How To Leverage HCM Platform For Better Work Culture?

When it comes to improving workplace culture and office environment, employee experience has taken a back seat for HR professionals. Yes, they work toward enhancing it but it’s not as much of a priority as other aspects, such as compliance, recruiting, training, and more. However, with shifts in the marketplace and employees’ preferences, HR teams need to divert their attention toward a better workforce experience else they might lose top talent. A great deal of effort and responsibility is involved to foster positive relationships with employees and create a healthy work culture. To keep employees happy and productive, you need to combine your HR processes with Human Capital Management (HCM) which is a key to employee engagement.

Cloud-based HCM software is a reliable and user-friendly tool to manage employees more effectively and create a seamless experience, be it a small, medium, or large-sized enterprise. Most businesses don’t understand that a relationship between employer and employee begins before the latter’s first day. With the recruitment and interview process, an individual embarks on a journey with a company. HCM technology has emerged as an important platform to improve communication, efficiency, and transparency across an organization that leads to an engaged workforce. 

Creating a positive and excellent work culture is not a complicated process, you just need a powerful HCM solution that can meet the unique requirements of your company and boost employee engagement. With the right and trusted HCM system with cutting-edge features that can leverage its full potential and add value to your business. This cloud technology integrated with the HR agenda is the future of the corporate world and you must start preparing for it if you haven’t yet. 

So, to get you better acquainted with HCM and how you can make the best out of it, here is an article that explores different aspects of HCM. Let’s take a read through it:

HCM Software and What It Does

Gone are the days when HCM was dominated by a thought that personnel need to be managed. However, with time, the technology evolved and now, even the biggest companies see human capital management as a powerful tool that enables employees to be more productive, engaged, and their best selves. To put it simply, HCM involves different practices from recruiting and managing to developing a workforce, and is monitored by a company’s HR department. The software encompasses many functions and components, including talent management, HR, payroll, benefits, workforce management, etc. In the current people-first culture, HCM considers employees as the most valuable asset of the organization as research has shown that a prepared, motivated, and diverse work culture delivers superior results. 

Although HCM is often used interchangeably with HRIS (Human Resource Information System) and HRMS (Human Resource Management System), HCM offers a more comprehensive suite than others with its functionality spanning the entire employee lifecycle, starting from attracting and hiring top talent to retaining and engaging them. It records and stores data safely and provides a single view into the employee database, thereby giving you better insight into their work, effectiveness, productivity, and proficiency. Moreover, it shows when you need more staff, helps in shift scheduling strategies and sets employees’ goals through streamlined analytics and reporting. 

With well-reputed and reliable payroll service providers for HCM solution, you can handle HR admin and allow quick access to employees to their data without any hassle. A typical HCM software includes:

• Employee benefits administration
• Internal training
• Talent management
• Time and attendance monitoring
• Applicant tracking and onboarding procedures, and more.

HCM goes beyond directing and assisting HR professionals as it also plays a key role in workforce planning, building inclusive and diverse culture, offering learning opportunities, managing bonuses and compensation, and whatnot. 

Creating Better Work Culture With HCM

Whether your organization is on the path of digital transformation or has already undergone this great transition, we are sure that it is well-positioned to enhance the work environment and employee experience. Using a wealth of data and features offered by HCM, you can ensure a positive influence on people right from the moment they join your company until they leave. To leverage these benefits, it’s not only about using a centralized solution but also about how well you utilize this tool. 

Here is how you can use the HCM platform to its fullest potential and achieve your goals:

Employee Self-Service Portal

HR managers already have so much to deal with and addressing simple and basic employee problems will only add to their burden. So, allow your employees to manage some tasks on their own. This will not only give HR professionals to focus on other core tasks but also make your employees feel more involved. Trust us, every person in an organization hates going back and forth between their managers and HR for routine tasks, such as applying for leave or submitting an expense report. With a self-service portal, they can help themselves and feel empowered. They will have direct access to their details and data that matter, such as time-off requests, benefits plans, paystubs, etc. 

Of course, you will need to train them to use the tool but it won’t take more than a day or two. The more responsibilities your employees will have, especially their own, the more engaged they will be. Also, this will allow them to work from anywhere, anytime from their laptops, smartphones, or desktops. A recent survey has concluded that when employees work from their preferred device and place, they are more satisfied and productive. When you move finance, HR, and other key systems to the cloud, your employees can use these solutions conveniently. Hence, you create an infrastructure that is perfect for a remote workforce. 

Cloud-Based Platform for Employee Engagement

If you are looking forward to enhancing your office culture, employee engagement, and experience, then integrating the right technology can prove to be a great asset to lift a heavy burden. Use powerful cloud-based technology and tools to empower your people and help them pay attention to high-priority projects and tasks instead of redundant ones. Seek an automated and seamless HCM software platform that bridges the gap between all your human resource management processes and streamlines them. The system will also be useful for administrators to configure customized workflows, stay compliant with laws and regulations, secure data, reduce errors, mitigate risks, and more. 

An all-inclusive HCM also has a built-in integration feature to connect ERP, business intelligence, top-of-class insurance carriers, payroll, HRIS, HRMS, and other prominent tools. With a cloud-based platform, your employees can get important information, workflows PTO, and documents in one place. You also have configurable modules to add or remove features to suit your changing business needs. In addition, a comprehensive HCM adopts a modular approach and offers innovative technology in various categories, such as:

1. Core HR
2. ACA Compliance
3. Time and Attendance
4. Applicant Tracking System
5. Succession Planning
6. Payroll Processing
7. Performance Management
8. Onboarding
9. Learning Mana
10. Benefits Administration

Refined Hiring and Onboarding Process

One of the biggest benefits that HCM software solutions offer is streamlining the onboarding process. We all know that tracking, recruiting, and hiring top talent can be really daunting for HR teams and also consume most of their time. This one-stop solution not only handles these tasks but also delivers better results, ensuring that only credible and most suitable candidates are hired. However, to make this work HR professionals have to update the internal processes to follow suit. If you are still stuck with the traditional and manual onboarding process, you might be delaying the time to earn a higher ROI. With the transition to the HCM platform, you can evaluate within no time what you should still follow or what has become obsolete for your hiring procedure. This switch from manual and outdated onboarding to modern and automated one will help you track the results and adjust the processes as per your needs. 

Without maintaining numerous spreadsheets and files, you can track employee experience from the time they submit their resume until their annual evaluation and even beyond that. Hence, providing you with a 360-degree view of your workplace environment, analyzing it, and acting upon it instantly. More than being a helpful tool for HR, HCM is more of a solution that offers various benefits to the entire organization. Using different job search portals and platforms, providing employees with regular training, and whatnot, the functions that this one software can perform are worth every penny you invest to acquire it. 

Regulatory Compliance Management

Maintaining compliance may not be considered a part of work culture and employee experience but trust us, that it is. When you adhere to federal and state rules, you can work without worries and focus on other core areas that are important for enhanced productivity. However, it is no secret that most employers face various challenges because of the varied and complex regulatory environment. There are so many confusing and complicated rules that companies of all sizes have to deal with, be it federal, state, or local payroll tax requirements, labor laws, wage and hours rules, or even scheduling rules that are being introduced in many jurisdictions. 

Of course, no single person can manage these regulations adequately and consistently. Thus, comes HCM that automatically does it on your behalf. Also, the software can be customized, designed, and configured to be an invaluable tool to make sure you stay in compliance. 

Improved Communication Process

Once hiring and onboarding formalities are over and all the excitement is faded out, managers have to stay on their toes to keep team members focused and engaged. Hence, they use HCM software that makes daily communication smoother and simpler across the organization. Rest assured that with this powerful tool, you can align individual goals with business objectives by integrating different processes with HR automated solutions. We all know that accomplishing every task that comes your way throughout the day is not always possible. However, HCM allows your teams to work smarter. 

It automates most of the complicated and lengthy tasks while securing data and processes. With a talent management dashboard combined with additional features, the HCM tool helps you manage your talent and stay in touch with them from beginning to the end of their journey in the company. To achieve this, it offers various functions, such as:

• Custom and team surveys
• Safety training
• Check-in for individuals
• Project management
• Access to HR data anytime from any device
• Learning courses and certifications
• 360-degree feedback
• Plan and automate performance reviews
• Determine top performers and ones who are lagging

Wrapping It Up

If you still haven’t implemented HCM software in your company, then you are missing a lot. As your technology is way behind your competitors, you can’t attract top talent nor retain the existing employees. Slow communication and an inefficient onboarding process can be major turn-offs to the prospective workforce while manual labor is prone to errors.

The Human Capital Management system delivers unmatched and immense capabilities while driving exceptional value. Your company simply needs patience, the right partner, and discipline to deploy an effective HCM. Once this is done, you can sit back and experience a motivated and positive culture in your organization. 

Author’s Bio: Alicia works with the editorial team of A3logics, a leading company offering big data consulting services. Exploring the latest technologies, reading about them, and writing her views have always been her passion. She seeks new opportunities to express her opinions, explore technological advancements, and document the details. You can always find her enjoying books or articles about varied topics or jotting down her ideas in a notebook.