Human Resource Software, HRMS, HRIS, or HCM is an advanced solution that integrates human resource management (HRM) of an organization with information technology. It is a flexible combination of certain dynamic applications and modern technologies that help reduce the time, efforts, and cost of various business activities, especially those related to the HR department.

There are different Human Resource (HR) software available on the market. Based on the size, nature, and type of enterprises, businesses can opt for the most suitable human resource management software. They can also customize an HRMS according to their specific requirements.

Whether customized or ready-made, business heads must look for the following dynamic features and modules within their HRIS software.

1. Centralized Database

To start with, a robust centralized database is the key element of efficient HRMS Software. It is the pillar on which the entire software system fetches data and provides accurate information. Regardless of any organization, the centralized employee database must have a complete list of all present as well as past employees along with necessary information including their address, personal contact number, work experience, the number of years in the current company, etc.

HR heads must update the database at regular intervals or according to circumstantial situations. For example, when a new candidate joins in, or an employee resigns; the database must be updated with such information.

2. Recruitment

A recruitment module will simplify the hiring procedures and make things better for the hiring entity as well as prospective candidates. Using this feature, recruiters can find the right talent and can avoid major mistakes during online recruitment approaches.

From internal form-filling to online tracking of applicants, this dynamic component provides a complete solution. Organizations can also develop a “talent pool” to enhance their reach to the most appropriate candidates and bring them into the designated profile.

3. Onboarding

After recruiting, it comes to onboarding, i.e., introducing the new joiners to the organization or some significant departments specific to his/her designation. Having an onboarding feature helps the HR to take the new staff through the organization and arrange inductions; all in just a few clicks.

New recruits can also use this module to introduce themselves to the enterprise or concerned departments. Some other duties like providing appropriate access, developing user accounts, and security credentials can also be performed with this application.

4. Attendance and Leaves

After a candidate comes on board and becomes a member of the staff, the HR team then look into attendance and leaves, which determines the Payrolls. With the help of attendance and leave module, the HR manager can keep a real-time track of employee hours, including entry and exit time as well as system login.

Concurrently, they can also keep an eye on approved, unapproved, and approval pending leaves. Thus, they can maintain an automated record of attendance and leaves of all employees.

5. Payroll

Attendances and leaves determine the payroll. Besides, conventional payment processes are tedious, time-consuming, and require substantial paperwork. To ease this, the data that gets generated from the attendance and leave modules can be used for processing payrolls.

The best way to use this software is by integrating it with leave and attendance software; thus, fetching system-generated entry and exit time along with the number of days employees are present in the organization. Together with attendance and leave software, the payroll module maximizes the potential of HR Managers and enables them to invest their productivity in other work areas.

6. Performance Management

While working in an enterprise, employees undergo an appraisal procedure. Here, they are reviewed by their reporting officer and the management. Thus, monitoring and managing job performance become crucial to every business.

79% of executives rate redesign of performance management software and practices to incorporate elements like continuous feedback, goal-setting, and employee-driven communication - Source.

A performance management feature enables simple and easy tracking of employee performance over a period. Such software comes with numerous tools through which business heads can set targets for employees and track their progress towards achieving the pre-determined objectives and give them scores. In this manner, they can maintain a live status of competency and capabilities of workers and review their overall performance from time to time.

7. Talent Management

To boost productivity and encourage employees to meet their goals, having a talent management feature is crucial. The innovative module in the best HR software helps organizational leaders to identify specialized skills and proficiencies of employees and assign them suitable job roles.

Talent management modules can also be synced with performance management to get a complete understanding of the expertise of an employee.

8. Training and Development

Training, learning, and development are part of the work schedule. Based on employee performance analysis, companies can use the learning and development module to plan staff training sessions. Through this dynamic feature, employees can access learning materials and training courses; thereby improving their professional knowledge.

This procedure can further continue to real-time evaluation and feedback by the reporting heads.

9. Employee Engagement

Spending 8-9 hours a day requires some bonhomie and with the most innovative employee engagement module, which is the intranet; employees can stay connected and enhance their professional bonding. From the trainees to the CEO, each employee can access the intranet and enjoy its features.

The HR department can add, update, or modify data within the intranet and make it accessible to everyone across the company. This module also allows HR to shed off their responsibility for conducting offline activities for employee engagement.

10. HR Analytics

Just like other business divisions, HR also plays a significant role in determining the management strategies of an organization.

HR analytics is a standard module that generates human resource metrics and benchmarking data, which further helps the HR team to present useful insights for framing the business strategy of a firm. It is a purposeful feature to the HR department and helps the top management to strategize their plans according to HR inputs.

HR Management Software is one such example whose implementation and utilization has automated the basic HR activities like Recruitment, Onboarding, Attendance and Leaves, Benefits Administration, Payroll, etc.

1. Increased Productivity and Efficiency of the HR Department

The use of appropriate software tools can reduce 40% of the time spent by HR personnel as well as the cost involved in various activities, by reducing the need for paperwork and streamlining the process. Updating information becomes automated with instant reminders and notifications about compliance and productivity.

2. Reduced Errors

Paper-based methods are not completely infallible and even one misplaced decimal point can cause several financial and legal complications. HRM software can reduce the occurrence of such errors by automating most of the processes and keep everything working properly.

3. Evaluation of Metrics

Business information must be constantly reviewed and strategies must be upgraded based on the internal operation and the market. The metrics evaluation tools in free HR software systems allow for accurate monitoring and issues, turnover rates, and costs that help design optimized business strategies with the help of data analytics and reporting.

4. Conquer Geographical Barriers

For large companies with a global footprint, HR systems enable global communication and establish uniformity in processes. It helps in the standardization of systems leading to better consistency across geographies.

5. Increased Performance Management

These systems help keep track of the skills and performance of the employees and help in the decision-making process for new training and skill development programs that can be arranged for the employees based on their current standing and the company’s needs.

It helps managers evaluate the performance, provide regular feedback and advice. Human capital is better utilized with all the information available in one space -HR professionals too can devote their time to better endeavors that will benefit the organization.

Besides, HR Software comes with a lot of other perks like:

1. Highly effective support system and modular functionalities for facilitating better productivity and efficiency of the organization.

2. Core Human Resource Software covers traditional human resource management as well.

3. Greater compliance with the current market standards for better organizational performance.

4. Comparatively reduced human effort and risk of potential errors, thereby providing for greater accuracy of the data records.

5. Universal metric systems for better data detailing strategies.

6. Easy integration into the mainstream workflow of the given organization for enhanced business solutions.

7. Streamlined sharing and implementation of information.

8. A Cloud support system facilitates better security standards.

9. Greater ease of HR operations and effective employee information management with secure storage facilities.

HR Systems have made human resource management and operations much easier and efficient. Their prime areas of utilization are:

1. Core HR

These include the software systems that can be utilized to oversee personnel tracking, payroll, and benefits administration. These systems can efficiently control leaves, paid time-offs, insurance policies, health care programs, retirement plans, bonus information, etc. They store sensitive employee information and help supervisors handle day-to-day administrative tasks effortlessly.

2. Workforce Management

These kinds of software allow for scheduling and tracking of the employees, especially when the operations are divided into shifts. It helps to record the time employees spend on the job. This kind of software can also be integrated with payroll HRMS software systems. It helps managers keep track of missed or accomplished goals and insufficiencies in staffing levels.

3. Strategic HR

Strategic HR software is quintessential for the growth of the company. These software work to attract and develop talent by providing comprehensive management services. These include applicant tracking systems, learning management systems, and background verification systems. It improves employee satisfaction and helps in better retention.

Now that we understand the broad categories of human resource software, let us now look at the specific types of HRM software that fall under these categories and how they are utilized.

Human Resource is an important department for any business. As people are one of the most important assets of any business, good HR software becomes essential. Major Types of HR Software are the following:

1. Time and Attendance

2. Applicant Tracking System

3. Learning Management System

Let’s look at the importance of all three in detail:

1. Time and Attendance

To find out the number of hours invested by an employee, a business needs good time and attendance software. It will keep track of employees' time and attendance with exact details.

There are various ways an employee can punch attendance:

1. Manual entries

2. Biometric devices

3. GPS location

4. Swipe cards

Based on the attendance of the employee, his salary slip is designed, hence the best HR software will also calculate the salary based on the total time. Other factors like basic salary, number of working days, paid leaves, unpaid leaves, allowances, deductions are also considered at the end of the month. After considering all these factors, the final salary slip is designed.

Apart from recording attendance, HRM software must have a provision for leave management. In an HR system, employees can request leaves and get approvals from the manager. He can also decide the type of leave - paid leave, unpaid leave, on-field trip, etc.

2. Applicant Tracking System

According to research, every job attracts more than 250 job applicants through various channels. As there are lots of vacancies open at the same time in a company, there will be tons of resumes attracted by the company. It gets extremely tough for an HR employee to sort out the right candidates.

The applicant tracking system filters the relevant resumes from the pile and helps an HR to find the right candidates.

ATS allows you to connect itself to your website page. So, when an applicant fills data on the website, it directly fetches the details. You can also connect applicant tracking software with various social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn to sourcing and attracting candidates. After collecting all the details from the applicant, you can filter the resumes with keywords.

Suppose, you have posted a vacancy for a “Digital Marketing Manager.” But, that doesn’t mean people who have applied belong to that genre. You can apply keywords like “Digital Marketing” or “SEO” in the field of designation. Also, if you are looking for an experienced candidate, you can filter them by the number of years of experience.

ATS becomes necessary for the HR and hiring committee when the hiring process is on a constant basis.

3. Learning Management System

Learning Management System is a type of HR software as well. When employees want to learn new things, they look for resources from every corner. It has always been advised to businesses to let their employees grow.

The learning management system provides employees with learning materials regarding their field of interest. The system identifies your designation and skills and asks you about your areas of interest. According to your interest, it will provide you with all the learning material.

For example, An employee is working as an SEO executive, but he wishes to learn in other areas of digital marketing as well. He can simply ask for learning materials for digital marketing. He can also put a request for further training. The Manager has to decide whether to provide him with the training or not.

Many companies have already implemented and utilized the various benefits that the different suites in HRIS Software have to offer. Not only does it save time and cost, but it has also helped companies perform better and upgrade in order to excel in the market.

A) Case Study - SaludCare India Pvt. Ltd.

SaludCare is one of the trusted pharmaceutical brands of India, manufacturing 100+ products in 7 states of India. Salud has a wide staff of 450+ employees spread across various branches in India.

SaludCare was looking for free HR software to handle its heavy staff, as they had a few bad experiences in this matter. SoftwareSuggest, after understanding their employee strength and requirements, suggested Keka.

Keka is one of the best HR software with modules like:

1. Payroll Management

2. Employee management

3. Talent management

4. Feedback and goal management

5. Applicant tracking system

As we mentioned, Salud has a large number of employees, so the employee management and payroll management was basic. As a pharma business, they are continuously looking for Medical Representatives who can promote their products. Hence, the applicant tracking solution was also a good choice for them. For a business like this, employee goals and targets should be well managed, so the feedback and goal management was an exact choice. In a nutshell, Salud got the perfect solution with the little help of SoftwareSuggest.

1. Implementation of this software provides decentralization, however, downtime functioning of the core server can lead to complete downtime of the various systems associated with it.

2. The presence of any technical glitches in the software can prove quite harmful to the existing data. In fact, it may lead to potential loss of data also.

3. Invalid functioning of any specific modules leads to incorrect documentation and implementation in other categories, thus misleading the system on the whole.

4. The presence of an internet connection is highly mandatory to ensure effective backup and recovery options.

5. Constant updating of the software needs to be maintained for the efficient functioning of the software.

Here's a comparative analysis of the features offered by the top 3 HR Software. So all you need to do is check off the features that you are looking for.

The logical steps before investing in a SaaS-based HR software include:

1. Do Not Follow Anyone

Generally, companies follow what other companies are choosing. But, you don’t know about their requirements, needs, and goals. If you select a Saas HR solution before narrowing down your requirements, you will regret buying that product, and eventually, you will drop it.

2. Narrow Down Your Needs

Consider your current situation. But, don’t forget to consider your future goals. Suppose, you’re planning to hire a lot of employees in various departments, but you’re buying an HR system based on your current employee strength. That won’t be a wise decision.

3. Do the Research and Narrowing Down the Right Products

After completing your research in this direction, you will have a list of software that fits your needs. Go through the list and make sure they are suitable for your budget. It won’t be a wise decision if you spend too much on your HR system.

4. Take Free Trials

You never know, the software that is expected to be a great one, comes out as a total nightmare! You might want to look at the software before permanently applying it to your business.

However, taking trials of the software will help you a lot in terms of usability. You can figure out by asking yourself these questions: Is it easy to use? Would employees be comfortable using it? How many issues did I face while using it? Does the software perform well in the most important areas? How many extra benefits does this software provide apart from handling HR? Is it worth the money?

5. Check the Support

Using the software is one thing, but the real scene is when something’s wrong. Because that’s when you realize how is the company supports the system. Make sure the support of the software is strong enough to solve your issues.

6. Choose the Product

After going through this process, choose the product but with the right package. Software is generally available in monthly or annual packages. Choose the right package according to your need as every package differs in providing features.

7. Compatibility

The compatibility of the given software should be checked with respect to the system requirements and specifications for hassle-proof implementation.

8. Security

The security features of the software should be highly evolving and should hold effective algorithmic complexity for safer data operations and handle.

9. Availability

The availability of the various process modules should be checked to ensure that the investment is worth enough in terms of the functionality obtained.

10. Updates

The real-time updating of each individual module should be checked to ensure faster performance integration.

11. Third-Party Installations

The implementation of this software should not involve any external third party installations which may cause potential risks to the existing database of the Organization.

Below are some crucial factors which you should keep in mind while implementing an HR Solution in your organization because these factors can actually make or break the whole objective of the implementation.

1. The Possibility of Identity Theft

There is a minor possibility of potential ambiguity, misrepresentation of facts, or ‘identity thefts’ as one may call it. For example, there is a possibility that a ‘fake’ candidate may make it to the top without actually possessing the right skills for a particular profile.

2. Technical Glitches

Some technical glitches may arise during the deployment process of the software. There are chances that the software is not likely to be in compliance with the corresponding third-party services installed in the system.

3. Security Issues

Even though most of the HRIS software is highly secure, those that are not certified cannot be trusted as far as Data Privacy and Security is concerned. The implementation of low-quality HRMS Software makes the whole data, including candidate applications, vulnerable to hacking, and other forms of cyberattacks.

HR software is highly inclusive and definitive of various HR processes and management techniques. It also provides effective automation strategies for the organizations on the whole. However, integration of effective HR management software with your business operations elevate your business levels and streamline solutions for your organizational workflows.

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