As HR departments navigate through ongoing disruptions to the workforce, organizational changes, and slower economic activity, many companies, particularly in the Asia/Pacific region, are facing challenges in adapting to the “new normal.” The pandemic delayed many digital transformation efforts, leaving organizations unprepared to manage emerging trends in work and HR transformation strategies. As a result, HR leaders are now prioritizing investments in enterprise applications, with Human Capital Management (HCM) solutions emerging as a key area of focus.
While there is considerable hype surrounding new trends in HR technology, it’s essential for organizations to take a step back and assess their HR maturity. Understanding where a company stands in its HR journey is crucial in determining what it truly needs from an HR platform. In many cases, companies require HCM solutions for two main purposes:
- HR Administration and Transaction Processing
This includes essential tasks like employee record keeping, time and attendance tracking, payroll calculations, leave management, and loan administration. In small companies, these processes are often handled manually, but as organizations grow, managing an increasing number of transactions becomes more complex, requiring efficient software to streamline and manage these processes. - Strategic HR for Employee Development
Larger companies with complex structures need formal systems to manage functions such as appraisals, performance monitoring, succession planning, career development, and recruitment. While small companies can manage these tasks manually, as the workforce expands, these functions require more sophisticated solutions to ensure streamlined operations.
Business Benefits of HCM Solutions
For HR Administration:
- Improved Efficiency: Streamlining administrative processes saves time and reduces errors.
- Better Compliance and Lower Risk: Automated systems ensure adherence to regulatory requirements and minimize legal risks.
- Reduced Staff Turnover: Efficient management of HR tasks contributes to employee satisfaction and retention.
For Strategic HR:
- Enhanced Employee Engagement: Personalized development plans and performance tracking improve job satisfaction.
- Lower Staff Turnover: By focusing on career development and succession planning, employees feel more valued, reducing turnover.
- Better Training Programs: Data-driven insights help create targeted, more efficient training initiatives.
- Optimized Resource Allocation: Strategic HR helps allocate human resources effectively, ensuring the right people are in the right roles.
- Improved Succession Planning: Clear succession strategies mitigate the risk of leadership gaps and instability.
Specialized Benefits for High Headcount, Low Labour Cost Organizations
For businesses with high employee headcounts and relatively low labor costs—such as those in manufacturing, logistics, and other large-scale operations—HCM solutions can be invaluable in meeting specific objectives, including controlling costs, ensuring labor availability, and minimizing turnover. The business benefits include:
- Cost Control: Detailed attendance tracking and policies help reduce labor costs by ensuring optimal staffing.
- Staff Availability: Scheduling tools ensure that enough staff are available to meet operational needs.
- Compliance: Complex leave management ensures compliance with legal requirements and workforce availability.
- Accurate Pay Calculations: Automated payroll processing reduces errors and ensures timely, accurate pay.
- Audit Trails: Detailed tracking helps prevent fraud and maintain transparency.
- Risk Reduction: Workflow management minimizes the risk of errors and discrepancies in payroll data.
- High-Level Reporting: Comprehensive reporting tools provide valuable insights for corporate decision-making.
The Shift to Software as a Service (SaaS) for HCM Solutions
Traditionally, HR software was purchased with upfront licenses, annual maintenance fees, and hosted on the customer’s premises by their IT team. This model had several disadvantages:
- High Initial Costs: Large upfront investments and long implementation periods led to significant financial strain, with some implementations even being abandoned before completion.
- Hosting Risks: Hosting HR software on customer premises often led to security vulnerabilities, such as ransomware attacks and unstable hosting environments.
- Inconsistent Updates: Without regular software updates, systems became prone to security risks and operational issues, leading to higher support costs.
Over the last decade, the software purchasing model has evolved into a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, which offers numerous advantages:
- Lower Upfront Costs: SaaS eliminates the need for large initial investments, making HR software more accessible.
- No Hosting Issues: With SaaS, software is hosted by the provider, eliminating the need for customers to manage hosting and ensuring greater security and stability.
- Automatic Updates: Regular software updates are automatically installed, reducing the need for manual patching and lowering support costs.
- Scalability and Flexibility: SaaS platforms can easily scale to meet the growing needs of organizations, ensuring that HR systems evolve as the business grows.
The SaaS model is now the preferred approach for HR software, as it combines cost efficiency, security, and ease of use, making it the ideal choice for modern organizations seeking to streamline their HR operations and enhance strategic capabilities.
For organizations looking to improve their HR management, adopting HCM solutions through a SaaS model is an effective way to future-proof HR operations and support the ongoing transformation of the workforce.
Articles 6
Payroll Vendor Management: Is It A Costly Distraction?
For multinational companies, managing payroll vendors across various countries can quickly become a costly and labor-intensive distraction. Financial institutions and other global businesses often face the challenge of annual re-certifications for their payroll suppliers in each country they operate, further complicating vendor management. Payroll vendors must also comply with each country’s specific regulations and requirements, which adds an additional layer of complexity.
Here are some of the key issues often encountered in payroll vendor management:
- Inconsistent SLAs and Escalation Processes: Different payroll vendors often have varying service level agreements (SLAs) and escalation procedures, which can be time-consuming to manage and create unnecessary inconvenience.
- Integration Challenges: Each payroll vendor needs to be integrated into the corporate finance system, and when changes like adding new cost centers occur, these updates must be communicated to and implemented across all third-party vendors, causing delays and change management issues.
- Centralized Payroll Payments: Some financial institutions require payroll payments to be centralized at a single point, which can become a logistical challenge when working with multiple payroll vendors across various regions.
- Costly and Impersonal Service: Larger multinational payroll providers may offer less personalized, more expensive services, making it harder for companies to get the level of support they need.
Although managing payroll across multiple countries can be overwhelming, Primata by Trigatra offers a streamlined solution to these complex issues. Our payroll outsourcing services are designed to simplify and optimize payroll management across multiple countries. With Primata, you can benefit from:
- Payroll Services Across Multiple Countries: We provide comprehensive payroll solutions for all your locations under a single contract.
- Consistent SLAs and Escalation Processes: We offer a unified SLA and clear escalation process across all regions to ensure smooth operations and timely issue resolution.
- Unified HR Platform: Our common HR platform integrates payroll and other HR functions, providing you with seamless and efficient management of your workforce.
- Integration to Finance Systems: We ensure smooth integration with your finance system, reducing complexity and streamlining operations.
- Centralized Payroll Payments: If needed, we can centralize payroll payments across all your locations, providing better control and simplifying financial operations.
- Personalized and Cost-Effective Service: Our approach is to provide a friendly, cost-efficient service tailored to your needs, without sacrificing quality or support.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive, reliable solution to manage payroll across multiple countries, Primata by Trigatra can help simplify your payroll processes and reduce the distractions that come with vendor management.
To learn more about how we can help streamline your payroll management, reach out to us today.