The impact of poorly-managed HR on a business can seem vague and difficult to calculate at first glance. But, it is far from negligible. Ineffective HR practice can result in disengaged employees, who cost their organisations an average of 34 percent of their salary.
With more than 17 percent of most workforces disengaged, it’s vital to keep on top of the software you use to manage human resources. As your company grows, your software has to grow with you, or you run the risk of making bad hires and disengaging even more of your workforce.
Here are some of the signs that it’s time to find new HR software.
1. Lack of flexibility
Organic growth is great, but it often comes at a price. With operational costs mounting, it’s incredibly unhelpful if you’re wasting valuable hours accommodating the quirks of your HR software, when it should be the other way around.
At a basic level, your software should incorporate new employees in greater numbers without any headaches. Onboarding takes enough time as it is – if you find yourself spending unreasonable amounts of time filling in data to set new hires up in your HR system, it’s time to move on. The software should be able to grow alongside you, not hold you back.
2. Limited functionality
Businesses don’t all grow in the same way. One organisation may find itself battling chronic absenteeism, while another might be dealing with a nightmarish backlog of purchase order paperwork and disgruntled service providers.
Effective HR software should help regardless of the eventuality, whether it takes the infinitely customisable Android approach, or the ‘we’ve got all the bases covered’ iPhone angle.
If your growth results in time being wasted on easily-automated processes like purchase orders and time-off requests, it’s a clear sign that you’ve outgrown your current HR software.
3. Avoidable risk
Your HR department can be the source of unnecessary risk if it doesn’t get the software support it needs. With almost half of Britain’s small businesses failing within their first five years, risk management across your entire business isn’t just nice, it’s essential.
Your HR software should be picking up some of the slack for you. When you’re small, it may be easy to tell who’s been taking too many sick days – or who’s not taken enough time off – but as your business grows, it gets harder to remember.
If you don’t get that kind of information at a glance from your software, you’re risking employee disengagement and the cost that comes with it. The same goes for purchase orders and expense requests – they’re easy to manage manually when you’re small, but increasingly hard to control as you grow.
HR software should collate your data in one place, making it easy to see where you’re overspending. If it can’t do that, it isn’t worth it. Whether that means in-app reporting or easy export-to-Excel spreadsheets, it’s a necessity.
Growth, unshackled
Software like Turbine is flexible enough to grow alongside you without holding you back. It automates the busy-work and allows for quick overviews of everything that’s going on with your HR processes. New hires can be integrated and data exported with a few clicks, and time-off requests, purchase orders and expense management are accessible from anywhere device.
Keep an eye out for the signs that your current software isn’t scaling with your business. HR automation has the potential to save you time and money, but it could cost you both if it isn’t up to scratch.
