There’s nothing more satisfying than a hardworking team working efficiently as a system to get the best results. However, if anyone’s gear let alone multiple ones fail to work, the system is bound to breakdown and hinder the results drastically.

This simple analogy can be placed into the real world, where managers deal with such a debacle with their employees. Everyone wants the best work done in the shortest amount of time to boost performance, yet getting that level of commitment from your employees requires work in itself.

It is no surprise that organizations would suffer a decrease in revenue especially when they aren’t getting the most out of their employees, if not anything at all. Engaged employees who are determined to pull their weight and put in the required effort, form an innovative team with like-minded. Such are the candidates each company strives to hire or look for.

Instead of searching for the select percentage of individuals, forming and adopting new strategies to boost your employee engagement might just be what you need! These pointers will not only help engage your workers but create an environment that allows for healthy and sustained growth for all those involved.

 

Incentives and Salary Slip: When it comes to employees the main put off from work or engagement is primarily due to financial stress. Any individual at any position would disengage from their work if they were underpaid or not appreciated for it. So a simple solution would be for managers to compensate the employees to eradicates such stress and related issues. Keeping bonuses and incentives in play could also take an edge off work and promote some healthy competition to boost workspace engagement. A few factors to maintain the desired engagement are as follows:

– Keep the salary in check with the market or keep it higher. Reviewing such changes regularly is the way to go.

– Optimize transfers and processing, for prompt salary payments without delay.

– As mentioned earlier, introduce bonuses/incentives/commissions where applicable.

– Oversee leave requests in a lenient and immediate manner.

 

Recruitment Choices: As a manager, always aim to hire the right person for the position. If not evaluated effectively this may prove to be dead weight to your company’s goals. Candidate evaluation should be taken on directly by the manager, opting to align the soft and hard skills of the recruitment to the environment your company has in place. Interviews are a key essence of the recruitment process and should be well thought out with the organization’s mentality, environment, and goals in check. As the rise of the digital era continues, shifting this traditional process to a modern one is past due. Here are the benefits you may reap from going digital with the process:

– Organising and scheduling interviews in an automated fashion.

– Assessing the candidate’s cultural fit based on behavioral interviews.

– Narrowing down the target candidate with target pools selected off various regions.

– Focusing more on the interview without the hassle of manual processing.

– Generating reports and analytics to assess the suitability of the candidates and isolate the required ones.

 

Build a relationship with your employees: Now that you’ve potentially hired a new candidate, maintaining his/her expectation as well as engagement is key. During the starting period of a new hire, it is then when an employee is most vulnerable to quit. This may be associated with being undervalued, overwhelmed, underpaid, overworked, or just confused with their position. With some care and motivation, converting new hires into loyal workers is an achievable goal, aside from some motivation and support here’s how you can build a better relationship:

– Constant support and tips/tricks regarding their work. Periodic training sessions will help them engage with the work and themselves much more effectively.

– Detailed brief regarding the job description and requirements.

– Team building sessions or group work to boost engagement amongst employees.

– Casual meetings with managers and supervisors to receive feedback on their progress.

 

 

Motivate workers and develop new skillsets: Employees always seek to increase their repertoire of skills and develop their role in an organization. If such advancements aren’t present or underappreciated it is common for employees to lose interest and ultimately seek other job options. Similarly, much-required feedback from the managers is key for the growth of employees. Appreciating them for their hard work and effort goes a long way, providing critical feedback does a similar service but with a positive and reassuring tone. Other options to increase employee satisfaction levels include:

– Provide training and development material such as workshops, courses, or even access to online tools.

– Help improve their hard and soft skills alike.

– Motivate ambitious employees by helping them transition into a profound management role. This succession planning helps you identify and train people to carry on the company growth, so pass the baton on!

– Value your employees by giving feedback on their work or general character traits to boost their mood and optimize their day. 

 

Healthy work culture/environment: An environment speaks volumes regarding the people that are found in it. If your company looks over such a key aspect you’d want to revise your ambiance better suited to productivity. Stressful work environments prove to be a stress hub which further leads to health issues and burnout in employees. Hurdles you’d want to jump over are:

– Solid work schedules and no flexibility.

– Long working hours with overtime.

– Negativity of all kinds in the workspace. A safe environment will keep everyone at peace of mind.

– Unsupportive and ignorant supervisors. Caring and valuing your employees is necessary for their growth. Listening to their concerns and feedback may help you grow as a manager and work to improve on their potential requests.

Boosting employee engagement with the help of advanced digital tools such as the complete HR management of PeopleSonic is the modern way to go! Such software allows you to work with your employees and focus more on their engagement and productivity whereas the automated functionality does the rest for you. Keeping employees engaged with an online learning curve will not only help the development of related skills but ease their workload, which are all signs of a healthy workspace and engaged employee.

As the pandemic and lockdown around the globe draw to hold, we are finally able to see some clarity into the post-pandemic life. Business owners and HR leaders look forward to adapting themselves and their employees from recovery and onto the work field. Most firms are rebuilding from the ground up whereas others shifted to a platform to keep things running. The management and owners of such businesses now rely on hard work and determination to bring their organizations to the previous standings, yet individual talents in this regard cannot be overlooked.

Utilizing the pre-covid format and skillsets in the post-pandemic world will definitely prove to be a hassle. HR leaders and Firms are in the race to upload versatile minds and workers into their newly planned systems. Making a higher demand for skilled, capable and tactical minds in this new revolution to uprise businesses. With the current workforce, however, a few key changes are due to be implemented to tackle this change. Here are the top 5 HR skills your organization needs to rebuild itself.

Agility: 

Improvise, adapt, and overcome, the key pointers associated with survival which perfectly tie in with the current struggles of upholding a business during a pandemic. Being ready to be agile to whatever the world throws at you, gives you a significant advantage in the business world. Business owners and management should look into being agile when it comes to recovering from the pandemic as well as shifting from platform to platform. Having certain HR tools such as PeopleSonic at your disposal allows HR leaders to make an educated workforce and future planning decisions.

Change Management/Communication: 

Being agile to change is one thing, and managing throughout the change transition period is another. Both are vital and go hand in hand during such recovery periods. The management should be at the forefront of change, leading and planing from the frontline to accommodate their workers’ mobility throughout the process. Communication is the pivot that determines the pace and effectiveness of the procedure. Keeping employees aware of strategical and tactical changes will allow for a clean shift in gear. Thorough and detailed briefs followed by constant updates through a well-communicated medium will surely keep the bearings turning smoothly.

Managing wellbeing/safety: 

Your employees and the environment that surrounds them are key components in the success of a company. Many wrongly believe that intense work practices and having a constantly pressurized environment keep employees on their feet. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as they are the entire driving force of an organization so ultimately keeping their wellbeing and psychological safety in check is a priority. Post pandemic concerns are definitely not off the table yet as lingering viruses are still present, so constructing a healthy ambiance is necessary.

Strategic Workforce Planning: 

Workforce and planning without a strategy in play that too during a recovery/building phase is an obtuse decision. Having a set tactical plan set for the future is imperative. Strategic Workforce Planning covers employee experiences, development of roles, succession planning, and scenario strategies. Being prepared for different obstacles and crisis are condemnable, but planning to prevent such events from happening are far superior. Businesses that opt for such an approach are known to have a strong HR approach while grasping every opportunity given.

Compliance: 

Tackling the typical HR tasks during a pandemic proved to be strenuous, with constant evolvements and law changes, the constant updates did not help the situation. Therefore using and ultimately shifting to HR Software is the move for the post-pandemic agenda. Allowing for such tools to relieve time by handling tasks such as payroll, performance management, time management, and the core HR functionality is the goal. HR teams need to be compliant, whilst maintaining their time management will dedicate and open up further growth possibilities.

 

How brands, businesses, and organizations tackle the recovery period will ultimately define and streamline their efforts in achieving success. Therefore being compliant and orchestrating changes are the signs of a competent HR leader, who develops their own skills and aids the workforce to thrive.

Employee Self Service or ESS for short is a feature integrated into all modern HR software. ESS allows access to a string of data regarding HR, personal data, and such related information. The key highlight of ESS is in its name, Employee Self Service, the data which would otherwise need an HR representative to maintain, is now in the hands of each employee, at least their own data due to obvious privacy concerns. This simple yet highly effective move saves on precious resources such as time and money. Some companies are heavily invested in the idea whereas some may not prefer it due to the size and nature of their own. 

ESS is not only for employees but for the management as well, as MSS or Management Self Service is often linked and incorporated within the ESS. This often refers to Managers overlooking and aiding employee matters that were needed, but more importantly, having an administrator to handle any situation. The link between the hierarchy is, therefore, kept intact much like the integration between the ESS and your HR software.

It is already integrated into the HR systems and requires no extra fiddling around on the back-end. Usually, such self-service portals are under the HR department’s supervision but for greater efficiency, personal log-ins are assigned to the employees. Still, seem a little unconvincing to you? The following host of features will surely provide the clarity and knowledge you need.

 

Features of ESS

• Personal Info: ESS will allow employees to update their info and personal details by themselves, cutting out the middle-man (HR). This allows for a more streamlined process and prevents long application submission and updating.
• Leaves: Here the employees will have complete access to their current leave situation whether it be related to leave balance or requesting for leaves.
• Programs: Direct log-ins will allow open-access to enroll in benefits programs or other similar schemes.
  
• Policies/Rules: As policies and rules are often updates, sometimes they may go under the radar of most employees. With ESS a few clicks will get the relevant policies up on your screen.
  
• Payroll: Financing is a particular field, especially when payroll is involved. With self-servicing, Employees will have complete access to previous salary slips, pay cut information, taxes, time-logs, reimbursements, and all relevant data associated with their payroll in general.
  
• HR reports: Such analytics will provide the users more clarity in terms of KPI’s and set goals in comparison to their performances during a defined period. This also helps the HR department as a whole.

 

Benefits of ESS

• Engagement: The ESS tool is great for boosting employee engagement and have them update each detail when required. It acts as a new medium to engage in the existing HR software.
  
• Greater Efficiency: As each employee is responsible for their own data, this speeds up the process by a large margin and even decreases the chance of mistakes within the details.
  
• Autonomy: The integrated bit of software from the central management access point allows for the employee to access and edit their data whenever needed without hesitation.
  
• Ease of burden: The introduction of ESS into an office ecosystem drastically eases the load on the HR department which would manually have to amend any changes requested. Not to mention the processing time it may take to achieve a minor task. HR and Managers do however still have all the admin rights to oversee the changes in order to administer effectively.
  
• Easy access: Since the system is entirely digital, it acts as the perfect medium for dispersed teams or even when on the go. This saves time on having to reach out to the HR team which may be located in a foreign place.
  
• Green/Environmentally friendly: An alternative bonus of ESS is the sheer amount of paper being saved. As such office work requires a series of documentation and updates. The system saves a lot of paper while preventing excessive waste.

 

Is there a catch?

ESS is no doubt a valuable addition to any organization’s arsenal and boasts a series of benefits along with features as mentioned. However, a major drawback would be for each employee to familiarize themselves with the software, as understanding is key for the implementation to be successful. This may lead to communication gaps, incorrect data, and a learning curve from manual to the digital entry system.

If your company is already using an integrated HR Management Software such as PeopleSonic, this won’t be an issue as the interface is very similar to the rest and can easily be adopted into the workflow. As the ESS integration goes hand in hand with HR software, opting for solid HR Management Software shouldn’t be overlooked!

 

2020 is undoubtedly a year we won’t be forgetting soon. The world itself was left dismantled due to the spread of Covid-19. Crumbling many businesses to their downfall and shaking up our entire perspective on the way we live our lives, study, and work. As we carry on into 2021 with new hopes, we can’t render the work status from 2020 useless. The post-Covid gameplan will surely reflect our future trends.

Although many trends arise each year and many are still in rapid growth, here’s an insight into the 5 emerging HR trends in 2021.

Digital Tracking and Automation:
As we move into a digital-oriented workplace, managing and sustaining such workplaces may prove to be a hassle without proper software implementation. As with much of 2020, workplaces have modeled their employees to work from home. Though this provides workers with a more relaxed environment in some cases, keeping track of said employees may prove to be difficult. With spaced out teams working together virtually, tracking their progress is just as important. Automating minute tasks such as attendance, auto-syncing, and seamless data transfer will prove to be fruitful for efficient working.

A variety of software and online tools provide adequate service, but only a few encapsulate the entire theme of HR Management such as PeopleSonic.

Hybrid Workplaces and Their Culture
With work from home becoming the new norm in the passing year, some are truly struggling with managing all from one space in their home. Whereas others are striving in the more relaxed and casual workspace created at home. There’s no doubt the pandemic has caused many issues with working at home, especially during long terms of isolation with kids or family bustling about. However, this seems to be the way of life for at least a few more months, until there is more clarity to this pandemic.

Designated workspaces at home are therefore being defined but to a more professional approach. Many establishments offer, shared co-working spaces and multi-use offices for those who need them, following covid-19 precautions of course.  

Performance Management
As established before, handling employee data and performances virtually is a task in itself. Achieving and handling KPI’s is key throughout the organization’s run. In the coming years, we are bound to see a great improvement in virtual management as a whole. Currently setting specific targets via software and implementing that into the system has resulted in brands going fully digital. The ability to have customized reports, detailed analytics, and data displayed in an automated fashion show how far we’ve already come.

There’s room for improvement, with faster speeds and completely reliable figures over the horizon, Performance management is something business should proactively look into.

HR In the driver’s seat
The HR department in any given organization is vastly important in linking the employees to the management and higher hierarchy. The department is known to be at the frontline of customer and employee concerns, the ability to keep a straight head and guide others to what’s best for both parties takes immense skill and effort. The current Covid-19 pandemic has taken everything to an even more intense level. Employees are constantly worried about their wellbeing and juggling their work from home amongst family and young children can become daunting. Similarly, the managers are equally worried as there is uncertainty regarding communications and maintaining company values. 

Being at the core of such an intense situation requires extreme dedication and hefty responsibility. Therefore staying firmly in the driving seat is necessary for the department to drive them through 2021.

Virtual Team
Conferencing and collaborating with co-workers virtually is the new norm for the upcoming years. With the steady and progressive growth of globalization due to the vast majority of social media, it creates an exciting new opportunity for global partners and employees. This adds more depth and new input into the system which may allow for your team to strive! Such interactions are very easily maintained via a variety of online tools. Since we are already working from home, this virtual team management isn’t tedious, especially if you’re familiar with the tools available. Managing time with global teams for meet-ups might be a little tricky, but nothing that can’t be overcome.

Though the virus has separated us physically, we are still able to connect with those who matter and maybe 2021 is the year we excel in it!

As we’ve previously discussed in some detail, inefficiency in core HR tasks leads to a lot of wasted potential – potential that could be critical to the success of a business.

Today, let’s look at how a tailored HR solution can boost the efficiency of those core tasks, using the PeopleSonic Integrated HR Management Solution as an example. 

Data Standarization

Employees come and go, that is a fact of running any business – this includes HR personnel as well. If there is no standard solution implemented, each new employee will do things slightly differently, format spreadsheets and documents in their own way. That is something which will become more problematic as the amount of data increases and the amount of HR personnel increases and someone has to search through previous data for critical information.

By implementing a standardized data input and storage system, the PeopleSonic HR solution ensures effective management of employee data and makes it easier to enter or retrieve information – no more scrolling through thousands of spreadsheets and cells!

Cloud-based Management

Is your business spread out over multiple locations? Does a single HR team manage all locations, or is the team split among those locations as well? In both those scenarios, you must have experienced the issue of data redundancy and sharing – how do you easily create a central repository where you, the business manager, can oversee data from all your business locations, at all times?

The solution is simple: Cloud management. Modern HR solutions like the one offered by PeopleSonic leverage the robust security and adaptability of the cloud to give an HR tool that can be spread out to as many locations as possible, and is accessible from any computing device, be it desktop, laptop or smartphone. Untether your data from physical locations and let PeopleSonic’s cloud-based HR management software store it in a secure, centralized location and save your team the chore of manually combining and storing the organization’s data.

Employee Self Service

Empower your workforce – provide them with a simple interface where they can see and edit their personal details, view their attendance statistics, payroll related notifications and all other HR related data.

This also helps unclog the work pipeline by saving your HR team the hassle of manually following up with each employee, the self service portal acts as the middle-man to obtain all necessary data from employees.

Customization, Customization, Customization

What good is a digital HR management solution that doesn’t let you tailor the software to your unique business requirements? The PeopleSonic Core HR features can be customized to your company’s structure – your team can define and manage jobs roles and designations for your company, as well as their access levels and permissions – you can in fact choose just how many they are able to view on their PeopleSonic dashboard.

PeopleSonic HR integrates with payroll automation, leave and attendance management systems to provide a single end-to-end solution which can help your team get on top of their people management woes. Read on if you’re on the fence about why your business needs to automate payroll management, or why you need to pay attention to leave management.

Even better, why don’t you make that leap and experience for yourself just how an integrated HR management solution can provide you with the time and resources to elevate your business to new heights.