Value can be derived from various sources such as streamlined processes, contented employees, trustworthy management, and effective administration. These factors contribute to a profitable bottom line, and secure HR administration can bolster them.
However, implementing an HR system is not always a priority for small and medium-sized businesses, especially those with around 10-15 employees. HR administration may seem like a secondary responsibility that can be managed in passing.
Nonetheless, integrating an HR system into daily operations early on can save a significant amount of time in the long run and offer several benefits, especially if you intend to expand your business.
HR-administration streamlines and ensures compliance
HR administration is essential in ensuring compliance and streamlining processes. Implementing a secure and user-friendly HR system can save time and costs associated with manual administration, data handling, storage, and updates. This improves efficiency and productivity, and early implementation reduces the time required for the transition.
Moreover, an HR administration system provides the advantage of centralizing all data in one place, eliminating the need to search for physical or digital folders, Excel sheets, or emails to retrieve critical information. This includes data related to employment contracts, salary developments, holidays, or relatives. Additionally, it becomes easier to delegate responsibilities for updating data with the use of an HR administration system.
"It is beneficial to implement good processes from the outset."
A third advantage is that you can be sure that you are compliant in all your data matters. This applies in relation to the GDPR, but also any internal policies to which data handling can be adjusted. In this way, employees can rest assured that data security is in order and that their personal information is handled correctly.
Provides happy and satisfied employees
It is a security that gives higher employee satisfaction, which in itself is an important factor to include in your business strategy. Partly because it increases employee retention and thus creates value over time, but also because it helps to attract new, talented candidates.
In this way, secure HR-administration can strengthen your employee branding. The best recommendations for workplaces come precisely from the employees themselves. And if your company has a reputation for being a good place to work, it spreads.
If you want to increase employee satisfaction, it is also a good idea to examine your employees' well-being and measure it continuously. You can also use an HR administration system for this. Many do not think it is important but think that it is mostly something you should deal with in large companies. However, this is not the case. It is therefore relevant to build processes that make employees feel heard and listened to, just as it is a tool that can also be used to evaluate individual department managers.
"A feedback culture where employees have their say will also benefit the relationship between managers and employees."
In smaller companies with a flat structure or a flat hierarchy, however, collecting feedback from employees can seem foreign or downright scary because it quickly feels personal. And it's only human to be concerned about negative feedback. But having a system that helps you work with it in a constructive way will ensure better and more constructive management going forward. If you can be proactive instead of having to act on negative situations and conflicts that may have built up over time because they were not caught in the bud, then you will have come much further than many of your competitors.
Claim of anonymity
In addition to regular well-being measurements, an HR system can also administer a whistleblower scheme. In Denmark, according to the EU's whistleblower directive from 2019, it is a legal requirement that medium-sized companies (i.e., private companies with between 50 and 249 employees) must have established a whistleblower scheme from 17 December 2023. This places special demands on confidentiality, reporting and handling.
It is not a legal requirement for small businesses with less than 50 employees, but even if you do not fall into this category, it may be worth considering early in the company's history. It is our experience that it pays better to find a system that can later be scaled up as the company grows and develops, than to come up with a solution that does not last in the long term and that later must be replaced. Because it can go on and become costly.
With both of these measures – regular well-being measurements and a whistleblower scheme – anonymity is very important. If you answer a survey about the workplace or report a questionable incident, it is essential that employees can answer honestly and confidently, knowing that their answers will not be passed on to their superiors by name. This of course requires a secure system.
Whether it is about employee data and GDPR compliance, streamlining work processes or well-being measurements and whistleblower schemes, an HR-administration system will be able to lift and ease the tasks for you. So, you and your employees can save time and create more value for the company.
