Is Your HR Department Up To Date?

HR departments are crucial to the success of any business, yet sometimes they can get overlooked in terms of ensuring that the systems that they use are up to date. While this may not be a case of complacency as such, staff that work in HR are used to dealing with such a wide range of tasks that they may just be left to get on with things.

This is something that is much more likely to happen in larger companies. As there is so many other things going on to occupy the managers attention, it is easy for tasks that do not require immediate action to be forgotten. However, ensuring that the HR department is up to date brings a number of advantages to the company as a whole.

The engine room

When the HR department is running smoothly, the chances are that things will be going well with the rest of the business too. The HR department has a large role to play in ensuring that employees of the business are happy. As everyone knows, staff that enjoy their work will be more productive and less likely to leave.

Maintaining good relationships

Appraisals offer a good opportunity for employees to have their say about the job that they are doing. Allowing your employees this freedom is good practice, but it can create a huge amount of paperwork. There will be numerous action points that arise during these meetings – and all of these will need to be reviewed at a later date. In a company with a large number of employees it can often be difficult to process all of the information that is gained from these appraisals without losing sight of the objective that needs to be achieved.

HR software can be useful here. Having the correct framework in place allows everything from the appraisal to be entered directly onto the system. Whenever there is any action to be taken by the person who has carried out the appraisal they will be alerted, removing the chance for things to get overlooked. As with everything, the more up to date the software is, the more features that it is likely to have.

Making recruitment easy

Another key function of the HR department is to employ new staff whenever there is a position that needs to be filled. Software can make the whole recruitment process much more efficient, and this frees up a lot of time that HR staff can spend on other tasks that directly help the running of the business.

Large companies may only run a recruitment drive when there are a number of vacancies to be filled and this could result in a vast number of applications that would be very time consuming for a member of staff to work through manually. HR software allows the whole recruitment process to be carried out online and, when this is the case, applications can be sorted by an automated process that creates a shortlist based on selected keywords. This can then make selecting candidates for interview a much easier task.

Another advantage of using software for the recruitment process is that when candidates are taken on, their details will already be in the system and this will save HR staff further time when the employee starts work, especially if there are a number of new employees that are starting on the same day.

HR software, such as that supplied by CIPHR, removes a lot of worry from managers over the need to continually update HR systems as any upgrades to the software will be included in the monthly fee. There is no doubt that the business as a whole will benefit from a well-run and efficient HR department, and managers would be wise to ensure that their HR staff have all the tools they need to carry out their jobs efficiently.