How can HR best practices impact your HRMS success?

The question of how best practice and HRMS connect is really more of a ‘chicken and egg’ scenario. Using best practices means you’re operating at a level of efficiency and therefore likely to be using your HR software efficiently too. However, a good HRMS offers best practice processes right out of the box, encouraging you to operate your HR function more efficiently. Each side of the equation reinforces and can be used to drive the other. In other words, best practices can be the fuel that powers your upwards spiral of increasing HR success

The phrase ‘best practices’ refers to those values and ways of working that can optimize the overall business and workforce performance; applicable regardless of business size or sector.

At a headline level, the following broad categories of best practice can directly impact (and be influenced by) your HRMS use…

HR best practice #1: Hire the right people

Every employer knows that finding the best-fit candidate for a job is a significant challenge. An HRMS can help you advertise more widely, target rich sources of candidates, parse applications, and will automatically prompt each stage of the recruitment process, thus ensuring faster ‘time to fill’ and lower ‘cost to hire’ metrics. To take advantage of this kind of functionality, you need clarity and detail on the kind of candidate you’re looking to hire in respect of the role, it’s responsibilities, how performance will be evaluated, the necessary skills and knowledge, etc. Well-run recruitment means less waste, new hires fit for the role, reduced staff turnover, and increased competitive advantage.

Learn what the best HRMS features for recruiting are with our free guide

HR best practice #2: Manage performance fairly

For most employees, performance management is an interaction between them and their line manager with a limited degree of oversight. To avoid the risk of bias, it’s important to have objective and fair systems and criteria for judging performance; especially if there is an element of performance-related pay involved. HRMS performance management can not only keep the process running smoothly, including prompting standards-setting and benchmarking, it can drive the incorporation of those standards and benchmarks into the process, providing objectivity and parity between employees.

HR best practice #3: Reward appropriately

Nothing gets complaints like a payroll or compensation mistake. An HRMS with a payroll module linked to time and attendance takes a lot of the human error out of the equation. Similarly, the rest of the rewards package, including benefits, can be managed by an HRMS, boosting transparency, ensuring employees are well-informed before making choices, and accurately handling the consequent financial elements (payments and deductions).

HR best practice #4: Train for success

Investment in skills is key for business survival. As a job or industry changes, so do the necessary skills. An HRMS learning management module can formalize and monitor discussions of skills needs, guiding both employee and manager to choose appropriate learning solutions from a directory of options, and then prompting follow-up and evaluation after that learning has taken place to ensure it is applied in practice.

HR best practice #5: Empower appropriately

Empowerment is another word for handing over control to employees where necessary, appropriate and/or desired. And an HRMS fits neatly with this goal. First of all, most HRMS give users control over their own personal information (apart from anything else, ensuring it’s more accurate). This can align with a wider policy of openness and transparency which in turn encourages a culture of information-sharing and collaboration. 

Adopting HR best practices as guiding principles helps ensure your workforce management is directly supporting greater efficiency. A best practice workplace is generally more productive with fewer mistakes. Setting up your HRMS to support and drive best practices effectively aligns your HR technology with your long-term business strategy – that is, continuing success.