HR is a dynamic and evolving field. Yet it is thought of as a function that is only associated with hiring and firing.
But that is not the case. HR as a role is becoming more strategic. The concept of an HR business partner has picked up pace in the last few years. Becoming more strategic means that HR is no longer limited to conducting administrative activities. But instead, it works on big picture goals now. But if that is the case then who carries out the administrative duties?
What is HR Outsourcing?
HR outsourcing is the process of getting HR services and expertise from external service providers. These external companies are experts in the field of HR and take the burden of carrying out transactional and administrative tasks.
The idea of HR outsourcing is to be able to focus on roles that enable growth especially if you run a small business.
Which HR Functions can be Outsourced?
If you’re part of a startup or a mid-sized business, you would naturally want to scale up your growth. As an HR professional, you are obligated to carry out several mundane activities such as maintaining employee attendance, tracking time, managing leaves, and setting shift schedules. Although these are the core functions of HR, they tend to consume a great deal of time.
In order for employers to focus on strategic roles such as employee development and engagement, they can outsource certain primary functions. Some of them include:
- Time tracking
- Attendance management
- Performance management
- Payroll management
- Shift management
- Talent management
- Employee onboarding
- Vendor management
- Policy development
- Policy compliance management
- Expense accounting
- Bookkeeping
- Employee engagement
HR Apps to Power Your Workflow
AttendanceBot
With increasing digitization, the world is evolving at a fast pace. Everything that was previously done manually is now being automated. Likewise, HR is going through dramatic changes in how its functions are performed.
Gone are the days when employee attendance was tracked manually. It is tedious and reduces efficiency. Moreover, it isn’t scalable and can be impractical.
Similarly, if you are the HR manager of a big company and have to send emails every time you get leave requests, you will find yourself dealing with never-ending email threads. Isn’t that too overwhelming?
Do you fancy performing these administrative tasks with just a click? Well, you don’t have to worry. AttendanceBot is the solution.
AttendanceBot is a tool that can be integrated into your Slack workspace. Employees can easily punch in and out. As an HR personnel, you can easily track how long they are working and when they start work. You can generate detailed timesheet reports and analyze work hours.
An interesting aspect about AttendanceBot is that you can assign managers to each employee. So when an employee applies for a leave, the managers will receive the notification and can approve it immediately with just a click.
Want to know something more intriguing? Managers can also keep track of the projects employees work on. This allows managers to understand the workflow, the time a certain project takes, and how it can be improved to increase efficiency. As mentioned, managers can pull out robust reports to get a better understanding.
So, whether you are a small or medium-sized business, AttendanceBot will help you focus more on employee development by taking care of daily operational and administrative tasks.
Free Trial duration
14 days
Download AttendanceBot to Slack Workspace
ExpenseTron
With the role of HR changing dynamically, it also has to take care of approving expenses and reimbursements requests. The catch is that HR outsourcing can be done for automating this.
The answer lies in an HR application called ExpenseTron. Whether your employees want approval for buying a new laptop or a reimbursement for a client lunch, ExpenseTron manages it all.
All you have to do is let the app know. For example, type ‘$10 client lunch’, and the app will file your request and send it to your manager.
You can also submit payment invoices in case of reimbursement and ExpnseTron will store it in its records. This finance management tool frees you of collecting receipts manually and filing expense reports.
The ExpenseTron dashboard will allow finance managers to see all expenses in real-time. It will encourage them to carry out financial reporting fairly efficiently.
Free Trial duration
14 days
Download ExpenseTron to Slack Workspace
Donut
On-boarding is one of the important stages in an employee’s life cycle in a company. It sets an impression in the minds of new hires. And without a doubt, no employer would want to ruin it.
So, do you think HR outsourcing can be done for onboarding employees? The answer is simple. Install Donut in Slack and get started.
Donut helps you introduce new teammates in just 3 easy steps. First, you either choose an in-built program or customize one according to your business and team needs. Next, you create a Donut channel and name it however you like it. This channel is the medium of communication whereby employees can hang out virtually and get to know each other. Finally, invite teammates to the channel and let the show begin!
Donut offers you a variety of programs to choose from. Each program has been built with a distinct purpose. For example, there is a template that will introduce new hires to people from other departments. But here’s the fun part. There are some really fun programs as well such as the Selfie Contest. Over here, employees compete against each other to come up with the best selfies. Isn’t this a unique way of engaging with each other?
You also have the option of customizing the program according to what suits you the best.
HeyTaco
Employees are often rushing against time to meet deadlines and achieve milestones. In the midst of all, they often forget to appreciate and rewarding each other for their little achievements. Rewards don’t necessarily have to be tangible in nature. A message along with a happy emoji can also boost employee morale.
So, in order to foster a positive culture and encourage communication among employees, HeyTaco has come up with a sustainable and fun solution.
Get to appreciate and praise an individual’s or team’s effort by sending them a message with a taco emoji. How will it benefit the business and its employees?
It will inspire employees to communicate with each other instead of working in silos. Moreover, they will recognize the importance of recognizing the efforts of their peers and how it can go a long way in keeping them motivated.
The world has gone through some major changes since the pandemic with people either working from home or in the office. Although working remotely has its own benefits, it falls short when it comes to employee engagement. However, using HeyTaco will help ease the distance.
Kaapi
When employees work remotely, they surely miss the silly yet fun watercooler conversations they had at work. But they need not miss it anymore because Kaapi has them covered.
Designed to work asynchronously, Kaapi is a peer engagement tool, especially for remote teams. As an HR professional, employee engagement will be your top priority. Instead of having a weekly catch-up call for your employees where employees feel forced to chat and attend, why not let them interact with each other in a creative way?
Kaapi has innumerable ice breaker questions. Some of them may be as silly as ‘Coffee or tea?’ to informational ones such as ‘How do you balance work and life while working remotely?’.
Another important feature that Kaapi offers is that of Standup meetings. If you have teams working across different time zones, then you may want to try this tool out.
Kaapi lets you capture quick status updates in the form of stand-up meetings. You can either create your own questions or use the ones already built into the system. It is a helpful tool that will save time, give you an overview of who is working on what and get rid of tedious work calls.
Lattice
If you aspire to streamline the performance management process in your company then you must give it a try.
It is a performance management tool that provides employers with feedback in real-time. Real-time feedback maintains transparency and makes work meaningful.
Lattice adapts according to your company’s performance management model. It offers different types of performance review models such as 360-degree feedback, project-based reviews, automated review, and direct report feedback.
Try this app and enjoy a seamless performance review process.
Polly
We all dread filling in long questionnaires and surveys manually. Although Google Forms and Survey Monkey have made life easier, the dread still exists.
People usually find it frustrating to fill in a questionnaire in between work as it causes distractions. Some people may even find it annoying to log into their emails and fill in surveys especially if they work primarily on Slack.
But what if there was a way to fill in a questionnaire quickly and that too without leaving your workspace?
Well, there you go. Polly has it all.
Polly is an HR software built into Slack to collect employee feedback on anything and everything in just a matter of seconds.
It has innumerable templates designed to meet the needs of every department such as product development, employee onboarding, and procurement. These templates have survey questions catering to every department.
Polly collects data in real-time. How? Instead of writing down long responses, you just have to vote for the given option. Simple.
Since many organizations have switched from working on emails to Slack, the need to handle workflows on such platforms has also increased. Polly automates repetitive tasks such as daily stand-ups or meeting feedback with tools like Jira and Google Sheets.
GreetBot
Onboarding employees has been made easier, seamless, and effortless with GreenBot. This tool will allow you to give a warm welcome to your new hires. Greet them in public or private, the choice is yours.
Moreover, this tool allows you to assign a resource to new hires. They can reach out to the employee assigned in case they feel lost or need answers.
You can also schedule follow-ups with new hires. This will keep the new hire engaged without feeling lost especially if they are working remotely.
Standuply
When working across different time zones, managing calls can become a challenge. Also, calls tend to take a lot of time and distract the participant from the point of discussion. Similarly, meetings can be long and tedious too.
Some employees dread attending meetings even if they are only half an hour long. This is primarily because it breaks the flow of work for a lot of people.
A quick and efficient solution to this is Standuply. This tool allows for standup meetings without the need to call or meet in person. If you are someone who doesn’t type long messages, you can also leave video or audio messages. Isn’t that convenient?
You can either use a predefined template or design your own questions. This tool also generates reports for you to view and analyze.
How Does HR Outsourcing Help Small Businesses?
Small businesses have to work strategically to foster growth in their organizations. That is only possible if they shift their focus to organizational goals.
Here is how HR outsourcing can help small businesses:
Strategic Planning
Regular HR tasks are exhausting and require a lot of paperwork. To be able to focus more on strategic tasks a business should outsource some of its basic functions in order to free up time for big picture goals. HR outsourcing takes care of general HR functions, HR personnel can focus on strategic planning and organizational excellence.
Employee Development
HR’s role in a company is not just limited to recruiting employees and keeping track of their working hours. It is a lot more than that. An HR must work on mentoring, developing, and coaching employees in a way that they feel motivated to work and stay in the organization. Thus, when a business does HR outsourcing, it can divert its resources towards employee training and development.
Maintain Good Standing
Sometimes it gets overwhelming to keep track of the ever-changing state, federal and local government regulations pertaining to employment. HR personnel already have a lot on their plate apart from ensuring compliance.
HR outsourcing can prove to be helpful and beneficial for the business. This is because outsourced HR professionals stay up to date on rules and regulations and can prevent you from getting penalized. As a consequence, your business will be able to maintain good standing.
Choose the HR Software That Best Suits Your Needs
Human resources applications are a must-have in today’s digital world because they have made HR outsourcing easier. Acquiring and retaining good talent is what drives a business towards growth and productivity. Almost all HR functions can be performed digitally. HR professionals must analyze which systems and processes need to be automated in their businesses.
You can start off by analyzing if you want to build HR tools in-house or buy them from other service providers. In the case of the latter, you can choose in accordance with your business goals. Today’s volatile environment demands sophistication and this is what these digital tools provide us with.
