A guide to employee management in a digital HR context

During their time working with you, an employee will have a huge array of interactions with your company - from onboarding when they first join, to ongoing evaluations, to the exit interview when they decide to move onto pastures new. In the past all of these processes were separate, but nowadays it’s more common for them to be unified in an employee management system.

Software for managing employees is designed to integrate all aspects of an employee’s relationship with the company in one place, so that employee records are  up to date, expectations are clearly set and managed, and the overall experience is as smooth as possible in both directions. 

This isn’t modernisation for the sake of it, either:

• Employees that feel acknowledged are half as likely to be job hunting (source, for all)
• Staff are 23% more likely to stay in a role if expectations are clearly set
• High employee engagement makes employees 87% less likely to leave 

HR software holds the key to digital employee management processes.  In this post, we’ll explore the benefits on offer to organisations transitioning to digital systems.

Digital software for managing employees

First, let’s take a look at some of the types of employee records that staff management software can do:

• Manage the onboarding process, and act as the initial interface between your company and a new recruit
• Manage employee profiles to ensure that all their data is up to date, and to reduce issues associated with outdated or duplicate data
• Manage their workflows and track time against different projects
• Track where they’re working from to facilitate remote work models
• Track absences of all kinds to ensure visibility on working habits
• Underpin ongoing and collaborative performance management processes

Individually, each of these processes can yield a lot of actionable insights for a business. But when employee records are managed through a unified system, the value increases exponentially. That’s why in a digital world it’s no longer enough to rely on disparate systems that are unable to integrate, whether it’s because they’re paper-based or confined to incompatible and archaic software formats.

Digital employee management software: what you need to know

In this section we’ll take a look at how specialised HR staff management software can have a transformative impact for businesses.

What is employee management software? 

Employee management software is a type of HR software that contains the tools an organisation needs to manage numerous processes, all of which pertain in some way to individual employees and the workforce as a whole.

There are many reasons to use such software, mainly centering around increasing operational efficiency and accuracy of information, reducing the likelihood and impact of human error, ensuring compliance with legislation, and more.

What is employee management software used for?

Employee management software has a raft of features designed to facilitate processes throughout a businesses. Key areas this software targets include:

• Communication at various levels, i.e. between an organisation and its employees (policy etc), between managers and their teams (shoutouts and messaging etc), between employees (collaboration tools) and so on

• Recruitment, primarily via onboarding once a hire has been made: this is the process, usually automated, which guides a new recruit through the various steps required to integrate them into the business

• Monitoring, in terms of time, location and performance. Smooth operations rely on visibility of what employees are doing and, in an increasingly hybrid world, where they are doing it. Keeping track of performance is also the key to reviewing and improving over time.

• Organising: as organisations grow, so too does the amount of data they collect and store. When systems are not unified, data can be duplicated and different versions can quickly fall out of sync with each other, leading to all manner of problems. Document management features retain version control and view-only access.

What are the benefits of employee management software?

For organisations whose processes are expanding in scope and complexity, the benefits of dedicated software for managing employee records are numerous:

• Employees’ interactions with your business are consistent and considered
• Curated automations and processes ensure that crucial documents are seen by everyone who needs to see them
• The risk of duplicate and out of date data is greatly reduced
• The risk of human error is greatly reduced
• You have far greater visibility on budget allocation of projects, meaning a lower risk of free work being given away 
• Staff performance can be managed on an ongoing and holistic basis, leading to better visibility on performance 
• Any metric in the business can be reported on with ease, unlocking the power of your data

How long do I need to keep employee records for?

With data protection legislation like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and others, there are stipulations for the amount of time you must keep different types of information pertaining to your employees.

The CIPD gives information on statutory retention periods for many types of employee records in the UK. Here are a few examples:

• The statutory retention period for accident records is three years from the last record
• The statutory retention period for accounting records is three years for private companies or six years for public limited companies
• The statutory retention period for whistleblowing documents is six months after the outcome, unless the investigation was unsubstantiated in which case data must be removed immediately
• The statutory retention period for working time requests (overtime, holiday, etc) is two years from the data they were made

Information on what you pay your employees, deductions you make, payments made to HMRC, leave and sickness absences and other PAYE related records must be kept for three years from the end of the tax year they relate to.

How do I choose software for managing employees?

With so many employee management systems to choose from, how do you know which is right for your business? The first step is to take a considered approach to the question: before you jump in, review the specific problems you’re facing, and identify the barriers that stand between you and solving them.

Taking this approach will put you on track to find a solution that fits neatly with the needs of your business, opening up the path to greater success. We’ve put together a HR roadmap to guide you through this process.

Reap the benefits of an employee management system

AppogeeHR’s flagship HR software has a powerful suite of tools designed to enhance every aspect of your employee management processes. Our software is built from the ground up to address the needs of modern businesses, and our bank of customer success stories speaks to the efficacy of these tools.

We’d love to show you our software in action: why not book a demo, or try it yourself for free for 14 days.