By
Pooja Patil
The advent of COVID-19, its adverse effects, shutting down doors for physical work, and the new era of hybrid and remote work – we’re all quite familiar with these terms and scenarios. Perhaps, we have learned to live with the new reality. But is it the same for HR teams? HR’s career revolves around employees – their needs and requirements. Casting our minds back to 2019, no one would have imagined that we’d be living in a world where working from anywhere would be the new norm.
Back in the day, we happily seemed to be going about with our 9-to-5 work life, content in our physical workplaces. Nevertheless, according to a survey, 99% of respondents desired to work remotely – if not permanently, at least for a shorter tenure, throughout their career. Coming back to the era we are living in, the dream of many has come true – now, 83% of employees prefer remote work over working from the office. While some organizations are returning to the offices, others are opting for a permanent work-from-home model or hybrid work arrangements. That being said, managing teams remotely comes with its own set of challenges. Establishing a positive organizational culture and a unified team is challenging from afar but imperative for business growth. To manage teams better, retain talent, and drive business growth, organizations must bring unique attributes to the table to simplify the job for their HR teams.
Here’s how HR can effectively manage larger teams situated across the globe with ease using smart technologies and intelligent features that come with HR Outsourcing and Management platforms like Exela’s EHRS:
HR software for remote team management – 5 must-have features
Employees and business owners worldwide have been navigating a new, remote reality for the last two years. The hybrid and remote work models are building new discussions around the best practices to manage remote teams, retain worthy talent, and grow business. One might find the right candidate for the available positions, but how can one ensure they blend in easily? How does one onboard several employees at the same time? Would they be able to engage with the brand without in-person interactions or face-to-face assessments? The first step to virtually hiring employees is to elevate your online presence and brand image. Does online presence only count in social activities? Of course not! It is a great medium to communicate your organizational values, goals, and culture. HR management software has made it a lot easier to handle daily activities with grace. They offer multiple features to make the processes hassle-free.
Here are 5 must-have features for HR management software to make remote team management efficient and effective.
Employee Onboarding
For employee or any recruiter, onboarding is one the most significant tasks. What does it take to onboard a new employee? Is it just shooting out an email with the subject line “Welcome Aboard?” Signing the legal paperwork for employment? It is far more than we can imagine. The very first time an employee interacts with the organization is through the onboarding process – so there shouldn’t be any room for errors. Recruiters must ensure the new joiners get all the information they need about the organization – its values, culture, technologies, vision, and goals to help them fulfill the expected performance requirements. A smooth, delightful experience can help reduce employees’ time-to-productivity, enhance engagement, boost morale, and increase loyalty. Exela’s HR solutions have it all to fulfill all your recruitment needs – from finding the right talent, hiring, and rolling out offer letters and recruitment papers to onboarding; you can outsource everything under one roof.
Employee Self-Service
Nowadays, everyone desires transparent communication and operations, as do employees. As a result, employees seek on-demand access to their required employment lifecycle information on portals. To gain employees’ loyalty toward the organization, it is crucial to give them access to information such as employment data, tax documents, leave balances, shared company documents, holiday lists, employee benefits, and more. This helps employees check the status of their benefits and leaves, request time offs, and regularize attendance, saving HR departments countless hours. Organizations can make this happen through HR software that allows access irrespective of the geographic location, with the only requirement being an internet connection and the employee self-service feature.
Payroll Processing
Calculating salaries with fair consideration of leaves and tax deductions such as PF, PT, and TDS, rolling out salaries to each employee, and providing payslips – seem like tedious and multifaceted tasks to do. Along with other HR tasks, paying salaries on time and managing documentation amidst the chaos of remote work scenarios can be challenging. Earlier, HRs used to take around 3-14 days to complete the payroll processing – this is something that is hard to imagine in today’s era, where everyone is working remotely from different locations and time zones. This is why good human resource management software is a necessity. It gives HRs the leverage to automate HR processes with less manual intervention and minimized errors. Payroll processing via an online HR solution would reduce weeks’ worth of work to just a few hours! In addition, HR software that provides payroll processing features allows you to integrate attendance and time modules with the payroll function to help you get accurate numbers.
Also Read: New HR trend: HR entrepreneurs
Analytics and Reporting
Data is only as good as you can use it – there isn’t any value in tracking the HR information when you can’t use it to your advantage. You can draw enormous benefits by analyzing employee information and data – their requirements, interests, and disinclinations. In addition, this data will further help you plan training and development sessions, add to the list of benefits, tweak processes, incorporate new tools or technologies, and increase employee productivity and loyalty. Specifically, in the era of remote work, it is imperative to understand your employees and acknowledge their needs in order to retain worthy talent. Good human resource software must come with analytics and reporting features, making it easier to analyze, comprehend, and plan accordingly. Customizable dashboards, real-time reporting, automated data gathering, access controls, and financial analysis are a few of the analytical functions in human resource management software that enable you to make data-backed, informed decisions and enhance overall performance.
Workflow Automation
From communication and coordination to document sharing, scheduling meetings, integrating security standards, and task management – HRs deal with dozens of complex tasks on a daily basis. Furthermore, with the emergence of new challenges due to the remote work culture, it has become way more complex than it previously was. Most commonly, repetitive tasks tend to drag down efficiency and productivity. This is where automation comes into the picture. As we already know, automation makes work easy, secure, and efficient. The same applies to HRs – while shuffling through countless tasks and working hours, automation can bring a sigh of relief for HRs handling remote teams. For instance, you might automate the weekly or monthly reminders for any pending tasks, disseminate emails to keep everyone on the same page and spend more time planning activities to increase employee engagement instead. Your HR management software must allow you to automate mundane, time-consuming, repetitive tasks, allowing you time to focus on more priority work instead.
Wrapping up!
When you get just about every HR service under one umbrella, it marks the end of most of your HR challenges. Exela’s state-of-the-art HR Solutions can help HR departments save countless hours spent on repetitive administrative tasks, allowing time to focus on business strategy, employee development, and employee engagement. It provides a one-stop solution for all HR needs, such as recruiting, onboarding, payroll processing, compensation and benefits management, HR business and partner services, and a lot more. Try Exela’s HR solutions today!
DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.