Three Things Your Employees Wish You Knew About HR Software

The most “tech neglected” area of your business is the Human Resources department.

(No, they didn’t leak that to us. We work with a lot of companies, and we’ve noticed a trend.)

Here’s how it goes in your office. First, your sales people get their iPads. Then your marketing team get their Adobe suite upgrades.

Finally, your HR manager crawls to the table, begging for the leftover scraps in your technology budget. Sounds about right?

This is a wasted opportunity. Software and cloud enabled services for HR have advanced in recent years. With the right technology, your employee recruitment, training, and retention can be easier, faster, and more powerful than ever before.

Your employees already know this. Here are a three things they wish you knew about HR technology, but are not brave enough to tell you.

#1. They Wish You Knew About the Technology “Wow!” Factor

What if your employees took delight in filling out their HR forms? Don’t laugh, it’s possible.

“Delight” is an important metric to judge your HR technology against. The user experience of the software you roll out is critical for HR, because many of the tools you choose will become a part of all your employees’ daily work lives. Unlike most teams who choose tech environments that are suited for the personalities of their singular departments, most HR tech has to weave into the workflow of the entire company.

Recently the focus on user experience has intensified in consumer electronics and web software. Mobile phone makers learned that the way your device feels in your hand convince you to buy, just as much as the ability to make clear calls. And online retailers discovered that the easiest way to increase sales is to shave just seconds off the ordering process.

Businesses that pay attention to user experience are winning in the modern world. If you raise the level of delight, sales will rise too.

Today, the next frontier for user experience is inside of your company. Smart executives already know that a well-designed intranet for employees is just as important as a beautiful, customer-facing website.

Do you want employees to refer their talented friends to your hard-to-fill positions? Then use software that makes it blissfully easy for candidates to apply.

Need your employees to follow strict document management rules? Then use software that makes templating, versioning, and storage dead simple.
Wish more of your employees participated in the charitable events you sponsor? Maybe the problem is your ugly company calendar, with the broken notification system, and a font that’s too small to read.

You see, software can charm humans and nudge them into doing actions that will help them and your business. So, if your HR Manager’s menacing reminder emails to “Submit your holiday vacation requests!” have stopped working on your staff, maybe it’s time to think about the user experience of your chosen software.

#2. They Wish You Knew About Technology On-The-Go

The other HR technology trend to consider is mobile.

There’s no quicker way to sink your employees’ productivity than to tell them they have to fill out an HR form in the office, in front of a desktop. The modern employee expects their work tools to keep pace with the mobile apps they use in their personal lives.

Even worse, some HR departments still use paper forms for everything. Your employees can cash a check with the snap of a camera phone – so why do you require them to enroll in a 401K using a scroll and quill?

Add this line to your next RFP for HR software – “Your service or product must work on mobile devices”. Your employees will thank you for it.

#3. They Wish You Knew About “Team Building” Through Technology

The water cooler is now digital.

It shouldn’t surprise you that your employees’ inboxes are not solely used for work. News, jokes, recipes, and baby photos are being shared by coworkers.

Today’s HR technology embraces social networking at work. The reason is simple. If you give employees a safe place to share their lives and passions you foster bonds that will help your team work faster and more creatively on business projects.

This is why Microsoft purchased Yammer, an app that’s been described as “Twitter for Business.” Employees who use Yammer have a quick way to update each other on both work and their personal lives. Yammer proves that with the right technology, digital chatter can go from distraction to valuable team building.

Microsoft, the leader in office productivity believes this. So do your employees. How about you?

The Bottom Line, From Your Employees’ Point-of-View

So let’s recap.

Modern HR software should incorporate the latest advances in user experience, mobile, and social technology. The result for your people? A more enjoyable workspace.

The result for you? Happier employees who work harder, stay with the company longer, and invite their talented friends to come along.

That alone is worth leaving an extra little something in the budget for HR.