Need workforce insights fast? You need modern HR software!

Accurate, accessible workforce insights are more important than ever before.

After all, successful business strategies can’t be built on a hunch or ‘finger in the air’ assumptions. In today’s data-driven world, having the right data is paramount when it comes to making better business decisions.

The world of HR is no different. Forward-thinking businesses are using the huge amounts of workforce data they generate every year to guide their strategic HR activities: be it their recruitment and selection processes, onboarding practices, or career and succession planning.

However, to get quick access to the data they need to support key choices, HR must have a powerful HR software platform. Here’s why…

HR software is the key to accessing accurate workforce insights

To demonstrate why HR software is vital when it comes to accessing and assessing data, and gaining vital workforce insights, let’s look at one of HR’s most critical duties: managing the employee lifecycle.

Recruitment: vacancies, time to fill, candidate mix

Let’s imagine you’re the Head of Recruitment of a growing multi-office organisation. You’ve just been called before the board to provide an update on your organisation’s recent vacancies. You have one hour to prepare. What do you do?

In the past, you may have been left trawling through emails or scrabbling around in filing cabinets for job application forms and hurriedly attempting to piece a lot of disjointed information together. However, if you have an HR system with recruitment capabilities, you can pull detailed reports that include:

• what roles you currently have vacant,
• how long it’s taking your organisation to fill vacancies,
• what your candidate mix looks like: their location, diversity, education etc.

Your HR system can also make it easy for you to double-check the process your recruitment team and hiring managers are following. To really impress the board, you can also use tools such as Pulse Surveys to dive into the hiring experience of some recent new starters, relaying what the process looked like for them: from initially seeing your job ad, to being onboarded with your organisation.

Onboarding: Processes, documentation, welcome portals

You’ve been in charge of a new onboarding process for your business for the last year, and you notice that a particular department is having trouble retaining new starters.

You need to quickly solve the problem before it adversely affects long-term staff in that area and the business’ reputation. You know you’ve set up the right processes and given your team access to the best software to help onboard new people. What do you do?

Using an onboarding module in an HR system like Cezanne HR, you check that:

• the onboarding process you implemented in the system is still clear and fit for purpose – especially when it comes to new joiners who may be hybrid or remote working,
• the onboarding portal for newcomers is up to date and engaging – perhaps adding a personalised welcome video if you haven’t already done so,
• all new-starter documents are ready to be issued from the system, and e-signature functionality is ‘good to go’ as needed.

If everything looks in order, you can check the records of some of your new joiners in the problematic department to make sure the proper procedures are being followed. If all looks okay from the HR side, you’re in a much more informed position to have a probing conversation with the department manager to get to the bottom of the issue.

Career and Succession Planning: Skills, potential, aspirations

You’re now able to answer all your board members questions about recruitment and onboarding, confident that your HR system can give you the answers you need when you need them. But, what about career and succession planning? Does an enquiry about future talent leave you stumped?

If you have an HR system with career and succession planning software, you’ll have the answers you need, that’s because you can report on:

• the key skills held by your workforce and where there might be gaps that should be filled
• the positions that need close attention and who might be able to step up if needed
• what your employees want in terms of career progression opportunities.

Cezanne HR’s Career & Succession Planning module brings to life your data, mapping talent and showing progression opportunities. The grids make it easy for HR to create and shape highly visual plans as needed, displaying a clear picture of talent and succession potential within the organisation.

Employee engagement: Sentiment, trust and advocacy of your organisation

You’ve now covered all the key areas of the employee lifecycle. However, can you also measure and show your company’s leaders the levels of staff engagement within your organisation? After all, you may have everything you need to manage your employee’s lifecycle brilliantly, but it’s ultimately worthless if you’re not measuring how engaged your workforce are with you as a business.

HR software solutions with integrated Pulse Survey functionality can help you understand how engaged your workforce are with you as an employer. Pulse surveys allow HR teams to track levels of sentiment throughout the year, and can help quickly identify and address potential issues that could contribute to poor levels of staff retention.

With pulse surveys, you can report on key engagement-related subject, such as:

• whether your employees would recommend your business to others,
• if they’re happy working for your organisation,
• if they receive praise or recognition for going above and beyond the call of duty,
• whether the company’s mission and values align with their personal values.

Checking in on levels of staff engagement is something every HR team should take a keen interest in – especially when looking to manage employee lifecycles. This is because engaged employees will likely work harder and stay with a business for longer, meaning lower rates of excess staff turnover and higher company productivity.

In summary…

Paper forms, Excel files and ad hoc HR processes must be a thing of the past if you want accurate workforce insights quickly. HR software ensures the information you need is readily available, from recruitment through to planning who will be your next CEO.

When HR and business leaders need data on any aspect of the employee lifecycle, they can easily view information on all the key areas they need through modern Cloud-based multi-tenanted HR software such as Cezanne HR.

That’s because Cezanne HR’s suite of HR software and managed payroll service bring together all the workforce data an HR professional could need into one secure, easily-accessible place: removing paper-based spreadsheets, forms, and the need for time-consuming manual calculations.

Find out how Cezanne HR can help you get the workforce insights when you need them by booking a free personal demonstration today.