It’s not overstating things to say that HR serves as the beating heart of most organisations. After all, when your employees are the lifeblood of your business, the frameworks and personnel designed to support and nurture them should come as a top priority.
Unfortunately, HR is as complex as it is vital, with a broad range of challenges facing organisations depending on a number of factors, be they industry-specific or simply relating to the size of the business. Any one of these challenges can represent a huge time sink for HR teams and in many instances, can lead to core HR responsibilities falling by the wayside.
Ironically, the very systems and technology HR and payroll teams should be relying upon to help them achieve daily excellence, can often present their own roadblocks: 70% of respondents to a PWC tech adoption survey claimed that they were using three to six apps just to complete a single task. This fragmentation of HR processes is all too prevalent and acts as a common blocker to getting core HR right.
When HR and payroll teams use different software to achieve their goals, it can lead to a number of factors which make getting HR done right more difficult than necessary.
Ultimately, this fragmentation of core HR and payroll processes can exacerbate conditions which leads to teams working in silos. Each function may be working with an individual competent solution but when systems don’t effectively communicate with each other, organisations open themselves up to data inaccuracies, human error born from duplication of processes and general roadblocks to daily operational efficiency.
In this article, we will explore the importance of integrated HR and payroll software in helping you simplify your core HR processes, eliminate those daily headaches and freeing your HR teams to focus on more meaningful, transformative strategy.
What is core HR?
Core HR describes the key elements of the HR function and for most organisations, typically refers to recruitment, learning and development, employee engagement and performance management. When we talk about core HR, we are talking about the elements which contribute to a foundation that enables you to drive ongoing strategy and reach your key business objectives.
Core HR also deals with a huge amount of people-driven data, especially that which details performance, salary and benefits and learning and development. These metrics are vital in supporting HR and leadership teams, helping inform and guide ongoing strategy and keeping on top of all important legislation and compliance concerns.
The consequences of non-integrated HR and Payroll
Like many organisations, you may currently find yourselves operating with separate systems and technology serving your HR and payroll functions. If that’s the case, you wouldn’t be alone in thinking that individual functionality is the be-all and end-all of an effective solution. However, have you taken the time to consider some of the roadblocks and potential pitfalls that non-integrated HR and Payroll may be presenting?
- Time wasted- Ask any HR or payroll professional and they’re likely to tell you that data-based admin represents one of the greatest time sinks across their working week. When your HR and payroll processes become fragmented across multiple systems, this necessitates the duplication of data input- something which further eats into the precious time of key personnel and makes leveraging their skillsets and knowledge in more transformative ways all but impossible.
- Greater scope for human error- It’s no secret that the more reliant you are on manual processes, the greater the potential for errors cropping up. When your payroll and HR solutions don’t effectively communicate with each other, the necessity of duplicating processes and manually inputting data across multiple platforms increases the risk of error exponentially.
- Erosion of trust- Non-integrated HR and payroll unfortunately means that errors become an inevitability. When mistakes happen and processes are split across various functions, these silos can suddenly become territorial, with errors leading to an erosion of trust between colleagues and a tendency to apportion blame when things go wrong.
- Lack of data integrity- HR and payroll are functions that both deal with huge amounts of sensitive, people-led data. For this reason, security and data integrity come as a top priority when organisations source a solution. However, when HR and Payroll processes aren’t integrated effectively, organisations open themselves up to the threat of potential security breaches and data leakage, particularly when duplicating information across multiple platforms.
- Risk of non-compliance- HR and Payroll are both at the behest of numerous rules and regulations which must be adhered to. Any one breach of compliance could carry hefty legal and financial penalties for organisations, not to mention the long-term impact it can have on an organisation’s reputation.
Why should you be simplifying and unifying your HR and Payroll processes?
It’s probably fair to assume that most organisations are aware of the individual importance of HR and payroll as a function. Both are elements of a business that deal with sensitive, people-based data and the consequences of getting either wrong can carry serious legal and financial penalties for businesses.
When we talk about simplifying and unifying HR and Payroll, we’re not just talking about individual functionality of solutions. Any one system can be as robust and comprehensive as you’d like but if it lacks the ability to integrate with other core aspects of your people function, that individual functionality suddenly looks less impressive.
When sourcing solutions, organisations need to look at HR and payroll as an organic part of the same processes and prioritise effective integration and communication between systems.
So what are the benefits of unifying and simplifying your HR and payroll?
- Automation- With integrated software, you can finally say goodbye to tedious manual input and the need to replicate data manually across several platforms. When your systems talk properly with one another, you have the ability to pull through data effortlessly, with automatic syncing overriding the need for dual entry.
- Security- The elimination of duplicated processes and the need to split your focus between multiple platforms will afford you a greater peace of mind to understand that potential breaches presented through fragmented systems are no longer a factor.
- Data accuracy- With your HR and payroll functions operating on a unified platform, the elimination of multiple manual inputs and duplicated processes which are traditionally the bane of data accuracy and integrity, suddenly become a thing of the past. Ultimately, this means freeing your HR and payroll teams to focus their efforts on more strategically influential tasks, all while being safe in the knowledge that the people data they are working with is accurate and correct.
- Easy to adopt- When organisations find themselves operating across multiple platforms for their HR and payroll functions, the complexities thrown up by fragmented processes can often mean that only a small handful of individuals within the business are able to reconcile all the idiosyncrasies and workarounds required. This rather archaic and patchwork way of operating can be extremely daunting, particularly when introducing new employees to the function. Integrated payroll and HR by its very nature is easy to adopt, helping your teams get core HR tasks done without the need to navigate labyrinthine and complex processes.
How Advanced can help
When we talk about simplifying and unifying core HR, it means we want to free HR and payroll teams from the burden of complexity and enable them to do their best work. Working in silos, alongside an overreliance on manual inputs and duplication of processes, are all too common blockers to productivity and growth- hurdles that we want to help you overcome.
Our HR management software, Advanced HR, is designed to help people teams get the basics in HR done right. Our easy-to-use solution ensures HR teams have access to reliable people data, automated processes and simple self-serve capabilities to drive success.
Advanced Payroll, has been designed specifically to help tackle challenges facing payroll professionals day in and day out. We’ve taken on board the experiences of people working in the field in order to craft a solution that can free payroll teams from the burden of admin heavy tasks and allow them to leverage their skills in more meaningful ways.
The integration of Advanced HR and Advanced Payroll offers you the unified HR experience needed to make core HR simple. Instead of wasting your time splitting processes between disparate software, why not discover a software which actively works towards making your working day easier: eliminating the need for manual input and the duplication of tasks across multiple platforms, whilst automating key actions and workflows, giving you back the time you need to achieve more.
Advanced HR is designed to empower HR teams, managers and employees to get things done. And to say goodbye to the admin roadblocks which act as barriers to transformative change.
If you’d like to discover more about how Advanced HR can help you make core HR simple, get in touch today.