Top benefits of selecting HR software with an HRMS portal

For most employees, when we speak about HRMS portals, we’re talking about the way in which they access their HRMS self-service functions. The portal is the access point for automated HR processes and information. For most employees, this usually means managing their personal data and records, time and attendance (including making requests for time off), viewing pay checks online, and access to corporate information, such as policies and procedures and a staff directory. Managers, according to their level and responsibilities, will likely see links to workforce planning, team data, and reports and analytics on their portal dashboard. Senior execs and the C-suite may have higher-level number-crunching options offering deep insights at a strategic level. 

Below, we’ve listed some of the benefits of HRMS portals for your business, your employees, and return on investment.

Improved communication

In all but the smallest of businesses, workforces are increasingly scattered nowadays. We don’t all fit into a single office or premises anymore but instead are likely to be in multiple locations, including working from home, or out of a suitcase ‘on the road’. With this dispersed organization, clean, clear and rapid communications between colleagues are essential to performance. Managers and the C-suite can use the portal for blanket communications, disseminating information that everyone needs. Teams of employees may have chat groups, allowing for instant messaging on key, just-in-time issues. And individuals can communicate when they need to, irrespective of where they might be, either geographically or team-wise.

Enhanced recruitment

An HR portal may have a recruitment facet, allowing potential job candidates to search out current vacancies, submit an application, and track their progress through the assessment process. Interested parties can also set up a reminder to notify them of job openings that match their interest. In this sense, your HRMS portal becomes part of your talent pipeline.

More efficient onboarding

Following recruitment, once you have your new hire, an HR portal can facilitate their onboarding and introduction to the organization. Using the same access point, the successful candidate can begin to learn more about their role and the context in which they’ll perform before they arrive for Day #1. Ideal for accessing all the necessary background information, an HRMS portal can connect your new hire with experienced colleagues, their fellow team members, the senior drivers of the business, and so on.

With an HRMS portal, new recruits arrive for their first day of work much more knowledgeable and better-equipped to perform from the go.

Learning and development

The last couple of decades have seen a shift from purely face-to-face, classroom-based learning events to include more online and e-learning alternatives. Likewise, your employees can use an HRMS portal to access their training options in the form of a ‘training directory’. In this way, employees have direct access to learning (their line manager should be involved but the portal means they don’t become a gatekeeper, determining who accesses training and who doesn’t). Training requirements, objectives, records and even evaluation of learning acquired can all form part of the employee HRMS portal experience.

Time and attendance

With an HRMS portal, there is potential for directly connecting employee attendance and hours worked with payroll. Leaving behind traditional punch clocks, employees can log in to (and out of) work via the portal. Effectively, each employee is inputting this critical information into the same system that will use it to calculate their salary payment. This reduces the number of links in the chain, and therefore the potential opportunities for error.

Likewise, a portal can make it easier for employees to manage and request their paid time off. Needless to say, this and the other improvements or advantages outlined above all have an impact on the HR team itself, often reducing the administrative burden and repetitive tasks.

The interaction can be two-way

An HRMS portal is not only about employees (at all levels) accessing the system, it can also be used by the organization to ‘access’ the workforce. Everybody in the organization has access to the HRMS portal, therefore everybody is accessible via the portal. This can be simple corporate communications and messages disseminated to all employees via the portal. However, it can also be an avenue for more sophisticated interactions, such as inviting and providing access to an employee satisfaction or wellness survey.

A changing workload for the HR team

A much-touted benefit of any HRMS is the time it saves for HR staff (time which can then be parlayed into either a reduction in HR overhead or additional resources for more strategic HR initiatives). This saved time stems from the automation of many repetitive, mundane procedural tasks, such as managing paid time off requests. The benefit to the HR team can be significant but likewise, employees usually see the pluses in their daily working lives. Namely, the mundane tasks that should be so straightforward are less subject to human error, resulting in a drop in frustration levels and less employee time wasted on something that really should take no time at all, practically. Plus, in a business sense, saving time means saving money.

A customized HRMS portal can improve all employees’ HR experience, reduce avoidable errors, and be a valuable aid to closer working and collaboration, especially across disciplinary silos.