So Mariah Carey sings all about what she wants for Christmas – so I thought why shouldn’t I write about it (trust me you don’t want to hear me sing). Here I share with you my Christmas wish list from HR and Payroll technology (none are available scouring through the Argos catalogue). I wonder how many you will add to your wish list too?
Please may I have:
1. A simple user interface
This might sound like a given but I really would love it if clients didn’t have to spend hours training end users how to use a HR and payroll system. I want to be able to book a holiday (and then have a manager authorise it) without complex processes or screens that don’t make sense! Show me useful and interesting information about my team, my business and show it all in one place with the ability to use the system across my mobile, iPad or even watch. Why is this on my list? Because too many systems I see don’t have this in place – yes HR and Payroll systems do some complicated stuff – but that doesn’t mean it has to look complicated to the end user!
2. Embed a survey/engagement tool
Hr & payroll software holds the data of employees in the business – it would be great if I could use that tool to capture the pulse of the organisation with slick, easy to design surveys that I can report against and understand levels of satisfaction, trends in feelings about work and match that against performance. This seems like a simple ask but many suppliers don’t feature this as standard within the applications.
3. Analytics – a must have not a dream of
Back in 2016 we were talking about needing true people analytics and I am still banging the same drum. I must must must be able to report on and analyse my employee data, captured in real time and with an easy to use reporting tool. I need to make business decisions based on this data and I don’t want to have to manually paste data into excel or link it to PowerBI to be able to show me a pretty dashboard!
4. Integration
My HR and Payroll system might not be the same but my data is – why cant they talk to each other? In simple terms I want the ability for true integration (not download and upload) and I want to be able to process changes once without duplicating. With the divorce of HR and Recruitment being more commonplace I want to see a recruitment system integrating with my Core HR records system and into payroll to add my joiners.
5. I’d Love an assessment tool
Of course I’m referring to contractors vs employees – I’d love a tool embedded within my systems which can help me determine if an employee is an employee, a worker, an office holder or perhaps a contractor. Give me something which can aid in compliance or at least show that I have made a concerted effort to understand the current situation for people on my payroll.
My mum taught me not to be too greedy when it comes to writing to Santa, so these are my top 5. Please share with me anything on your HR or Payroll technology wish list for Santa.
From all, at Phase 3 we wish you the merriest of Christmas’ and the happiest new year!
This blog was written by James Proctor, Head of Consulting and Services at Phase 3.
