Mobile apps are definitely redefining many industries, and HR is one such niche that seems to be fast-adopting this technology. What started out as a platform to source potential candidates has transformed the industry creating better opportunities for the end users. Article by Nirav Shastri, Sr. Digital Marketing Strategist – Space-O Canada.

How often have you thought that the way performance appraisals are conducted in your office don’t give you enough opportunity to understand where you failed? Have you been regularly received complaints regarding the delays made by the HR department in accomplishing the basic tasks?

The Human Resources department is central to any organization, and you bet, managing the different tasks associated with this department is quite a difficult affair. They are responsible for everything that happens within the organization, right from recruitments to performance appraisals, and employee engagement activities. The idea is to retain as many employees as possible. They are responsible for the salaries as well as keeping a record of the absentees and the number of leaves taken. You cannot forget the leave policies either.

Imagine having to accomplish all these tasks manually without errors! Seems like a tough job, right? That’s precisely why HR has joined hands with technology, specifically mobile apps to identify simple yet effective solutions to improve their efficiency. The new and impressive human resource management app helping enterprises to manage employees and automize HR operations without any hassle.

Eases Corporate Communication
The one thing that the HR department faces maximum issue with is getting the information out to the employees at the earliest. Whether it is about a new policy that they need to adhere to or, the new mandate that they are planning to roll out, the information needs to be updated as soon as they can. In fact, if there is an important news update such as an emergency leave or a change in the schedule, the department needs to make sure the message is sent out in time.

The employees may not have access to the emails, and it is impossible for the department to send out such messages in bulk to everyone. The mobile app alerts seem to be the best way to communicate these messages. In fact, the mandate or other forms of corporate communication can be read easily as a result.

Better Payroll Management
Whether it is applying for a leave or, knowing how much of your pay is going to be cut as a result of the leaves you have taken, the payroll software is where your heads will turn. However, managing the leaves, keeping an account of the salaries and even the deductions can be quite difficult for the human resource departments. The complex management systems can further complicate and make the process lengthy, as you need to sit in front of a computer before rolling out the conclusions. The mobile apps are definitely making things easier for the HR department.

On-boarding Hassle-free
When you are in the human resources department, you ought to make sure that every aspect of on-boarding is hassle-free for the employees. The apps help with transition phases as well as with understanding the company. The application will also help with managing time and schedules, thus increasing productivity and reducing the work-life balance hassles for the employee.

Easy Application Processing
One of the major troubles that the human resources department and the potential candidates face is processing the applications. For the potential candidates, filling out the applications and ensuring the applications are fully validated is important while for the HR department it is important that the applications are sorted by the job description and the skills required for the particular post.

The mobile application will come to your rescue. Not only will the application make tracking the applicants easy, but also improve the overall process of application sorting and shortlisting the candidates.

Performance Management Validation
What is the basis of the performance evaluation at your organization? That is one question that no one, including the HR department is able to answer in most cases. That’s why you need a technology enabled performance evaluation, which will help you understand what was the basis for the evaluation, what goals were defined, and how you were evaluated. The mobile apps will help with streamlining the processes and manage or automate the performance reviews with ease. You will need to deliver an app solution for the idea that will incorporate the performance goals, the integrated reviews as well as social feedback to deliver the performance appraisal.

Data in One Place
One of the major reasons that the HR department seems ineffective is because of the unavailability of the data on time. For instance, if there is a birthday and you wish that person a day late, then you do not engage the employee enough. If you are unable to reach all your employees with the message, you have not engaged them well. The whole idea is to have every data needed to reach out to the employees, and automate the essential tasks. A mobile app will not only help you keep the data in one place, but also ensure that you get the data on-the-go.

You can also monitor all the information on-the-go with the tablet or mobile phones. In fact, if you are out-of-office traveling somewhere, and need data related to the employee’s attendance or monitor their contracts, you can do so with the mobile app.

Insights from Analytics
HR needs to be constantly evolving, which is why you need to monitor the current HR processes, and understand what kind of improvement you ought to incorporate. What changes do you need to bring in, if you want to redefine the entire department?

For this, you need to analyze the different aspects of HR department, and build insights from them. Value every data that is made available to you. A mobile app will ensure you have quick data available, which will prove to be critical to your decision making capabilities.

A well-defined and monitored HR department can help strengthen the internal capabilities of the organization, and increase employee engagement and retain them for a longer while.

Summing up
The human resources department is not limited to recruitments and new hiring processes. There are various other things that involved in this niche like appraisals, manpower management, monitoring the employee movement, contract management and even employee engagement.

You need to work hard in all these departments if you want to keep your employee happy and transparent. The best way to achieve a good HR system is with a well-defined and transparent mobile app. An ideal mobile app solution will be based on the problems you intend to eradicate from your organization. Build your apps on insights gathered from employees within the organization and the gaps that they believe exist.