How Do You Know If You Need an HR Software Solution?

Article Summary - This article does a good job of determining who does and who does not need an HR Software program. If you find this article helpful, you may also want to read, "What does determine your needs mean?" or HRIS Buying Tips.

Before you "take the plunge" and purchase an HR software solution, it is best to determine if you need the system, and if you do, what exactly will best meet your needs. It is imperative to be brutal in your assessment. Take the time to define your organization's goals, such as reducing administrative time spent on filling out paperwork and filing the papers, keeping more complete records, securing confidential data, being able to quickly run reports, or saving a back-up of personnel information for disaster planning purposes.

There are many other things to consider prior to purchasing an HR solution for your organization. These include:
• The need to streamline processes to devote more time to strategic level objectives
• Increasing the communication across all management levels
• Don't have the physical space for all the paperwork
• Storing historical data for both current and former employees
• Recording performance evaluations with performance management goals, as well as historical wage rate and salary information
• Keeping track of training, benefits, disciplinary warnings, and workplace accidents
• Calculating time-off accruals for vacation, sick, or PTO time

HR software programs also have the capability to have multiple user-licenses, which allows for users to have specific access to the program, such as access to employee performance reviews or time-off records, for example. More specifically, the HR manager or business owner could have full access to all employees' information, while a manager could have access to his or her employees in their department.

This capability is efficient and convenient for both the manager and payroll, such as if an employee calls in sick, the manager can just go into the system and make that notation, rather than trying to remember to relay that information to payroll. Under the performance management access, the manager can write the annual review where it will be stored and backed-up without worrying if the review was saved or not.

Implementing an HR solution into your organization is a great investment for streamlining processes and freeing up managers and HR staff to perform more strategic goals of the organization. The system doesn't have to be fancy, but it does have to be functional.