How can HR Software help bosses be more innovative in their approach to management?

The CIPD has released a report that suggests the quality of UK management hasn’t improved in the past decade. However, clients of Cascade are ‘bucking the trend’ by adopting innovative approaches to managerial processes. As a result they’ve seen significant results in employee engagement and staff retention. The game changer? Getting the most out of their HR Software.

The CIPD report, which was published as part of it’s ‘Megatrends’ project, looked at the relationship between management and productivity. It suggested that there was little evidence to show any great progress in managerial performance over the past 10 years. This was in response to the report commissioned by Department of Trade and Industry and Economic and Social Research Council back in 2003, which initially found that, as a nation, our businesses lagged behind other countries such as the US, Japan, France and Germany in terms of our approach to management. This directly impacted on productivity.

The CIPD report stated that if we were to make any headway in the growth of labour and productivity, we needed to be more innovative in our approach to management.

One way to tackle the approach to innovation is to understand more about the behaviours of the workforce, improve employee engagement and participate in staff development. HR technology can help to support this and offer valuable insight that can help to shape strategic business decisions.

Cascade’s client Everton Football Club has certainly stepped up to the mark in their approach to innovation. They acknowledged that the right HR information system could drive a number of business improvements: not least, the better engagement of staff.

The HR system allowed the Club to streamline a number of departmental processes and procedures; this in itself freed up valuable time to concentrate on more strategic projects. However, it was the progressive thinking of the HR Team that saw the technology as a means of actively engaging with their employees, allowing staff to take control of their own records and empowering line managers to take ownership of their team’s development. Such was the success of the HR system with everyone at the Club, Everton’s HR team renamed it ‘Everton People’.

Two years after the successful implementation of technology, engagement levels have never been better. You can learn more about Everton’s story here.

What role does HR technology have to play?

• There are a number of features within modern HR software that have been purposefully developed to facilitate HR teams’ strategic contribution to business growth. At the same time, these features present engagement opportunities that HR professionals can use to connect with and involve staff;

• Proactive HR software enable organisations to streamline departmental processes and procedures. By using the workflow functionality within HR technology, management and employees can be empowered into taking control of day to day HR tasks

• HR software can also enhance affective engagement, if it is used to shape personal employee development. The platform can be used to communicate development plans between employees and management and help to provide a sense of ownership and involvement of staff

• KPI reports can also be delivered to demonstrate employee and team performance. This provides an often instant measurement of an employee’s contribution to the business, which reinforces further positive behaviour and/or highlights potential areas for improvement

• Surveys allow the management team to capture and assess the thoughts and feedback of the wider workforce, seamlessly and electronically. This helps to understand the thoughts and feelings of the workforce, but also reinforces that view that everyone’s opinion matters

Ultimately, engagement is a complex and ever-evolving area of personnel management, and great effort should be made to understand the engagement landscape of your organisation. Strong engagement levels are inextricably linked to factors such as performance, motivation and retention, which will all have an impact on the company’s bottom line.

Read more about how technology can help employee engagement in our recent white paper.

If you are an existing client and have a query regarding using HR Software to improve employee engagement, why not visit our dedicated customer portal, or call our service desk on 0113 255 4115. If you don’t yet have a HR and payroll software system in place but would like to understand more of the benefits, then why not book a free demonstration or email info@cascadehr.co.uk to discuss your requirements.