Five Ways To Find the Best HR Software for SMEs in the UK

HR software refers to a digital solution for managing and optimising HR processes. It enables HR professionals and line managers to allocate their time and resources more efficiently, leading to improved performance, productivity and profitability.

At Personio, we have taken all the important HR processes and put it into one tool. We are an all-in-one HR solution that helps to upgrade your people operations for now and into the future. 

An HR software helps SMEs centralise their people data while streamlining all their important processes. Especially in a growing business, these processes can quickly become cumbersome and difficult to manage when you don’t have proper HR software in place. 

Simply put, HR software helps SMEs stay organised. Whether you are a busy CEO or COO, the only HR manager or part of a small HR team that wants to focus on bigger things, HR software is designed to make your – and your business’s – life easier. 

Take absences, for instance. According to the Independent, the average British citizen takes somewhere around 5.6 holidays every year. In an SME of at least 50 people, that is 280 separate holiday requests that need to somehow be managed!  

A smaller business may simply rely on an Excel sheet to track holidays. For their employees, that would make the process look a little like this: 

• Tell their manager they want to go on holiday 

• Pulling up the Excel sheet 

• Filling in all of their details 

• Sending their HR representative a message that they filled the sheet out

• Waiting for a response and approval from their HR representative

• Communicating back to their manager that their holiday has been approved

But, all it takes is one erroneous click, and all of that information is lost to the world. Not only that, but the information is haphazardly stored on one sheet which makes it impossible to report on – is everyone taking their holiday? Who knows! 

A great HR software for SMEs is going to have an absence management feature that works something like this: 

• An employee opens an app on their phone or on their desktop 

• They fill out their details of when they’re gone and the type of leave they want to take 

• Both HR and their manager gets a notification and the ability to approve the request 

• The happy employee goes on holiday 

Not only that, but it creates a much stronger pool of data. No more relying on outdated measures like the Bradford factor. Now, your growing team knows who is in, who is out and can report on long-term trends and make sure everyone’s entitlement is updated automatically. 

When it comes to deciding on the right HR software for your SME, consider these five features that we consider non-negotiable if you’re looking at any solution. 

As mentioned above, absence management is one of the biggest features you need as an SME in the UK. Especially as your team grows, you need to have an easy and effective way to manage entitlements, requests and reporting on absence trends. 

Whether you have 50 or 250 employees, they all trust you to manage their data securely. That means keeping files like contracts, payslips and tax forms neatly packed in a unique digital employee file. Designed to keep all of your data in one place. 

Whether it is who’s in the office, or how long they are working for, time tracking software – as part of any great HR software for SMEs – is table stakes. Especially in a world of increasing legal compliance when it comes to tracking time, SMEs need to be prepared. 

Any SME knows that they need to keep hold of their top performers to succeed. And, studies show that performance conversations matter to your top performers. Performance management software allows you to run automated performance cycles, collect feedback from multiple sources and enable your managers to run more productive conversations. 

Whether your HR team is made up of 1 or 100 professionals, an HR helpdesk is an incredibly important way to centralise and streamline employee requests. In it, your teams can answer employee requests, keep them on file and even automate answers to your most popular questions. It can even reveal gaps where your organisation is missing clear policies. 

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The business case for an HR software solution has many angles. Here are just some of the biggest benefits worth mentioning: 

It can’t be said enough, but the biggest case for finding an HR software for your SME is having one place for all of your information. This is especially important when it comes to data security, or things like payroll and employment contracts. 

Whether you are 50 or 250 employees and growing, an HR software can help scale with your company’s growing needs. One moment, it can house all of your data. Next, it can use that data to generate reports for your board members on headcount and company growth. 

Speaking of scaling, an HR software for SMEs isn’t complete without the ability to source and recruit top talent. One of the biggest benefits is that it can seamlessly automate your recruitment processes, so that your next great candidate doesn’t slip through your fingers. 

Keeping your employees happy matters, for both your culture and your business. An HR software can help simplify all of the key moments in the employee life cycle, making it easier for employees whether they are joining the company or leaving it. 

A shocking statistic for SMEs in the UK: 83% of your employees lose up to eight hours per week on repetitive admin tasks. And, it’s all thanks to cumbersome HR processes found on Excel sheets or randomly buried in emails. HR software is an investment into the future of your organisation – and it immediately gives time back to all of your employees to focus on their best work, and not painful administrative tasks. 

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Making the decision to invest in an HR software is a big one. So, it helps to know what you’re getting – with Personio, you gain access to a host of features that can help take your team’s HR work to the next level. 

Everything from storing employee information, managing your entitlements and absences, tracking time, recruiting employees and onboarding them smoothly. There’s a reason why 8,000+ companies trust us – because it works. 

Consider a company like LUSH, who use Personio to manage the data of their 400+ employees and recruit new team members daily. 

Take action today by speaking with an expert or starting a free trial. We can help you manage your SMEs HR needs with ease – because everything starts with people.