When an organisation experiences a period of growth or hyper-growth, it’s not uncommon for its people technology to get left behind.
There are many reasons for this with perhaps the most relatable being the thought of the potential costs and resources involved in procuring new systems.
Simply leaving things as they are ‘for now’ however, is not an option.
Continuing to use HR or payroll software that can’t meet your organisation’s needs now or in the near future can be extremely damaging and will end up costing more in both time and money in the long run.
“Your people system(s) sit at the core of everything your business does, keeping your employees engaged, informed, compliant and paid(!) so allowing it to grow and move along with your business is vital.”
Whilst circumstances will differ depending on your size, sector and setup of your organization, here are a few common telltale signs that you need to call ‘time’ on your HR or payroll systems:
As your business grows your ‘wish list’ has become your ‘desperately need list’.
You are no longer saying, “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could…” and are instead saying, “I really need to do this because it’s affecting my businesses productivity or profitability”.
Identifying the negative business impact of continuing to make do with your current system is a sure-fire way to tell that the time has come to search for a new HR or payroll system.
If your employees are having to jump through hoops to complete basic tasks such as booking their annual leave, this not only takes time out of their day but can negatively impact their view of your organisation – not ideal when retaining talent is the number one priority.
An increase in hybrid and flexible working expectations also means your HR and payroll systems needs to be cloud-based at the very least, with self-service and mobile capability in order for easy access to data regardless of location.
Prompt and accurate reports are essential to understanding your employees and developing personalized plan for employee engagement, performance, succession and more.
If your team leaders are finding it difficult to pull simple reports or have to manually amalgamate data from disparate systems, it may be time to look for a new system that uses automation, workflows and user-friendly dashboards to make this simple.
Most HR and payroll technology available on the market today offers automation for at least the basic day-to-day HR tasks. The more sophisticated software also makes use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) to automate even further.
From your onboarding process to booking or approving leave, processing payroll and more, having to manually input data is a huge waste of your leaders and employees’ time. Manual processing also increases the risk of data being entered incorrectly which, in the age of compliance, is a big no-no.
A key indicator that you have outgrown your current HR system is the lack of scalability. Your current HR or payroll system hasn’t been able to grow with your business and will not be able to as you continue to grow.
If your current HR or payroll solution is inflexible, clunky and outdated, making it impossible to adapt with your growing business, it will undoubtedly send your business backwards rather than forwards.