Best HR Software Services and its advantage on SMEs businesses

Human resources are considered the most important of asset an organization but very few of the organizations are able to fully harness the potential of this asset. While all other resources like the technology, capital assets and even finance can be the bought if one is willing to pay the right price, the only resource that cannot be bought are motivated and committed human resources, in the 21st century among the various resources, human resource is considered the key driver for the organizations. The competitive, liberalized privatized and global economy pushes the organizations to exploit all their available resources as a means of achieving competitive advantage.

The human resource practices in Indian companies originated from administrative practices then slowly phased out as personnel department. Over a period of time the personnel department shaped in to employee welfare/relations department, which then paved way to the full-fledged human resource function. Human resource practices were widely accepted in industries spanning across textile, manufacturing, construction, telecommunication, media, energy, hospitality, healthcare, IT services, etc. Conventional human resource practices encapsulate functions like staffing/selection, training and development, performance appraisal and compensation.

The adoption of professionalized human resource practices in India is a recent phenomenon, and has gained momentum in the past ten years. In knowledge based industries such as a software and information services competitive advantage increasingly resides in people of embodied know how such that the human capital rather than physical capital or financial capital is what distinguishes the market leaders. Some of the leading Indian organizations have taken the initiative in the strategic management of their human resources. A core of empirical studies on human resource management in India has been conducted using a variety of methods and theories. The main purpose of this study is to explore and investigate the human resource practices across software organizations in India, through structured interviews with human resource professionals.

In today organization employees empowerment and decision authority are deliberately increased so that the performance is more sensitive to variation in the human skills the knowledge and attitudes and to mental effort rather than physical effort. People at all levels of the organization must combine the mastery of some highly specialized technical expertise with the ability to work of effectively in team, form productive relationship with clients and customer and critically reflect on and then change their own organizational practice. A human resource system can increase organizational performance, which develops and maximizes organizations abilities and contribute to its continuous competitive advantage. Strategic human resource practice attempts to coordinate and integrate the culture, organization, people and systems with business strategy and corporate goals.

A system of HR practices may be more or less than the sum of the parts, appears in discussion of synergy, external, and internal fit, bundles, holistic approaches, configurations, contingency factors found few effective practices for managing people, which form the basis in defining the strategic human resource practices. There is a growing consensus about the choice of strategic human resource practices. Drawing on the empirical and theoretical studies on HRM practices identified six practices consistently considered to be strategic and universalistic HR practices. There are recruitment, selection, compensation, employee participation, internal labor market, and training. Considering the above-mentioned theoretical and empirical work on human resource practices, the interview questions designed for this study includes staffing human resource planning, selection, recruitment, training and development, performance appraisal and rewards compensation.

Human Resources technology refers to all of the software used to track the record, manage, pay, understand, find, inform, remember and deliver benefits to the people in an organization. There are between 70 and 100 discrete types of the HR technology in total. Human resources specialists are responsible for the recruiting, screening, interviewing and placing workers. So, they may have also handle employee relations, payroll, benefits, and training. Human resources managers plan, direct and coordinate with the administrative functions of an organization. These skills will help to HR employees and managers alike to find and hire talented individuals, manage payroll and communicate ideas between the upper management and lower level employees.

Human resource practices in large-scale software companies:

•Selection process:

Large-scale software companies adopt both internal and external hiring. Predominantly, they prefer internal hiring for middle and senior levels like team or module leader, project leader, project manager. On the other hand, for entry-level positions like software trainees and software programmers, they prefer hiring through campus placement, employee referrals, and media advertisements and through private consultants. In the selection process for entry-level positions, more importance is given to candidate’s technical skills. Candidates are even measured on out of box thinking and ability to append novelty to the existing process through rational means. When hiring for middle and senior levels, equal importance is given to both technical and soft skills. Some specific skills like creativity, leadership, attitude towards quality work, responsibility and sharing problem-solving skills are constantly measured for all levels of hiring in the selection process. The ability to take quick and rational decisions with small clues is one of the criteria measured in the selection process. Honesty, integrity and the way one can handle the complex situations with minimal errors, are also measured in the selection process. For entry level hiring, the interview process is more structured with predetermined questions whereas for middle and senior levels the interview process is unstructured depending on the expertise the candidate possess.

•Training and development:

The training and development is an ongoing process and oriented towards the career growth of employees at all levels in the organization. Software trainees are exposed to have a real-time experience soon after the induction and formal technical training programs. The training programs are broadly classified as general and specific training programs. The general training covers the basic trainings like induction programmed, communication (formal and informal), leadership, problem solving, creativity and team building. The specific training programs are need-based like time management training for project leaders and project managers, foreign language training offered to individuals selected for onsite assignments, training on mentoring and empowerment, etc. Technical training programs are also project or need-based and employees are being trained on a periodic basis. At times cross functional and domain training programs are also being offered to employees at all levels in the organization.

•Performance appraisal:

360-degree performance appraisal is very common across the levels or hierarchies in large-scale companies. The employees are appraised based on self-appraisal, feedback from immediate supervisor, feedback from supervisors of other departments, feedback from subordinates and feedback from human resource manager. The employee is given a chance to express his or her view on the performance rating in a performance appraisal discussion with their managers. Mostly the appraisal process takes place once in a year, i.e., every employee in the company is appraised at least once in a year and feedback is shared accordingly. The performance measure is based on the visible work output and also certain behavioral aspects or competencies such as creativity, involvement in motivating the team information sharing, group participation and ability to mentor are also measured. In addition to these performance measures the software trainees and programmers are appraised based on their punctuality to work and task completion, work discipline, communication, flexibility and self-initiation at work place.

•Compensation:

Employees at all levels are compensated and rewarded based on their performance at work, performance ratings plays a pivotal role in determining the compensation hike percentage and variable or incentive or bonus pay outs. Variable pay may or may not be applicable to all levels, but the variable pay out percentage differs based on company’s profit and revenue growth. Employees are also eligible for special incentives based on the measures like involvement in knowledge sharing and developing others (peers or subordinates) in work environment. Group incentives are given to best performing groups or teams. Competency-based pay is being practiced for project leaders, project managers, senior project managers, delivery leaders and delivery heads. In few companies, top performers at all levels from software trainees to delivery heads are entitled for employee stock option plan. Apart from the monetary benefits, employees are also given medical insurance, educational opportunities like higher studies, technical certification courses, participation in national and international seminars and conferences.

Human resource practices in medium-scale and small-scale software companies:

•Selection process:

Employees across the levels or hierarchies are hired predominantly through external hiring: campus placements, private consultants and through media advertisements. Technical skills, leadership skills and interpersonal skills are given equal importance in the selection process while hiring for team leaders, project leaders and project managers. Group behavior, teamwork, attitude towards knowledge sharing ability and learning ability is tested in the selection process for software trainees and programmers. The interview process for entry level hiring is a mix of both unstructured and structured while for middle and senior levels the interview process is more of unstructured.

•Training and development:

On job training is normally given to all levels including entry-level positions and for lateral hires. Training modules are specially designed on the basis of project requirements, i.e., need-based training. Since there is a cost element attached to emerging technologies or new software platforms, the technical training is always need-based. Apart from technical training, general soft skill trainings like communication, leadership, creativity, teamwork and quality management systems is being imparted to employees at all levels. Mentoring concept is gradually emerging in small and medium-scale software companies, currently they don’t practice the mentor or mentee concept at workplace, whereas they have an individual development plan in which the respective reporting managers act as mentors. Project leaders or managers and above are being formally trained to become future mentors. Medium and small-scale software companies largely rely and believe in peers teaching peers and individual empowerment, by which any new technical expertise is quickly trickled down to all levels.

•Performance appraisal:

Appraisal system is purely based on individual’s performance and it is a top down approach, i.e., individual’s performance is rated by their respective reporting and one over manager. The entire process starts with the base of self-appraisal for which the appropriate feedback is given to the employees. Performance evaluation parameters also include group behavior, teamwork, information sharing and creative thinking. Predominantly performance appraisal system is short-term, i.e., conducted for all employees in the system once in six months. The performance ratings are directly linked to the compensation hike percentage and also determines performance-based incentives or bonus, which happens mostly once in a year.

•Compensation:

To determine and fix the year on year compensation increase percentage, performance-based pay is being practiced. New initiatives or innovative practices being driven at workplace by any of the individuals will have an edge to get better compensation hike percentage and variable pay (if applicable). Variable pay is always the function of fixed pay. Financial benefits like leave travel allowance, house rent allowance Human resource excellence in software industry in India 325 and medical allowance are part and parcel of employee’s monthly gross salary. Few companies pay the LTA or HRA once in a year or six months to employees at all levels. Over and above the salary package employees are also given the benefit of fee reimbursement for technical up gradation through certification or exams like software testing, MCSE, Java and advanced Java certifications, etc., which is part of individual development programmed. Few medium-scale software companies are currently debating to have ESOP in place, which stands as status quo to have it implemented in the current market trend.

Five Essential Features for HR Software

• Centralized Employee Database:

Spreadsheets don’t have the centralize information, and they don’t communicate with the other apps. Every time you make a change and you have to go back through the every document, program, and system to make the same change and keep the everything current. It is a nightmare to manage the things is likely to go wrong somewhere along with the way.

• Automated Time Off:

That is why the PTO should be managed by the HR software. With the right system features, you can specify the way time off is the calculated, and the system will automate the adjustment each time an employee takes a paid of leave. That way you won’t have to wonder if the recorded that time or double check that the accrual formula you were using on spreadsheets calculated correctly. The computer will do it accurately every time and removing the potential for human error.

• Employee Self-Service:

Give them the freedom of access their PTO, employment information, tax documents, and so forth, with HR software that has self-service and its features built in. With the right platform the employees can access their profile from anywhere with an Internet connection. They should be an able to request time off, review benefits, track training, and more. Take it as a step further and invest in a platform that offers a mobile app, enabling employees to request time off on the go.

• HR Reporting:

Much in the same way of big data has been changed how departments like an marketing and design to make the decisions, the information you collect on past and present employees can be used to make an beneficial changes company rules, policies, and procedures. As in the features of above, the key to making this happen is finding the right HRMS.

• Applicant Management:

With the applicant management you have access to a central database for the organizing job openings, as well as managing the information of applicants to those openings. It makes a lot easier to keep potential employee information on the file for future reference. Between the job posting and on boarding the whole process will the run much smoother with applicant management.

Conclusion

Human resource practices in Indian software industry have come a long way in terms of HR excellence by defining and designing the HR function in a way to achieve organization’s mission. HR excellence also acts as a characteristic element to prepare and drive the employees towards the identified culture of the organization.

Author Bio:

Aftab Vasiwala is nurturing his future at Techimply as Software Analyst and Writer with good experience in various genres of blog writing in various industries under the several topics. Who loves to write on the latest Software technologies?