Photo Gallery
Technology as an HR enabler
Published: 15/07/2010 by Rodney de Villiers
Many small businesses struggle to justify the cost of investing in HR software. Yet all businesses, whether small or large, face the same challenges in managing people, points out Rodney de Villiers, CEO: Talenger Holdings.
“These issues range from hiring the right employee for the job to ensuring that your policies and procedures protect you against risks from non-performing or errant employees, the submission of statutory returns as required by law in terms of payroll and HR returns, the handling of disciplinary and grievance matters in a way that protects you in the CCMA, managing various legislated leave entitlements and ensuring payroll compliance,” says De Villiers.
Yet the HR function is often designated to the small business owner or his/her PA, who may not have the expertise required to address these problems, especially if the small business suddenly booms. With ever-changing business legislation and the complexity of HR administration, companies find themselves drowning in documents and spreadsheets as they try to maintain some order in their HR management.
De Villiers believes that the primary reasons many small businesses do not invest in an HR system is that HR software is perceived to be expensive and because software companies have to date not been very good at explaining their products’ capabilities to their potential clients in a way that proves the value of what they are offering.
The benefits of a proper HR system for a small business can be enormous. Aside from being able to file detailed employee information in one place and access it quickly or run a report on absenteeism, training spend and so on, HR software offers something called ‘triggered actions’.
“Triggered actions are a series of events that you can set up to react to specific changes in data,” explains De Villiers. “For example, you can set up your HR software to send you an email reminder for everything from employees’ birthdays to a warning that the licences on the company vehicles are about to expire. This saves time and ensures that these tasks don’t fall between the cracks and get forgotten.”
Over the past few years, HR software solutions have become available that are reasonably priced and tailored to the local market, taking into account South African legislation.
“Talenger Holdings offers a solution called PeoplePlus, which is an affordable suite of human resource software solutions and services aimed at helping businesses small, medium and large to improve HR business processes and thereby their productivity,” De Villiers says. “Unlike other HR solutions, it provides organisations with more than just self-help technology, which is meaningless unless you know what you are doing in terms of payroll and HR. PeoplePlus also offers the back-end support companies need. For example, the call centre offers HR / IR and Payroll support.”
According to De Villiers, a good HR software solution should cover all aspects of human resources, from capturing and maintaining employee information to leave management, report generating, document management, recruitment, training management and even payroll data submission.
