Employee Engagement Software and These Effective Tips Can Boost Your Employee Performance

In today’s world, it has become more important than ever for companies to take care of their people and find ways to keep them motivated and committed.

Motivated employees bring in increased productivity by acquiring higher levels of output. But, there are times when employees feel demoralized and of less significance to the company due to a lack of motivation and engagement in the workplace. This acts as the biggest contributor to emotional distress that results in several psychological disorders.

According to a recent survey, nearly 42.5 percent of employees in private sectors suffered from general anxiety disorder or depression during the lockdown.

Now, to promote psychological health through employee happiness and efficiency, the role of human resources is vital. HRs have the responsibility to pay attention to employees and help them improve self-confidence, happiness, and morale which are some of the essential characteristics to meet the internal demands of any company. But, it is not an easy task to have a track on every employee. Fortunately, we have technologies like employee engagement software to simplify this process. Such systems are particularly designed to assist HRs to increase engagement in the workplace.

That said, in this blog, we will tell you 4 effective strategies to improve employee performance and how employee engagement systems are helpful.

Pleasant Working Environment

Employee well-being stems from positive and pleasant working conditions. That being said, every company must offer a comfortable, clean, and if possible, customized workspace to its employees. Besides, flexible working hours or work from home opportunities (if compatible with the work activities) should also be offered. Both ways, firms can easily increase employee motivation levels and lower their work-related stress.

Identify Positive Attitudes

HR executives must value employees who have proactive attitudes. Since the global pandemic, COVID-19 introduced more dynamism and flexibility to work, this professional stance is presently in demand. In addition to this, giving work-related compliments and positive feedback can go a long way in showing employees that positive attitudes never go unnoticed.

Try New Techniques

We all know that innovation is a result of creativity. Taking this into consideration, HR professionals should always try different techniques that promote employee engagement. Say, for example, The “Hackamonth” program implemented by Facebook in the year 2011 allowed its employees to work with a different team and project for a month. With the help of this approach, not just integration between different teams was stimulated but also the employees were able to develop new experiences and perspectives from their peers. Likewise, companies must come up with some interesting ideas that can help their employees to relax that in turn will help them to put their best foot forward.

Promote Robust Communication

HR professionals must always be open to talks and discussions with employees. HRs should build a healthy relationship with them so that no employee will think twice before reaching out for any issue. Anxieties, depression, and possible problems need to be heard and properly addressed to avoid negative impacts on the organization, especially in this testing time.

How Can Employee Engagement Systems Help?

Of late, more than 450 companies in India were able to increase engagement at least by 3x using employee engagement software. Such systems come with a set of exceptional features that make things easier for HRs. Some of the features are as follows:

• Moodbot
• Badges
• Rewards
• Video/photo/text announcements
• Automated Pulse Surveys
• And many more…

The aforementioned features help HRs in keeping the employees engaged even when they are occupied with other operations. Besides, employee engagement systems allow employees to seek feedback, ask questions, report problems, or purpose new ideas in just a few clicks. This will lead to a psychologically healthy and safe workplace that will, undoubtedly, promote emotional well-being among every employee.

Also Read: Let’s Develop Employees Instead of Measuring Their Performance

So, we have come to the end of this blog.

Hope we helped you to understand the right ways to improve employee performance in your organization.

Let’s Develop Employees Instead of Measuring Their Performance

Let’s face it, the time of Performance Appraisal is an anxious time in a company. Employees look forward to this time with utmost excitement and hope. It is the time to look at what worked and what didn’t work so well or a time to collectively look ahead.

That said, HRs and managers have a huge responsibility here. They should be mindful of what they are evaluating- the performance or the individual? Truth be told, the majority of the businesses in India focus on performance instead of the person. But, things need to change. Going forth, performance management should be about the person, not the performance.

While performance management should be done continuously rather than annually, the annual appraisal should be done to build and develop every employee.

In this blog, we will tell you how companies can develop their employees instead of measuring performance. Before getting started, let’s know the difference between performance appraisal and performance management.

Performance Management Vs Performance Appraisal

While performance management and performance appraisal meaning are clear to many, there are people who still get confused when they hear these terms.

The process of understanding, evaluating, handling, and upskilling the performance of the human resources is known as performance management.

Performance appraisal is how a company measures the progress being made by an employee. This process is done on a regular basis over time

Top 3 Ways To Develop Employees

Learning & Development Strategy

Every employee has potential far beyond their short-term performance. That being said, it is the duty of every business leader to erase that gap. For this, they should design a learning and development plan that can be used all year long. Also, since digitization has tremendously grown, companies should make it a key part of this process.

Job Promotions & Rotation

Business leaders should pay attention to every employee’s abilities, skills, strengths, and weaknesses. This way they can put employees in positions that suit them better to their individual capabilities towards success. This is an efficient way not just to reward high-performing employees but also to show the right path to underperforming employees. Job rotation is also acutely beneficial for companies as it allows employees to get familiar with the different verticals of their company and broaden their skill sets, things that are especially critical in times of crisis.

Succession Planning

Remember, only leaders create leaders. The global pandemic was a real test of leadership- better than any simulation could have created. Companies should consider those employees who showed resilience, team spirit, and rationality in their work even in times of adversity and tag them as potential successors for C-suite roles. The challenges faced in 2020 should also make businesses realize the importance of timely succession planning and what a strong leader at the helm can achieve.

Also Read: 5 Key Rules Of Performance Management For A Diverse Workforce

So, these are the top three ways every company, be it small or large, can develop their employees. It is high time for us to reframe the appraisal meaning. Business leaders should start trusting employees’ potential to make a positive impact.

Why All Eyes Are on HRMS Software In 2021?

Due to the pandemic, not just the workplaces and our daily lives were shaken but also HR leaders took their rightful strategic place at the front of the organization to lead the way. Truth be told, 2020 was the year of human resources. HR managers were the ones who guided companies through work from home plans, communicated next steps, and checked in on employees to prevent burnout. They even helped business leaders through a difficult year, but their work is far from over.

As we entered into a new year, the recovery plans are top of mind for every organization as businesses head further into 2021 and see a faint light at the end of the tunnel. Employee relations teams have a number of challenges ahead as they monitor workplace changes, respond to COVID-19 and implement long-term plans. The challenges and opportunities brought to the table in 2020 will need continued attention to keep the momentum moving forward. In such a case, technology is playing a huge role lately. As the title says, all eyes are on automated HRMS software to lead the recovery, maintain employee experience and protect employees’ mental and physical health in 2021.

In this blog, we will tell you the top five ways HRMS is supporting businesses to reshape human resources management that in turn is leading to recovery.

Saves Time For HRs

As per a recent survey, while HR executives with years of experience spend on average 8 percent of their time on admin operations, others spend up to 30 percent. Now, this is mainly due to outdated and manual tools. Talking about HRMS, they are fully-automated systems that need little to no human intervention to carry out routine processes. Such systems allow HR managers to complete tedious and time-consuming operations in just a few clicks.

Streamlines Recruitment

This is a time when companies require the best talents who can help them to power through the post-pandemic time as soon as possible. At the same time, we cannot overlook the fact that recruitment is one of the most labor-intensive human resources tasks; however, not anymore. HRMS software simplifies the hiring process as well. From posting jobs to scheduling interviews, such systems assist HR managers to complete the whole recruitment process easily and efficiently.

Simplifies Employee Management

Employees are the backbone of every company. Without their contribution, recovery can never be possible. Considering the same, it is the duty of companies to keep them happy, give them attention and address their problems. Now, the good news is that HR management comes with Employee Self-Service or ESS feature. The ESS feature aids employees to do several things, from updating their personal data to downloading their salary slips, without having to disturb HR managers.

Offers Data Storage & Safety

Managing and storing important data of a business is yet another difficult duty of HR professionals. Storing sensitive data such as employees’ bank details in files and folders is always vulnerable to risks including theft, misplacement, and more. This is why HR management systems are the best replacement for manual data-keeping methods. Such systems store data in the cloud that can be protected using a password that ensures 100% confidentiality in the long run.

Improves Compliance

Legal requirements keep changing every now and then. Be it tax slabs or new amendments, companies are expected to keep track of every law and regulation; however, HR managers often fail to do the same. On the contrary, HRMS helps companies to easily avoid non-compliance issues along the way. The software sends alerts to HR managers and promptly informs them of the latest compliance requirement.

These are five ways HRMS software simplifies human resources management and helps companies to recover from the post-pandemic crisis.

Also Read: HROne - Who We Are And What We Do

Now that you have several reasons to implement HRMS, take a step ahead and invest in one of the best HR management software at the earliest.

Unified solution for human resource management: HR and Payroll Software

Human resource management teams tend to opt for HR and Payroll software to ensure an automated functioning of the HRM. As it has been witnessed that organizations opting for HR  Payroll software have an insending curve for performance and profitability.

Let’s dig a little deeper and understand the unified functioning of HR and Payroll software:

Enhanced employee experience

Human resource management team aims to monitor the employee life cycle and ensure that each of them is taken care while working in the organization. Web based applications such as HR software are designed in a way that automates several tasks decreasing the workload of the human resource team. It empowers the human resource team with dashboards that categorically stores the data for each employee. It monitors the employee’s life cycle by notifying him/her about the superiors, tasks assigned in accordance with the key area of responsibilities. The data stored on a centralized platform assists the admin team in monitoring responsibilities such as keeping a track on employees’ probation, annual reviews, appraisals and promotions.

Recruitment and onboarding

Recruiting employees is a demanding job. It indicates assigning responsibilities that directly affects the organization. Coronavirus raised the challenges for the HRs as it accompanied a sudden transition to functioning from remote locations. HR software has served as an umbrella in difficult times. It pre-screens the application in accordance with the qualifications required for the available positions. With HR software it became easier to schedule virtual interviews and scale out the compatible candidates for the vacancy.

Once the candidate is selected he/she can log in to the portal with the assistance of credentials provided by the IT team. It permits them to upload the required documents that confirm the qualifications of the candidate selected for the available position. It permits the newly hired employee to acknowledge the policies of the organization.

Payroll processing

Salary is an important part for any employee. To determine the amount that the employee is to receive at the end of each month for the services rendered. Payroll team is responsible for crediting the salary in each employee's account. This indicates the importance of the payroll team. Payroll management team takes care of the salary, benefits, incentives and allowances that are provided by the organization. With the assistance of data provided by the HR team. The number of days the employee has worked, earned leaves that the employee has encashed and compensation that needs to be paid. These functions require an attentive eye decreasing the probability of error. unified solution for these functions which automatically generates the data leaving less room for error.

Also Read: Benefits on Using of Payroll Software in a Small Business?

A unified solution for these functions smoothens the process for the human resource management team. A centralized for these activities on one platform providing a customary benefit to restrict the uses and grant access for the adim to ensure security of the data stored. Hence proving a wise decision to opt for a unified software solution.

5 FAQs About Gratuity With Apt Answers

Of the many company benefits that working professionals are given as they work with an organization, a widely known one is Gratuity. As a part of The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, employers are liable to pay their parting employees a due amount if they have completed 5 years of service. This monetary reward is given to acknowledge the long-term work commitment and extraordinary efforts of the employees in achieving business goals.

To easily release the amount as the time of relieving an employee, a gratuity calculator is used which runs by the formula:

Gratuity = 15/26 * (n) * (b)

Wherein,

15 = Wages for 15 days

26 = Average no. of days in a month

n = No. of years of service completed

b = Last drawn basic salary of the employee

Let’s throw some light on the 7 biggest questions that a layman could ask revolving around the topic of gratuity and its terms & conditions:

1.  If an employer is not paying gratuity amount to an employee or terminating employee services for non-payment of gratuity, what is the appropriate procedure to deal with the same?

Firstly,the employee should send a letter to the employer through a registered post requesting the same. If the employee doesn’t hear back from the employer, he/she can send a second mail and give reference to the first letter while asking for a prompt reply, mentioning the consequences. The employee must keep a copy of correspondence with the employer. If there is still no response from the employer’s end, the last option is to approach labour court or any competent authority to file a case.

2.  If an employee has left the organization before completing 5 years of service, can he/she take the gratuity amount if it is mentioned in the CTC?

An employee is only eligible to enjoy gratuity benefits if he/she has completed a total of 5 years of uninterrupted service with a single organization. So, in this case, the employer doesn’t owe the gratuity amount to the employees since they haven’t completed 5 years, whetheror not it is mentioned in the CTC.

3.  If the date of joining is 1st January 2011 and the date of relieving after completing the notice period is 2nd January 2016 (over 5 years), but the date of resignation is 20th August 2016 (less than 5 years). Is the employee eligible for getting the gratuity amount?

While calculating the span for deciding gratuity applicability, the joining date and the relieving date are taken into account. So, here, the employee is eligible for getting the gratuity amount since he/she is serving the notice period (which is inclusive of the tenure) and by the time of relieving, he/she will have cleared the eligibility criteria, i.e. completed 5 years. 

4.  Can an employee claim the gratuity amount without leaving the organization if he/she has completed a span of 5 years?

No. An employee can only claim the gratuity amount once he/she has given written notice of resignation and has left the organization completely without any pending deliverables, completing the exit formalities, and after clearing all the dues.

5.  How much time does it take for an employee to receive the gratuity amount (time taken to deposit amount) after he/she has left the organization?

It takes approximately 30 days, i.e., a month’s time to complete the process of gratuity amount transfer/deposit into the employee’s account after the date of relieving.

That’s all folks! Gratuity is an important employee benefit and everyone must be aware of the rules and regulations that are implied for fair and successful gratuity claims.