SMB HR: Which HR software is the right fit?

In the words of Personio customer LOW6, Deanna Jennings, "It just makes it so much easier to manage everything from absence management to onboarding to recruitment, everything like that is all so easily done… Personio has just changed how I work on a day-to-day basis." Those words ring true whenever the conversation around SMBs and HR begins.

The fact is that SMB HR is not simply buying a new tool. It’s about investing in a system that reduces costs, improves flexibility, all while adding a foundation of security and clean data to the entire mix.

Especially for companies who value scalability, this is key. Let’s explain a bit more.

Initially, many SMBs often view an HR system as just another cost or a large investment that won’t offer the right return on investment. But, the time it takes to simply keep admin afloat across a handful of employees, is time that could be better spent focusing on your people.

An SMB’s HR tech stack needs to rely on a comprehensive and holistic overview. It needs to reduce time spent on admin, so that both HR employees and employees across the organisation can focus on their work, and helping businesses reach their goals.

Before we dive into the strategic implications of SMB and HR systems, though, let’s talk about some of the key functional benefits of implementing an HR software in your business today…

One of the most critical assets your organisation has is the data of your employees. If you don’t keep it safe and secure, you are risking huge amounts of liability for your entire company. Especially when it comes to GDPR and data protection laws, compliance is certainly key.

A well-equipped HR system will include a place for all of your employee information, ideally organised into digital employee files that can be searched through and filtered in an instant. These files serve the same function as files in a traditional office — locked up and easy to access.

In Personio, for instance, all your employee data is housed in one centralised place. Employees can even offer data changes through employee self-service to keep accuracy high, with important dates at a glance (e.g., birthdays, anniversaries, and more) so your team maintains a strong culture.

One of the key things that SMB HR team’s feel like they don’t have enough of is data. Especially when HR deserves a seat at the table of executive management, bringing relevant people data to the fore is of the utmost importance. It can help colour and add context to just about any conversation.

So, for SMBs, having access to this data is paramount. Things like headcount, absence rates, salary progression, or attendance tracking, can all help a business understand what it is getting out of its people — with easy-to-digest reports to match.

Especially when it comes to those running the business, these insights can help power so much strategic decision-making, but the responsibility rests in HR to have that data ready. And, for that, they need a system that can compile the data in moments.

In the life of an SMB, and an HR department, there are a million tasks that often feel like they’re happening all at the same time: probation periods wrapping up, performance reviews coming along, or a contract that’s about to be signed for a key hire. There’s a lot going on!

A proper system takes all the HR tasks that would normally be scattered across emails, on post-it notes, or trapped in the air of conversation, and puts them in one place. Moreover, the right system can keep track of all your people-related workflows, where they stand, and where bottlenecks are occurring.

Especially for a team in a fast-paced environment like a growing SMB, having an overview of tasks with proactive reminders for key stakeholders can make or break a business’s productivity.

Did you know that the average HR team uses around 40+ applications to do their daily work?

That’s a lot of coordination and a lot of connecting that needs to be done across tools and teams. It’s best if your HR software can keep up by keeping everything connected.

An HR system that can be integrated with other leading tools, otherwise known as a best-of-breed strategy, is especially impactful for SMBs who want to keep a level of flexibility in their tech stack.

So, you need an HR system that can connect to the applications you use or the applications you might use in the future, to help your teams remain productive where they work best.

Why 10,000+ Businesses Trust Personio

Just like LUSH and Premier Inn, trust Personio's all-in-one HRIS to upgrade your people operations for now and into the future. Click below to learn more about us.

Book Your Demo

The most important thing that your HR system should be able to do is to save your team time. This time opens up room for more strategic projects, think diversity and inclusion initiatives, developing a people strategy, thinking about new ways to measure performance, and more to help businesses grow.

Especially with leaner teams and often one employee managing all of HR, their efforts could be so much better utilised by incorporating an HR system that gives back valuable time to focus on more strategic and value-adding topics.

An HR system can afford your SMB the opportunity to not only streamline processes but to take the time to make the core of those processes more impactful for employees. Especially in an age of focusing on employee experience and development, this kind of time is invaluable.

As an SMB, investing in an HR software is definitely going to be a big step. So, how do you know it’s the right decision and how do you make the right choice? Here are the key considerations we’d recommend.

First, you should have a clear mind for the top three things you want out of your system. Do you want to house employee information? Stay legally compliant? Manage absences? Recruit top talent? Identify the things you want the most, and seek out the best match.

Second, make sure that your HR system is a support system and not a chore to maintain. You don’t want your team spending hours simply managing it, you want your software to work for you and in the best interest of your business. It should allow your HR to function at its best, not stress their time further.

Lastly, you also want to make sure any system you use is user friendly. Especially for employees, and with a self-service element, you want to make sure that your entire company becomes your HR system’s top advocate, and that they use it so your people data is always clean and reliable.

Do you want to enable your people, as well as your HR function, to do its best work? It may be time to think about an HR system that not only makes the grade but enables your HR to go beyond HR. To learn more about the key benefits of Personio as an HR software, please click the button below.