system (HRIS).

The Challenge

Before implementing Sincron, PCSL was receiving resumes through email and then had the laborious process (3-4 hours) of filtering, printing, stapling, organizing, and flipping through dozens of candidate profiles to identify keywords and thereby validating the value in contacting the candidate for an interview. The HR Manager had multiple responsibilities and the process always felt rushed and disorganized. They needed a better way to streamline the process to identify the ideal candidate for the position while maximizing time spent on this step.

PCSL decided to implement the Sincron HR Information System (HRIS) recruitment module in order to automate certain time-consuming functions in the pre-hire process. They also wanted a search and match process to find the most qualified candidates for a particular project.

The Solution

Although PCSL had tried other recruitment solutions, they needed the time savings due to a high turnover rate in the industry and the assurance that moving from a paper based to paperless system would also improve their efficiency and provide them hopefully with a competitive advantage.

When PCSL looked at how Sincron integrated their career page with online job boards, and the resume parsing capability of its artificial intelligence (AI) engine, they realized automation would help them save time as well as finances from all the copying and printing of documents – an internal inefficiency.

PCSL further recognized that the properly parsed data was accurate, saving them the time of data entry, an unfortunate risk with other software companies. Ultimately, with Sincron’s search and filter capabilities, recruitment campaigns organized efficiently, HR feels in control and organized in tracking potential hires. As an added bonus, PCSL is now 100% compliant with the government’s Employment Standards Act (ESA). The ESA stipulates that all solicitations for application to be hired must be maintained for a minimum of one year, regardless of their status regarding an interview or hire.

Since Sincron has seamless integration with multiple online job boards, and embedded AI based document parsing tool, it was the natural product to purchase.

The Results

“Hiring in our sector is difficult, finding the right candidate takes time. The Sincron HR tools have allowed us to receive applications quickly, import the resume automatically, which saves me and the Office Manager a substantial amount of time”

With the Sincron interface, dashboard, project automation, enhanced integration with online job boards and accurate resume parsing functionality, the HR administrator can now complete the same functions in a third of the time. What took three hours per week now takes one. This equates to roughly 100 hours per year of time savings that can be put towards other activities.

PCSL recruits employees in residential care programs that are competent and have the required credentials and experience required for the field. Sincron organizes data and parses information into a consistent location where normal HR tendencies can now expect consistency and accuracy in where and how the data is stored.

The ability to streamline applications and respond within minutes allows PCSL to be the first choice for new interviews as the response time and mechanisms built within Sincron also allow for scheduling interviews and sending SMS messages within minutes. As technology advances PSCL saw a cost effective solution to their critical need – Hiring.

PCSL has now been using Sincron HR software for three years. Consultants are always available to help them refine their requirements for searching and hiring. HR Manager, Marlene Greenbank, states: “I would recommend Sincron to any social services organization that is struggling with finding and hiring the right candidates in a cost-effective manner. I have many daily tasks and the automation using the tools for recruitment provided by Sincron allows me to be efficient with my time”

Pathway Community Services Ltd.
www.pathwaycomserv.org
Industry: Social Services – Residential services to children
Employees: 50-100 employees
Headquarters: Port Moody, BC, Canada
Locations: Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond
HRIS: Sincron HR software
Business Impact:
Candidate filtering time reduced by 66% – from 3 hours to 1 hour per week

SEE HOW THE SINCRON HR SOFTWARE SOLUTION CAN ORGANIZE AND AUTOMATE THE NEW EMPLOYEE APPLICATION PROCESS.

Connect with us na.sincronhr.com

© 2019 Sincron HR Technologies Inc.

• Sincron HR Onboarding Software
• Sincron HR Performance Software
• Sincron HR Recruitment Software
• Sincron HR Scheduling Software
• Sincron HR Training Software

To a large extent, success in business depends on understanding the trends and adapting to the new elements in the environment that we operate in.
The present moment is marked, not only on a business level, but at the level of the entire society, by the transition from the third industrial revolution, digitalization, to the fourth, that allows technologies to be combined through artificial intelligence, data analysis or ”the internet of things” in order to create new products and innovative services, with major implications for society as a whole.

In 2016, Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, was already saying that “a technological revolution is underway that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres.“ As such, the subject of the fourth industrial revolution became sufficiently important to be chosen as this year’s team at the annual meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos in 2019.

All of these changes will definitely influence the labor market as well. The human resources department will play a crucial part in identifying the current HR trends and supporting the employees in adapting to the changes in the environment by accepting the new paradigm.

The current stage

We can say that, at the moment, in terms of human resource management, most Romanian companies are in the process of digital transformation. Some are still at the basic but essential level of transitioning from traditional paper to electronic systems, others are more advanced – they have specific expectations, they already see things in an integrated way or they have clear objectives in terms of automation and optimization of their activity.

In any of these stages, the use of cloud-based HR software that is natively open to integration with other applications is one of the solutions that facilitate the evolution of HR towards the digital business environment in a professional manner.

Cloud technology allows the replacement of traditionally downloaded or stored software applications or software on the computer or on the company’s server, with internet applications that allow instant access and modification by the enabled persons. We give you more details in this article.

The next step would be the analysis of the existing HR data in order to retrieve information that would be the basis for a complete picture of the status of human resources within a company. Based on this information, a human resources strategy can be developed and dynamically adjusted to the market realities and the company’s needs. Human resource management would be facilitated by the existence of an HR Analytics component integrated in the used software platform, allowing for the identification of trends amongst the company’s employees or more detailed analyses of various problematic situations in order to identify the true causes, that are often multiple, and initiate solutions.

Thus, we could say that, in the human resources area, we are in the middle of the digital transformation age, or the third industrial revolution, but it’s important to look to the future, to this fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0, that is already bringing with it deep change for companies and the world we live in, especially given the very high speed at which they are spreading.

The fourth industrial revolution: what it’s about

The idea of a fourth industrial revolution was first mentioned in an official context at the meeting that took place in Davos in January 2016.  Klaus Schwab, the chairman of the World Economic Forum, is the one who first used the term when speaking about a radical change in terms of the extent of the modifications that it would give rise to.

This new industrial revolution is based on the third industrial revolution, the digital one, and it will redefine the way that industries work, by interconnecting the data, as well as the persons and machines that are used. The technologies of the new industrial revolution have already started to change the way that people work and interact. It’s enough to mention social media platforms for learning, connecting with others and exchanging information, autonomous machines, the biotechnology revolution and the appearance of personalized medicine, artificial intelligence that is already performing numerous small everyday tasks. We can go on with augmented reality, genome editing, robotics, blockchain or 3D printers, even though the large-scale use of these technologies is still in its early stages. The result will be a large-scale transformation of society, from how we communicate to how we learn, have fun or work.

How the fourth industrial revolution will affect the HR department

The fourth industrial revolution is characterized first and foremost by a major paradigm shift, but also by the very high rate at which all of these changes are occurring.

In this context, the role of the HR department will be crucial, since a proactive approach to these changes at the level of the organization can contribute to the maximization of the positive effects and the minimization of the negative ones. In terms of HR management, engagement, people-orientation, transparency, supported by internal and external communication, will be more necessary than ever. The larger the magnitude of the changes, the more attention will need to be given to the employer brand; it shall pay a vital role in the quick provision of new resources that are more suitable for the new challenges that the company is ready to take on.

More than ever, the human resources department will need a coherent strategy and a mindset oriented towards a future where it’s certain that not everything is very clear. Future-oriented companies have already understood the importance of changing the role of the human resources department from a functional to a strategic one. The essential characteristics of the HR department of the future should include embracing change as the only certain constant, along with a higher level of tolerance for uncertainty, both backed by very good knowledge of the markets where the company operates, constant connection with the company’s external environment – not just in the field of human resources– in order to be able to anticipate new trends and never before seen situations and a reconnection with the human component. In troubled times, employees will turn to the human resources department for guidance, answers or solutions. So how do we do our homework?

In Industry 4.0, the human resources departments should be on the first line in order to understand and anticipate as soon as possible the future challenges, the skills necessary in this new world and the changing expectations of the workforce, the new business models, and come up with human resources strategies that take all of these new factors into account.

The disappearance of certain jobs. Managing possible redundancies

The fourth industrial revolution shall give rise to deep changes on the labor market. It will be possible for many jobs to be performed by robots or redefined, so that people have tasks that are integrated with the robots’ tasks.

Implicitly, certain jobs will disappear and companies operating in fields where people can be replaced by robots may face a series of redundancies.

At times like these, the role of the human resources department will be crucial: in addition to the administrative management of these issues, it can propose new options and detect new opportunities for the persons in question. This is another aspect where the difference between organizations where the HR department already has a strategic role and organizations where its role is merely functional, oriented towards the administrative component of the staff, will become apparent.

1. Change management

Traditionally, the HR department has played an important strategic part in change management, from its initiation to its implementation and monitoring.

Given the important changes that are going to take place as a result of Industry 4.0, the human resources department will need to be prepared to support all of the changes that will occur at the level of the organization, by adapting to the new environment that will be challenging for the employees, but rife with opportunities.

2. The need to acquire new skills – increased importance of training programs

The learning and training component will be one of the most important in the context of this new industrial revolution. Employees will need new skills, especially digital ones, while new jobs, that can be filled by new or existing employees, will appear. These employees will participate in a series of training programs based on the new needs.

The organizations’ training programs are not the only ones that will need to be adapted to the new requirements. The entire education system, from schools to universities, will have to be reconsidered based on the new jobs that appear, while many others disappear from the labor market.

3. Data-based decisions and management

Data are playing an increasingly important part in the decisions made by companies and the data regarding the employees are some of the most important. Digitalization has already taken the first steps in this direction. Thus, amongst the HR trends of 2019 and the previous years are workflow automation and data digitization, especially facilitated by a cloud-based software platform, that may also contain an HR data analysis component as a business intelligence tool.

In the new Industry 4.0, decisions will be based more and more on the analysis of the existing data. There will be an increasing tendency to quantify and measure everything in order to analyze and obtain precious business insights. The companies that are quick to do this will be one step ahead, since the knowledge and information that they gain access to will help them to progress exponentially.

4. Increasing flexibility

Flexibility already exists, more and more companies are allowing their employees to work from home on certain days. In addition, companies are increasingly using collaborators, hiring staff for certain projects, adopting flexible working hours. Cloud-based HR software can offer precious support in this regard, as the work can be monitored, regardless of when and where the employee is performing his or her duties.

With the advent of Industry 4.0, it will be possible to eliminate the spatial and temporal barriers for many jobs, with digitalization playing an important part in this respect. Organizations will be able to make working conditions even more flexible if they want to and if it’s possible and we will probably witness the disappearance of the traditional 9 to 5 job.

So, what role does the HR department play in the new Industry 4.0, where so many changes that will deeply affect the world as we know it are taking shape?
The existence of a human resources strategy becomes crucial, with the department being responsible for quickly understanding the new requirements and recruiting the right people, with the necessary skills, based on the new context. Adapting to the new world will be a lot like learning a new language, that we need in order to manage under the new conditions. The HR department will need to understand and accept all of these changes quickly and act as a driver and supporter of change in order to be able to help the employees navigate the process of adapting to the new paradigms.

Companies that can adapt quickly, that have already understood now, during Industry 3.0, how important change is, will have the upper hand. In Industry 3.0, that we are in the midst of, this means transitioning to a digital mindset, where data digitalization allows for the automation of the workflows. As more and more areas of the company embrace the digital approach, due to the new resources, capabilities and increased execution speed, the company can undergo a radical change in terms of its business model, size or the markets where it operates. In such situations, a cloud-based human resources software that is natively open to integration with other applications used by the company will not only facilitate the execution of various tasks, but it will allow human resources to take its rightful place as one of the top priorities of any company.

© 2019 Sincron HR Technologies Inc.

I grew up in Ottawa and, in 1990, completed the Developmental Services Worker program at Algonquin College. Following graduation I started my career working with persons with intellectual, cognitive, and developmental disabilities in the Ottawa area before moving to Vancouver BC where I have now come full circle, 30 years later, returning to my roots in community living. I have returned to share my knowledge and lessons in business management, accreditation, and more specifically Human Resources best practices to a thriving and valuable network in Ontario, Canada.

Throughout my career in the Community Living sector I have worked with children, seniors, and persons with diverse abilities, I see connection but also fragmentation. This is where Sincron HR can help provide ways to connect teams and strengthen communication among outreach workers and other stakeholders. We provide ways for people to communicate with each other as well as share their successes within their programs and organization.

The building blocks of Community Living, I believe, comes from the love that people express for one another. Community Living Ontario (CLO) espouses these values. On September 19th and 20th I had the pleasure of attending a conference as a sponsor to celebrate CLO’s 66th year of community building. The conference focused on supporting persons with disabilities to lead meaningful lives…in community. The supportive work in this sector is built around love, connection, and advocacy.  Let us celebrate the fantastic work of CLO.

Sincron was proud to support the event not just because of my experience within the sector or because I grew up in Ontario, but because we want to support the efficiency of social work by providing CEO’s with the perfect tool to help them recruit and retain qualified social service staff in what is a limited labour market pool in multiple parts of the country. By providing the perfect tool to maintain ongoing learning and competency with a diverse field of social workers across large urban and rural geographies. The perfect tool to ensure performance is meeting contractual expectations. Sincron HR software joined the conference to support the great work your teams do so the industry can implement technology that allows organizations to thrive. We help connect employees to each other so Teams can be as effective as possible while minimizing administrative work. We also help organizations improve their business competence by improving the connections between persons receiving services in Ontario.

Contact us for more information on how we can help you make the most out of your funding using Sincron HR software.

John Thornburn, MA Partner
Vancouver, BC (Canada)
P: +1 (800) 840 6132
E: [email protected]
W: http://www.sincronhr.com/

• employer brand
• recruiting
• recruiting process
• recruitment

“If you can’t explain it simply,
you don’t understand it well enough.”
– Albert Einstein

As a result of the evolution of HR Tech in recent years, a key element at the level of the HR department is the use of data and statistics in order to intuit the trends and better understand the behavior of one’s own employees, thus optimizing human resource management. Decisions that are based on data analysis generate a better performance in many of the HR department’s activities.

But what do we use this data for? How does an HR Analytics component, integrated into the software platform that you use, support the activity of the human resources department? What version of HR Analytics could you use in your company?

We intend to give you a few ideas below.

How do the data processed with an HR Analytics solution actually help you improve your business decisions and increase profit?

An HR Analytics instrument allows you to analyze the data from the HR software platform that you use, in order to improve the quality of the decisions that you make and to support them with concrete figures, changing the companies’ approach to human resource management from reactive to proactive and innovative.

How will you be able to use this data?

1. In the recruitment process.The analysis of the company’s existing data will lead to a better understanding of the profiles of the necessary candidates compared to the ones existing in the data base or sought; thus, based on a comparison between what is actually necessary and what is available, the quality of the candidate database can be increased by accessing different communication channels and recruitment sources. All in all, the quality of the recruitment decisions will be increased.

This type of instrument can provide detailed information, such as the actual recruitment costs at the level of the entire organization. This includes, for example, the staff turnover cost caused by recruitment cases that were successful in theory, since a new employee was hired, but failed in practice, because of the incompatibility between the candidate and the company in terms of values, culture or business principles.
In the long term, the application screening time can become shorter, by defining profiles that are as detailed as possible and automatically eliminate unsuitable candidates.

2. In order to increase employees’ efficiency. With the help of an HR Analytics tool, you can analyze the employees’ key performance indicators on an individual, team, department or company level. A comparison between these figures may reveal hidden problems or overlooked potential. Whatever the case, the figures will indicate a direction that you should focus on in order to generate positive change. The data will also provide indications about potential process bottlenecks or mistakes that repeat themselves, so that you can offer feedback or make the necessary modifications at the level of the organization in order to remedy the situation.

3. In training activity management. In all types of business, motivating employees by offering them access to professional development courses yields positive results. However, to find out how positive the results are you’ll have to monitor this activity, measure the results and the progress and compare the costs and benefits.

As such, data analysis can help you identify, for example, what training programs are necessary for each individual employee, based on the knowledge that he or she needs for the respective position, and based on the personal profile and level of knowledge of each employee. Over time, personalized training programs result in employees that are more confident, more motivated and feel they have a clear direction within the organization. This has a direct positive impact on integration and on their retention rate.

On the other hand, the HR department will be able to carry out an exact cost-benefit analysis for each selected training and motivate each decision based on data.

4. In order to increase employee retention. High employee turnover should be a warning sign that shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s true that the reasons leading to high employee turnover are usually varied, that a combination of factors leading to this situation may arise and that, in order to address it, several elements, including the company’s culture, organizational structure, remuneration, internal communication, career plans or performance management need to be analyzed simultaneously.

In the course of this process of identifying problems, an HR Analytics tool can help by offering insight based on real data about the reasons why persons remain loyal or choose to leave. There may be multiple causes, including lack of skills, their performance not meeting the expectations, dissatisfaction with the compensation or other circumstances. Therefore, by analyzing the data, you will be able to understand your employees better and to identify the gap between what the company offers and what they expect, from all points of view.

Addressing these problems, rather than ignoring them, has a chance of contributing to increasing the company’s profit, leading to the reduction and avoidance of the costs generated by a high employee turnover, costs that may otherwise escalate, causing further negative effects.

5. In order to establish the most appropriate compensations for employees. The financial aspects of the collaboration with the staff are essential in order to motivate and retain it. All the aggregated data will offer you a clear image of the compensation necessary for each position and department, making it possible to develop a financial profile aligned with the individual performance, as well as with the market and the other positions inside the company. Especially in corporations, it’s important to have a clear image and to be able to maintain a dynamic balance of salaries on all levels.

Using an HR Analytics tool can therefore result in an increase in the profitability of the entire company, generated by: saving time and resources in the recruitment process; an increase in the retention rate, through better alignment of the company’s offer and the way in which it treats its employees with the values and expectations of these people; better motivation, including from a financial point of view; the optimization of the training budget.

How to use an HR Analytics instrument

HR Analytics is relatively new in Romania and many HR officers are just starting to become aware of the value of the data that they hold, hence, many start to build an analysis strategy.

There are a few simple steps that must be taken for this process, you can start with our proposals and, over time, develop your own system for data analysis and interpretation:

1. Establish clear objectives. What question do you want to answer using the data?

With a clearly defined objective in mind, your analysis will be much easier. Don’t try to answer several questions at once – establish a clear objective, something that needs to be improved, a piece of information that needs to be checked, a strategy that needs to be developed using the data that you hold.

2. Identify the sets of data that will best answer your question

Once you’ve defined the problem or the question, you’ll determine the data that you need in order to get an answer. Based on it, you may need the data contained in the human resources software platform with regard to recruitment, performance management, etc. You may also use the various surveys with regard to employee motivation or engagement, as well as the exit interviews.

Other important indicators that you can use come from the financial or marketing research area – you can consider the turnover, the performance of the sales team, the money spent on training programs, the employees’ compensations, etc.

3. Analyze and interpret the information

This takes experience and technology can certainly be of help here. You can use various reports, dashboards or diagrams in order to group the data and analyze the information obtained, that you can then easily send to other colleagues.

4. Draw conclusions and establish the strategy to be followed.

When you can draw conclusions by combining information based on data obtained from a diversity of complementary sources, you will obtain valuable insight for the entire business. This can help the HR department develop a strategy to be followed in the future, coming up with proposals, predictions or recommendations.

The HR Analytics tool from Sincron HR Software

The HR Analytics functionality offered by Sincron HR Software uses one of the top business intelligence tools on a worldwide level – Microsoft Power BI – in order to integrate and use the data stored in the human resources application. Use the access to this modern business analysis tool and join the global trend of using and interpreting data in order to get business insights that could put you one step ahead of the competition.

This functionality is offered as a tool that complements any HR process management module in the Sincron HR Software human resources application, with no additional costs. Our software platform is cloud-based, so your data can be accessed at any time and from any device.

Intuitive and easy to use, the HR Analytics tool from Sincron HR Software will bring your data to life, transforming them into information presented in the form of well-documented reports, as input for making future business decisions.

© 2019 Sincron HR Technologies Inc.

As the carbon footprint leads to climate changes the effects of which can be easily identified throughout the world – first of all, global warming – companies start to realize the importance of a strong commitment towards the protection of environment, one of the biggest challenges of the modern world.

Environmental awareness and the ecological trend of the companies are no longer limited to adding a message at the end of every e-mail, encouraging recipients not to print said document. Actual measures are taken to this effect – more than 30% of the companies throughout the world have joined the ambitious endeavor of turning into a paperless office, by data digitization.

For instance, the American Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) estimates that it will save 1.5 billion dollars during the following decade based on the decision adopted in 2018 to migrate from hardcopy to digital media. According to this measure, after a transition period of 3 years, the reports of the investment fund shareholders sent previously to shareholders by mail will be accessible online. SEC’s decision to give up paper entirely will save approximately 2 million trees every year. Technology certainly changes the cost of business in every industry.

The human resources department can set the tone in any company

In organizations, the HR departments play an important part: they are the first interface with the employees, therefore, even since the recruitment stage, its members can be among those who can set the tone for a change.

Furthermore, the HR department is managing, by the nature of its activity, a large volume of data and information, and giving up paper even partially will bring significant benefits as regards productivity and cost reduction, as we will detail below.

However, everything starts from the fact that the future office is paperless.

Currently, this looks like a dream for HR departments of Romanian companies, because the department must continue to use paper for many of its processes. There are many things that we can do, when we understand the benefits of eliminating paper – from educating and raising awareness of employees up to implementing an HR software solution suitable to the company’s needs.

Benefits of a paperless HR department

Understanding the practical advantages of a certain measure brings us closer to its success.

We intend to review below a series of significant benefits of eliminating paper for the HR department, but also to see which are the actual measures that we can take in the department to ensure the success of such measure.

1. A sustainable attitude, an environment-friendly workspace

In an environment-friendly workspace, there are numerous benefits: from contribution to reduction of the carbon footprint all the way to more responsible employees, who are better involved in company life. In this context, the HR department plays a significant part as a trendsetter – and its attitude is all the more important.

Furthermore, this environment-friendly attitude will help attracting good-rating and high-performing employees – who are often supporting eco-friendly companies and cases.

2. More efficiency for the entire HR department

Using a digital solution will, for instance, allow easy access to files related to all HR processes, as well as quick transmission of any documents to the employees or the interested parties.

Printing and filing various information, as well as subsequent accessing thereof in physical format are certainly difficult processes, weighing on the activity of the HR department and of the entire company.

Furthermore, the documents can be accessed at any time. Many of us already know how frustrating it is to look for an important document and not find it – wasting energy and time which are valuable for the company. A digital file will eliminate these situations, freeing time for other activities. It is of course ideal to identify well-performing HR software, suitable to the company’s needs.

3. Modernization and telework

The future is paperless, and the digital is replacing more frequently the old rules and traditional procedures. The quicker you accept it, the quicker your company will become one of those flexible and modern organizations, oriented towards the future, that we are sure you are aiming for.

Flexibility and business operation in keeping up with modern times are reflected by the possibility to telework. The traditional approach, where access to information is conditional on actual presence in the office or at any other location is already penalized or simply it just becomes uninteresting for many young employees.

4. Observance of the laws in force

Especially when you choose a human resources software as a solution for digitization, you will make sure to observe the applicable laws.

The GDPR rules, the specific and mandatory labor protection trainings or the frequent updates of labor laws and tax laws – in all these cases, using a human resources software from a trustworthy supplier will help you be updated on all the changes that can occur at any time.

Steps that will take you closer to a paperless human resources department

More and more organizations realize how important it is to implement data digitization and electronic document management.

Paper is at the same time expensive and inefficient for information management, and electronic document management provides advantages both for the environment and for the efficiency and productivity of the department.

While the processes in an HR department cannot be approached 100% digitally at the moment, important steps can be taken in that direction, which more and more organizations understand.

How can we start such a process? How do we tend towards a paperless HR department, involving all members in our endeavors?
We hope the ideas below can be helpful.

Involve all the department members, demonstrating the advantages

From direct benefits for the environment, up to added department efficiency, once people understand the advantages of giving up paper or reducing its use to the minimum, things will be simplified.

Help your employees to understand that this change will simplify the processes, reducing the time and energy required to accomplish them. Less paper means saving money, energy and time to store it, shred it or to retrace the information that you need, when you need it.

Even more so, once part of the processes are digitized and used in electronic format, the HR professionals will free precious time, and will be able to take over more complex and less repetitive tasks.

Organize. Decide which information to be stored on paper and what is to be digitized

Part of the documents will be kept as hardcopies, but their number can be reduced considerably.

You decide what they are and in which way to organize and archive them.
You can also find a solution to digitize data and to automate workflows – a highly performing HR solution, preferably in cloud and mobile-first, open to be integrated with other applications, so that you can access directly all the benefits of the digital environment.

Implement environment friendly systems– such as using HR software

An essential step when you seek to achieve data digitization in the HR department, and to organize it so that they are always accessible, is the decision pertaining to the scope of the software that your organization is prepared to implement. The HR software can cover certain HR areas or it can be an all-in-one HR system, which will automate all repetitive processes, integrating them into a single platform.

Choosing the human resources software is an important step, because it must be suitable for your company’s needs, being easy to integrate and use.

Another option is to choose the digitization of the HR processes that require most time, attention, energy and staff – staff management, payroll and time keeping, although the benefits of an all-in-one solution are unquestionable.

Educate your employees to be more aware

We are all aware that the environment can only benefit when our approach is sustainable, in the sense of efficiently using resources.

You will manage to keep up easier with the global trends towards an environment friendly company bent on becoming paperless, if you help your employees understand the benefits of such an attitude and how they can align to it.

In addition to using human resources software, you can shape up an environment that is beneficial to all on the long term. Reducing the number of faxes and printers, together with lower access of the employees to such devices, is a method of dramatically lowering the number of printed papers.

When a large number of employees who already understand the company’s trend of becoming paperless have access to a single printer located in another room, the results will be visible.

The Sincron HR Software Platform, a solution for your paperless HR project

HR Sincron software company created the all-in-one Sincron HR Software platform, in reply to all current needs of digitizing HR processes in companies.

A complete solution for the HR department, with a business intelligence system for the analysis of HR data, online, cloud-based and natively open to integration with other applications used by the company, Sincron HR Software was designed to be easy to implement within the organization and to be easy to use by the employees.

This HR software in cloud will support your endeavor to eliminate paper in the human resources department, providing a complex data digitization solution that is easy to integrate.

© 2019 Sincron HR Technologies Inc.

The last years have brought a new approach as regards employee management by the Human Resources Department.

More companies start to grasp the need to consider the employee as a valuable resource for the organization, and that it is worth investing in his development, whereas human capital is considered one of the catalysts of company progress.

We are talking, in this case, about a modern and more comprehensive approach, envisaging human resources or talent management, as compared to the more restrictive scope of staff administration activities, also called staff, personnel or employee management. The latter manages the administrative aspects pertaining to the employees’ presence in the company – which is important and necessary, but which represents only part of what we understand today by human resources management.

Staff administration or human resources (talent) management?

In the type of company using human resources management, employees and candidates are perceived as valuable resources that you need to attract to the company – in case of candidates, and afterwards you need to grow, develop, stimulate their interest and motivate them – in case of employees. Thus, processes such as recruitment, onboarding, performance assessment or professional development play important roles in this complex puzzle of employment management in the modern world.

Employees are more frequently seen as people whose life has multiple dimensions, among which the professional one; balance between all such aspects is necessary. They are encouraged to develop all their abilities, and ideally, the company’s plans should be built starting from the available and/or necessary human resources. The company is interested in their individual progress, but also in the state of mind or the way they are integrated in the team and how they work with the other colleagues. They benefit from personal development opportunities, being provided with training programs tailored according to individual needs. Employees are not regarded only as valuable individuals, but also as members of groups encouraging each other to complete the various missions they have to fulfill. Thus, we talk about “talent management” which is a significant part of human resources management, seen as a sum of the processes and activities related to people management in the company.

On the other hand, there is the traditional approach of the employee regarded as part of the company staff, more like an asset than a resource. Work division is many times present, the employee having less means of communicating with the colleagues from other departments or even cities. In the traditional variant, decisions are usually made by top management, and employees have less personal development opportunities. The focus is placed, in this case, on employee productivity and satisfaction, whereas on the other hand, there is more focus on efficiency, culture and the participation of every talent in the company development.

In the traditional company, the HR is more likely to manage the administrative details related to the employee’s presence in the organization: employment process, employment contract, payroll, various aspects related to employment laws, etc.

Irrespective of whether we can talk specifically of staff management or generally about human resources management, digitization, by automating repetitive processes, will be a decision with a deep impact on the entire organization, with significant benefits: saving time, increased reaction and decision speed and significant cost reduction.

The company structured around the human resources management approach will benefit to the fullest from a comprehensive human resources software, whereas staff management software, with modules for staff administration, payroll and timekeeping is the first step towards the modernization of traditional companies.

A complete human resources platform, the integrated solution for HR processes digitization

Via an all-in-one human resources software, the repetitive processes in the HR department will be automated and will become easier to manage by integrating them in a single platform.

The entire trajectory of the employee in the company – starting from the beginning of the recruitment process and until the employee is given the document attesting to his/her time spent in the company upon departure – is thus monitored, and the existing data can be accessed whenever needed.

When all these stages are managed in various separate forms, the extraction, processing and correlation of various data will be difficult and time consuming, but all this can be avoided when an all-in-one platform stores all this information.

What repetitive tasks will the human resources software automate?

Let’s see which processes can be automated via the all-in-one human resources software platform.

Organization Management

An application dealing with the company structure management, with a focus on the organizational chart, allows you to define roles, positions and job descriptions in the organization, but also the matrix of competences. Once the organization chart is created, it will be accessible to all those entitled to use it, automating flows in any HR process.

Recruitment Process

A good HR system will facilitate the entire recruitment process. From recruitment sources management to quick communication, to managing posts on the social media or job boards and up to filtering the database according to pre-determined criteria or assessing candidates, the automation of the recruitment process will be beneficial for all organization members involved in the recruitment process – HR department members or managers benefiting from the recruitment.

At the same time, candidates will be offered a positive experience, contributing to strengthening the employer brand and the company’s competitive advantage. All this while making sure that all GDPR requirements are fully met.

Onboarding, the first experience as an employee in the company

The employee’s beginning period in the company is essential for shaping up a positive first image, which could contribute to a longer retention period. An HR software including an onboarding program, such as Sincron HR Software, will minimize the administrative procedure, involving automatically all persons entitled and responsible. This translates into clarity and transparence, more trust and enthusiasm!

Employee Management

The human resources application for employee management, called also staff administration app, offers, through the employee’s electronic file, a useful tool to organize all information related to employees: employment agreements, personal data and other elements from the employee’s file. You will have the possibility to access information in various formats, according to your needs. You save a lot of time by automation, in case of updating various information applicable for all employees, and it’s easier to keep track of all legal aspects that you need to handle within tight deadlines.

Time-tracking and Attendance

A time and attendance application, dealing with time-tracking and the overall employee attendance, will be useful both for the observance of the laws in force, and for easier planning of the activities in the company. The data related to every employee’s working hours and the overtime or days off will be readily available, and they are essential in calculating the wages.

Payroll

The calculation and payment of wages is one of the most time and resources consuming activities of the HR department. The payroll software will considerably reduce the time and effort meant for the process, and when purchased as an all-in-one program, it would be correlated to the other interdependent modules: time-tracking and attendance or employee management.

Furthermore, an application including self-service options for the employees facilitates the communication between the management, the HR department members and the employees.

***

You will find all these processes, with the related functionalities, to release you from the repetitive tasks in the HR department, in the integrated human resources solution Sincron HR Software.

To the above, we can add the HR software solution part focused on talent management:

• Performance management, allowing the setting of individual goals, carrying out performance assessments effectively, and devising a development plan for each employee separately. Correlating the individual goals with the company goals and the transparence brought by using a performance management system shall be beneficial for the company and for individuals. Every employee’s professional development can be channeled in the right direction, and the employees can better grasp the way in which they contribute to the company development.
  
  
• Training management. From the initial training, through the various programs that every employee takes part in, and up to devising a training program compliant with individual evolution goals, a training management software will be a useful tool for every company seeking to capitalize its employees’ potential. A few of the benefits include the possibility to optimize investments in the HR area, by keeping a clear record of the projects, costs and feedback from multiple sources, together with updated statuses for all projects.
  
  
• Internal communication – an internal communication tool, such as an employee portal, is beneficial for the various official communication flows but also for the informal communication. The result is that employees lose less time to find out various information, they integrate easier and they can efficiently collaborate with their colleagues from various departments.
  
  
• The possibility to perform the most diverse analyses and reviews, along with presenting them in attractive HR reports, based on a modern, up-to-date HR Analytics tool.

Automation generates major benefits for staff administration as well

Digitization allows the automation of repetitive processes, regardless of the scale at which they occur and facilitate the use of data and statistics with a business intelligence tool (HR Analytics) to sense trends in human resource management.

As such, it should be an added value for the companies where human resources management is still equivalent, to a large extent, with staff administration or employee management, i.e. that side of HR activities envisaging mostly the administrative details of every employee.

An integrated employee management, time-tracking and payroll software will supply the specialized department with the required time and energy to solve complex problems, reducing at the same time costs and human error. Thus, the HR team can gradually take over a part adapted to the digital age, more strategic than functional, and it can increase its contribution in the “soft’ area of human resources processes.

Conclusions

The automation of repetitive processes in the HR department brings uncontested benefits as regards saving time and money, by digitizing data and automating workflows. Choosing the appropriate human resources software is an important decision for the entire organization and a long-term commitment – this is why it is important to understand as well as possible the company needs.

Current trends lean towards full and integrated solutions for the various HR verticals, but significant benefits are also obtained when the processes requiring the most time, attention and energy are automated: staff administration, payroll and timekeeping.

© 2019 Sincron HR Technologies Inc.

The success of an organization’s human resources strategy depends both on its practices and on the tools used by the department in its daily activity. When you take your car to the service, you probably expect the technicians to already have the most modern tools required to help you

We believe HR should be the same. From recruitment and personnel management to training, performance management and internal communication, the processes in the HR department need appropriate support to be carried out under the best conditions.

Organizations have started to have a better grasp of the fact that data digitization and workflow automation represent the needed support for the HR department to carry out its activity under the best of terms. Thus experts can focus on essential aspects of the business, bringing a more valuable contribution to the company’s development.

Human resources software is usually the best solution to automate repetitive processes in human resources departments. Processes such as planning and management of the organizational structure, recruitment and on-boarding, employee management, timekeeping, payroll, performance assessment and working with individual goals, training program management or internal communication are integrated into a single human resources platform.

The direct beneficiaries of the people management software are both the HR department and the employees, who can communicate easier (with the colleagues, but also with the managers or the members of the human resources department) and have easier access to useful information.

What are the benefits of using a human resources software?

We intend to list a few of the reasons in favor of choosing a human resources and employee management software in your organization.

1. Increasing productivity, both in the HR department and in the entire organization

Automating a large range of activities in the field of human resources, particularly the repetitive ones, starting with payroll, employee management or time-keeping, you free the time and energy of the employees in charge of these activities, who can focus on projects with a higher impact in the organization and which are potentially more stimulating and more creative for the related experts.

There will be benefits at the level of every employee: when the company uses a human resources platform for all actions pertaining to personnel administration and management, a simple question such as “How many days off do I have left this year?” will be answered quickly, by accessing the application and identifying the information in just a few clicks. The classical option would require a time-consuming e-mail exchange for the manager or an HR department member.

2. Cost reduction

Productivity increase generates the advantage of cost reduction.

A large part of the communication flows which can be automated by human resources software involves HR experts and managers from other departments. Automating communication in HR projects saves time for all those involved in every project (for instance recruitment) and gains in efficiency by updating everybody with necessary information or actions to be taken, in the shortest time possible.

One can consider this case scenario, for instance: the time that an employee used to spend to find out which colleague from the technical department was dealing with a problem that he/she is confronted with is now reduced to a few seconds.

The classical way involved more steps (sending e-mails or even traveling on site), and the time slot freed can be used for the employee’s current tasks.

When the repetitive tasks are automated, the HR department will better coordinate its activity, which gets to be more valuable and it has a deeper impact on the organization.

3. Data centralization finally possible

The quick access to various data and reports related to the activities carried out is one of the major benefits of using human resources software. Under these terms, decisions can be made quicker and they will be better justified based on the data provided by the HR software platform.

Access to data and analyses will be useful when we talk about solving problems, but also when seizing opportunities and following trends – which is more difficult when information is not centralized and handy.

4. Better communication between departments and among their members

Fluid internal communication will contribute to better collaboration in the company. Employees will have access to useful information about their colleagues, via the company’s organization chart, and will be able to start dialogue easily. It’s much easier to contact a colleague from the technical department, for instance, when you already have information about him and you also know what he looks like.

5. Traceability and risk reduction

Using a human resources software will facilitate being updated with the company activities, which can be easily identified when necessary. From recruitment to timekeeping and following the trajectory of various documents in the company, the software will always keep an accurate track record, diminishing the risk of errors or lack of compliance.

6. Improving the employees’ experience

The quick development of technology in the past years also brought a change as regards individual behavior. An employee habitually using websites to book holidays or alternative means of transport, accessed via a mobile app, will have the same expectations in terms of tools from the company in which he/she is working. It should be a modern and transparent company, where information is easily accessed, and communication is simplified.

A human resources app with a friendly interface will help a new employee to integrate easier – employees are surely among the beneficiaries of a company’s decision to keep up with technology.

7. Observing the laws in force

By choosing trustworthy HR software you make sure that you are observing the applicable laws. From GDPR rules to specific and mandatory labor protection trainings or frequent updates of labor law and tax obligations, observance of the laws in force in the areas that the human resources department is involved in shall be ensured by human resources software from a trusted provider.

Furthermore, the provider will constantly adapt the software to the current legislative amendments.

What is the most appropriate human resources software for your company?

Every organization is unique, and it is hard to define the “best universal human resources software”. When you decided that your company needs human resources software, your target should be to identify the best solution for the company.

To determine the appropriate software for your company’s needs, you need to define them as accurately as possible.

An in-depth analysis of the company’s needs, starting from the defined goals, is an important step in choosing the appropriate solution. Many companies choose to involve in the decision process both the HR department and the management team or the employees, which can define the problems that they are having in communicating with the HR experts.

The selected solution must simplify the processes and facilitate the employees’ task – those from the HR department mainly. State-of-the-art technology and a user-friendly interface, easy to use by any employee, will be additional arguments when you choose the appropriate platform for your company. One aspect of utmost importance is the decision to make the move to a cloud-based HR solution – you can learn more about what this step would entail here.

The platform should also facilitate HR data usage for management purposes, through analyses, statistics or reports, as the foundation for improving and simplifying the decision-making process.

An example of human resources management software especially designed for the digitization needs of the modern companies is the full human resources platform Sincron HR Software.

It is an all-in-one solution, integrating processes such as organization management, recruitment and on-boarding, performance assessment and employee management software, time and attendance, payroll or training management. Internal communication portal and self-service facilities for employees, along with the tool for HR analyses and reports are also integrated in the Sincron HR Software platform.

By using this tool, one can also automate the recruitment process, simplifying the management of the candidate pool. It makes it easy to: access their history, manage the approval workflow and the recruitment sources, or communicate via various online channels.

You can benefit from consulting for software implementation and training for employees, to gradually get the people acquainted with the HR app.

In a nutshell: you will benefit from a precious tool, a turn-key solution allowing you to automate the department’s specific processes, with positive results that will be quickly visible.

© 2019 Sincron HR Technologies Inc.