Many companies looking to implement HR software are considering SaaS options.

The future of HR software lies in SaaS, or Software as a Service, which requires the software to be maintained by the provider and frees up resources companies can use to focus on other projects.

According to a survey from Saugatuck Technologies and Plateau Systems, HR departments view SaaS as a way to stay on top of recruiting and other company goals, but also want their CIOs to make sure support comes with the package.

"It is clear from this research that HR is broadly adopting SaaS solutions to help them meet their business objectives," Jeff Kristick, senior vice president of marketing at Plateau, said. "It is equally clear that not all SaaS solutions and vendors are created equal.

"We partnered with Saugatuck Technology to explore these issues, and found that not only is HR headed to the cloud, but also that, importantly, HR executives identify 'Service' – a component they find to be lacking in many SaaS HR solutions – as the most important consideration when evaluating SaaS solutions," he added.

According to the survey, respondents believe the biggest business challenges during the next two years will be: organizational change and transformation; addressing the skills gap; reducing overall labor costs; and leveraging technology to improve business performance.

In addition, many HR executives believe their current systems are falling short of helping them meet those goals. Many respondents plan to use cloud-based solutions, including SaaS, to help bridge the effectiveness gaps.

The survey further found:

• 40 percent of HR executives plan to implement SaaS for core needs between now and end of 2011.
• 32 percent of HR executives expect SaaS to simplify software management.
• 40 percent of HR executives expect SaaS to reduce costs.
• Nearly 50 percent of HR executives cite security and privacy concerns as potential drawbacks of SaaS.
• 39 percent of HR pros say support is a top consideration in hiring an SaaS provider.
• 33 percent cite implementation costs as a driving factor.
• Core areas for SaaS include time and labor management, as well as HR administration.
• Other priorities for SaaS include benefits administration and talent and performance management.

Labels: HR Software

Earlier this month, Human Resource Executive magazine recognized the winners of its 20th Annual Top HR and Top Training Products of the Year awards at a luncheon held during the Technology Conference & Exposition at McCormick Place in Chicago. A variety of HR software, applicant tracking systems and recruiting software providers were awarded the honor of being able to call themselves the best in the businesses.

"For 20 years, Human Resource Executive(R) magazine has recognized excellence and innovation in the HR vendor community with its Top 10 HR and Top Training products awards," said David Shadovitz, who is the editor-in-chief and co- publisher of Human Resource Executive(R) and also the co-chair of the conference. "This year's contest attracted a much wider array of solutions that seem to be mastering software integration and the use of Web 2.0 technology. We're happy to once again be able to recognize the industry's most innovative developers and their products that are delivering on their promises and making HR's job easier during the 11th Anniversary HR Technology Conference & Exposition(R)."

The top three choices for HR software, applicant tracking systems, recruiting software and training products will be featured in the HRE’s October issue and are as follows:

• Salary.com’s TalentManager Succession Planning, which allows users to search for candidates using a variety of information including competencies, performance, readiness, potential and promotability. Through this recruiting program, workers have their own employee profile. This allows HR manages to compare workers through position requirements or performance reviews.
  
• Development Dimensions International Inc., Success Profiles: This program is designed to automate analysis of jobs and competency management through a combination of customization, automation and integration with other talent-management providers. Through this, HR managers can filter competency data by industry, job level and job function. Reports are then made available instantly.
  
• EQuest’s Prophesy3: This program is an end-to-end tracking system which includes analytics. It offers assistance from posting jobs all the way through the hiring process, aiding applicant tracking in a variety of different ways.

Other’s to be included in the top 10 of esteemed HR software and product providers included: Avature USA’s Recruiting CRM, HighRoads Inc,’s The Lab, JWT INSIDE Track, Keneza SimSJT, HumanConcepts’ OrgPlus Enterprise Blueprint, LinkedIn Corporate Solutions’ LinkedIn Recruiter and HireRight, Inc.’s HireRight Enterprise.

The top training products of the year were FraklinCovey and Ninth House’s The 7 Habits for Highly Effective People (Interactive Edition), Talent Keepers Inc.’s Onboard Connection and ELT Inc.’s Wage & Hour.

Labels: HR Software

The days of large corporations being the only ones able to afford HR software are over.

While the software has long been popular with large, wealthy corporations, most of it is now affordable enough to help smaller businesses looking to save time and money. Most HR software is able to automate the work of a human resources department by keeping track of whether employees have met their goals and calculating the amount of compensation they deserve.

HR software is performance-based software that matches employee goals with business priorities, such as increased sales and better customer service.

According to a CNNMoney article by Cindy Waxer, the idea of being managed by software may make some employees wary, but paper-based performance appraisals are usually just as uncomfortable.

The article cites the case of Erin O'Leary-Rallis, CEO of Nittany Embroidery & Screenprinting, a small design company in State College, Pa. O'Leary-Rallis, like many CEOs, is not a human resources professional and prefers to focus on her business.

"I wasn't really prepared for employee evaluations, and I didn't have a hard-and-fast way of performing them," she said in the article.

O'Leary-Rallis would usually only conduct an employee evaluation when an employee asked for one, which some thought gave greedy workers the upper hand. So instead of hiring a human resources manager, O'Leary-Rallis decided to invest in HR software.

The company's use of HR software was initially met with some backlash from employees who thought setting up the software was too time consuming with data entry, reviewing peers, setting goals and tracking achievements.

At the same time, however, the software helped the company identify one lethargic employee, who was then let go, saving the company $25,000 per year. Another top performing employee also was recognized with the software, and was rewarded with a $3,000 per year raise and $2,000 bonus.

Overall, O'Leary-Rallis is able to save about $10,000 per year by using HR software. The technology also has helped her cut job coaching by about 30 percent.

"Such savings may not impress the average employee," the article adds. "But back at Nittany, at least, all workers are now onboard with the new system. Even the dissenting employee decided that her work would be more fairly compensated with the help of software rather than by human managers alone. Score one for the machines."

Labels: HR Software

Recently there has been an increase interest among HR software companies in tapping into the smaller business market. These companies have some of the same needs as their larger counterparts, but usually have a much smaller budget. On top of this, there are many features that these employers simply do not need that big business can not operate without. For the most part, the focus of HR software providers, when dealing with smaller businesses, is on efficiency and affordability.

In hopes of providing both of these qualities, EffortlessHR.com has created new a user friendly time tracking program and employee portal that are now standard features of the company’s HR software. The program keeps track of the time employees clock in and out in other to help with payroll and other financial reports. To make this system more easy-to-use, EffortlessHR.com has made it so that the information can be easily downloaded to a compatible standard spreadsheet format.

The employee portal allows managers to communicate company news and time sensitive information to all of those effect. Employers can access the employee portal on EffortlessHR.com’s web site, which allows them access to time sheets, employee information and benefits, performance reviews, and a variety of other management tools.

Through this system employees are able to update their personal and benefits information and keep track of company property assigned to them. Each individual is given a username and password in order to protect privacy right. At the same time the program allows employers confidential online storage that complies with both state and federal regulations.

EffortlessHR’s Executive Vice President Darrell Griffiths believes small business owners will benefits from the new additions to his company’s software. “We wanted to offer an affordable, easy-to-use solution to employee time tracking needs. The system we chose can be customized to meet individual company preferences and provides added value to our small business clients,” said Griffiths.

Overall, EffortlessHR.com offers more than 100 HR forms and documents along with labor law compliance posters, current information on state and federal employment laws and guides for personnel issues. These are all available on the program

Labels: HR Software