5 Obstacles, 1 solution for every HR
We all remember our first mobile phone. We all remember the excitement of opening the box and unveiling the gadget that will change our lives in more ways than we could have possibly imagined. Nowadays, newer generations consider those “high-tech devices” relics, however, they started a global revolution on such a scale that Martin Cooper himself probably didn’t foresee it.
The world is going mobile, now faster than ever before. The switch from PCs and laptops to mobile phones and tablets seems very natural, painless and very welcoming. Here are some fun facts:
- Number of mobile phone users in 2016 was 4.8 billion
- Around 60% of internet searches are done from mobile phone (source: Google)
- An estimated 10 billion mobile connected devices are currently in use
- Around 40 percent of the world’s population is projected to use a smartphone by 2018, up from about 10 percent in 2011.
These trends show no signs of slowing down, and it seems as if the numbers are yet to reach their peak. The yearly re-invention of mobile phones and tablets -now reaching and exceeding the computing power of a standard desk PC, allowing us to be constantly connected and generally being a common thing of every household, car or office- do not raise a question of “Should HR capitalize on it to better support the workforce?” but “How can HR capitalize on it?”.
Modern HR in any business are usually faced with similar obstacles; Hiring and Talent Acquisition, Communication, Employee Engagement, Responsibility and, yes you guessed it- High Turnover. Taking into the consideration the Employee vs. HR ratio of roughly 100:1, and the fact that a small number of companies actually delve into properly calculating this ratio leaving them with way more employees per HR than advised, it takes no expert to see how this can back fire.
Many companies have automated their HR management process some time ago and to a certain extent it did solve many of the mentioned issues, but the question that was asked is “Can we take this further?”.
On the other hand, some companies haven’t been very successful in automating their HR, due to the simple fact that their employees are spread around the country working on different sites, production floors or outdoors, and are able to access their PCs only few times a week/month, or may not have a PC at all. Even managers may find themselves in such situation, where they cannot access their PC for days at a time.
The solution is simple and very obvious- HR Communication and Mobile SaaS. Empowering your HR department with an HR mobile software means eliminating paper-based system of keeping track how many days employee X have left of his holiday, or getting him the copy of his last 6 pay slips. Such HR solution provides employees with instant access to their data from any location, it feels engaging, it saves time to HR (for proper hiring, maybe?), reduces costs, improves communication, keeps the employees happy, and we have only just started mentioning the good stuff!
Many countries, such as Switzerland, require companies to record employees’ attendance, and starting January 2016 this rule is implemented in the Swiss Labour Law Act. This new law is a problem for a large number of companies, as it is now mandatory to install complicated and expensive recording equipment that doesn’t solve an issue for employees who do not necessarily have to come to the office every day or are frequently away on business missions. With the usage of a mobile HR software in any type of smartphone, this problem is easily bypassed as an employee can simply open the app, check-in at the start of his working day and check-out at the end of it. Moreover, he or she can also record their location using a GPS stamp several times a day if necessary, or if the nature of their job requires them to be on-the-move they can check-in whenever they change their location.
We have all been and some of us still are, a part of the company where communication between employees or even whole departments is not the best, to say the least. More often than not you will need to contact someone outside your department, and not having a contact info stored somewhere ready to pull-up, can really slow down the whole communication. Being able to quickly send all sorts of notification and alerts to all employees or only certain departments in the company cannot be easier with a good HR software. On top of that you can create different chatting rooms, where people from different departments can share their thoughts and suggestions, discuss potential business steps, or have a friendly chit-chat during their breaks, all in one window, one device. Not only that such option keeps employees more engaged in the company’s affairs, boosts productivity, and can trigger new ideas between teams that otherwise may not have the opportunity to co-operate on that level, but also lets employees meet a co-worker with the same idea, same passion or interests, bringing the whole company that much closer.
As an employer, you may find yourself in a situation where one or more of your departments is under achieving, or has a high turnover rate. What allows you to make an informed decision is data collection that lets you be more systematic in weeding out the problem. Do they need training? Or, did they all attended the same training? Where were they recruited from? Did all the leavers work under the same line manager? These questions will surely be on top of your list and a proper data collection can be used for analysis that will inform your decision. Doing the same amount of work in the same time frame using paper based system or even dated PC software will not under any circumstances provide the same clear, precise and concise answers.
The world is moving fast, technology even faster, and it drives us all to step up the game and perform better than we did yesterday. The winners are not those who are first to see an opportunity, but those who are first to act on it. Enhancing the way of how your HR operates and engages your employees to feel as a part of the company may decide tomorrow’s winners, and we just happen the have the right tool for it. Purple Bureau offers everything mentioned, and has even more options that will engage your employees, inspire them to do better, feel better, and save you the time to build your business. Contact Purple Bureau today and book your demo.
By: Dejan Djurović
