When deciding to invest in a Human Resource Information System (HRIS), it can be difficult to know where to start and what to look for. That is why we have made a step-by-step guide on how your business can evaluate and select the best HRIS software for your specific needs.  

Selecting the right (HRIS) software can be simplified into five key steps: 

1. Assess Your Needs:

Begin by thoroughly assessing your organization’s HR needs. Identify the specific HR processes that the HRIS should streamline, such as payroll, time tracking, benefits management, or recruitment. Determine the critical features your HR department requires to function effectively. 

2. Budget and Resources:

Define your budget and available resources for HRIS implementation. This should include not only the initial costs but also ongoing subscription fees, potential hardware requirements, and any additional staff needed for maintenance and support. 

3. Vendor Evaluation:  

Research HRIS providers to find those that align with your requirements. Consider the following factors: 

• Reputation: Look for vendors with a good reputation for customer service and product reliability. Read reviews and ask for references. 

• Industry Knowledge: Look for vendors that have serviced and have experience with your organization’s industry. Providers experienced in your industry are more likely to understand the workflow and operational nuances that can significantly impact efficiency and productivity.  
• HR Knowledge:  An HRIS provider with HR knowledge is better equipped to create, customize, and support HRIS software that truly meets the needs of HR professionals. This knowledge ensures that the HRIS is not just a technical tool but a valuable asset that enhances HR efficiency, compliance, and overall effectiveness in an organization.
• Compliance: Ensure the software complies with employment laws and regulations relevant to your business, especially if you operate in multiple regions. 
• Data Security: Assess the system’s data security measures and privacy policies to protect sensitive employee information. 
• User-Friendliness: Evaluate the software’s user-friendliness, as it should be accessible and intuitive for HR staff, managers, and employees. 
• Integration Capabilities: Check if the HRIS can integrate with other software systems your organization uses, such as accounting software or recruiting tools. 

4. Testing and Demos: 

Request demonstrations of the software from the shortlisted vendors. This hands-on experience allows your team to evaluate the software’s functionality and ensure it meets your specific needs. 

5. Vendor Selection: 

After careful evaluation and testing, select the HRIS vendor that best suits your needs and aligns with your budget.   

This streamlined five-step process helps businesses quickly and efficiently evaluate and select the best HRIS for their specific needs, while focusing on the most critical factors in the decision-making process. 

If you’ve made it this far, I take it, you are searching for an HRIS! HRWize was made by HR professionals for HR professionals. We pride ourselves on being able to connect with our clients using the expertise of our HR consultants as well as providing a customizable HRIS designed to meet the evolving needs of people practices. Through our advanced reporting and business analytics, you can help your employees thrive and develop your company’s competitive advantage that they truly are.  

Book a demo and speak with our team to see how we can help increase the efficiency of your organization.

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Diversity in the workplace shouldn’t be some publicity stunt to showcase images of how ethnic your team is and plastering them everywhere. That’s tokenism. We need to break these old habits. When it comes to being a well-integrated diverse company, it takes metrics to allow you to make a real change. Data is a powerful tool when it comes to diversity. When optimized correctly, you can create opportunities based on equity with your company for ALL.  

Why do you need metrics?

With metrics, you can identify your exact pain points, where you are lacking, and where you are doing well. Just as you analyze metrics at the end of the fiscal year to review your company’s performance, metrics are visually helpful to know the current state of your company and what DEI measures should be improved.  

An example that depicts what occurs very often is, “In industry after industry, our research shows that 81% to 88% of white men report fair access to career-enhancing assignments. For other groups, that percentage slips as low as 50%.”  Sometimes things can be overlooked for whatever reason and to mitigate this issue, metrics allows you to create equal opportunities for all employees. These metrics can help you monitor whether your employees are getting a fair amount of learning opportunities or if their deviations are based on gender, age or ethnicity. Things you can monitor are employee billable hours, variables in the hiring processes and individual employees’ goal setting.  

Benefits that come from diversity metrics  

1. A well-diversified company: having varied cultures, ethnicities, ableism, ages and genders. 
2. Credible reputation for your company: practicing what you preach by taking rightful actions towards your DEI strategies.  
3. New skills: A diverse talent pool unlocks different skillful team members. 
4. Using money wisely. Without precise metrics, a DEI effort can spend a lot of time and money trying to fix the wrong thing. The more support/training offered by your HRIS for proper execution, the more likely your initiative will be a success. 

Tools you’ll need  

Here’s where HRWize can help you with your DEI initiatives. You can use employee data to build a custom report which can include data from employee surveys, changes in compensation, genders in upper management positions, etc. This will assist you in visualizing the diversity within your company and see where you can be making the correct changes! Lastly, our team of HR consultants are available to help you integrate your strategy at any time, continuing this support even after implementation. 

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Distractions, emergencies, deadlines, these uncontrollable and unavoidable factors we all face daily. These can all get in the way of our long-term goals and our day-to-day tasks. It makes it much more difficult to focus on priorities. For our HR leaders especially, with the past couple of years we’ve had, HR has had to adapt to unpredictable conditions.  

The role of an HR leader is investing in people, cultivating a positive culture and employee experience, and transforming HR to be more automated and digital — all while new employee expectations are impacting retention and attraction.  

Here are some priorities that they are also trying to juggle: 

1. Leader and manager effectiveness:  “24% say their leadership development approach does not prepare leaders for the future of work.” 

As a company grows, so do the expectations and responsibilities of HR leaders. In today’s work environment, HR leaders have a lot more on their plate. They’ve had to adapt and develop skills to be more authentic and empathetic, “human” leaders.  

2. Organizational design and change management: “45% say their employees are fatigued from all the change.” 

Economic uncertainty and hybrid work environments have led to major changes to HR processes. Employees are also growing more resistant to change — in 2016, the Gartner Workforce Change Survey showed 74% of employees were willing to change work behaviors to support organizational changes, but that number dropped to 38% in 2022. 

3. Recruiting: “36% say their sourcing strategies are insufficient for finding the skills they need.” 

Leaders must navigate recruitment by reprioritizing the current business needs and future goals to prepare for the ever-shifting market.  

How to Help 

Maintaining and working towards these priorities is what can be increasingly challenging. With people technology in place, you can reduce operational workload by automating repetitive tasks so that you can focus on your organization’s top priorities.  

With an HRIS like HRWize, we provide you with the tools and support from our certified HR consultants. They facilitate merging your HR needs and strategies with our HRIS’s capabilities so that you get the most out of them. You get to benefit from this support through implementation and beyond.  

We too are HR practitioners. You are not alone, whatever priorities you want to focus on in 2023, our team will assist you in staying on course. Check out our features to learn more about what your HR processes are missing.  

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I usually wake up around 4:30am, go to the gym, get home by 6am and grab a coffee… Just kidding. Though more power to you if that’s what a day in your life looks like! 

I wanted to share with you a little bit of what my job looks like, and what it is about it that keeps me motivated. 

The elevator pitch for my job would be this; leveraging my HR knowledge and experience, crossed with my background in HR technology to help other HR teams streamline their processes and implement HRIS in the most suitable and strategic way possible.

Strategic organisation

Part of my day is spent working on documentation, organising my tasks, and reviewing client notes. Every day the HRWize team assembles on a scrum call to touch base on what is on our plates for the day and to check in with one another.  The most important thing though is to give us an opportunity to ask for- or offer help so that our team is being utilized to its highest potential. We’re always looking for opportunities to learn from each other!

Keeping up with best practices

As HR professionals it’s important for us to be aware of the trends, especially when it comes to employment laws. Most of our team members are part of the CRHA, which is the Quebec equivalent to the CHRP. This means we need to also keep up to date with our training. We bring all that knowledge back to our clients to help them plan their HR processes and make the best HR decisions for their business. 

Meetings

This is a big one for any consultant! For every client in our portfolio, we usually have two weekly meetings – one with the client, and one with our internal project team. The internal meeting helps maintain alignment on project calls and gives us a space to brainstorm on any requirement for clients. The system has A LOT of customisation capability, so sometimes it takes a few brilliant minds to come up with the right strategy to make those customisations work together to fit the needs of our client. Our client meetings are the best part – that’s where we really get to utilize all the knowledge we have from an HR standpoint AND an HRIS standpoint to talk through issues with the HR partners and provide the best solution for their specific needs. 

Solutioning and configuration

Just as we use meetings to brainstorm, we also spend a lot of time working through individual issues on our own. It can take lots of trial and error to perfect the exact configuration that is best for each client. It can also take a good solid white-board session where we map things out, A Beautiful Mind style. Once we have our solution, we start testing. When we’re done testing, we test AGAIN. It’s important for us to take the time to test a strategy from every angle to make sure solving one problem doesn’t cause a different problem. 

Communication

This one may sound weird, but there’s a lot of internal communication at HRWize. We lean on other consultants and our development team to help us through when we hit roadblocks, to double check our work and mostly to brag about the brilliant solution we came up with that day. We also work closely with our sales team, our marketing team, and our support team to ensure a seamless experience for new clients. 

Suffice to say we don’t do all these things every single day, but this is a glimpse at some of the behind the scenes work we do at HRWize and why we love our jobs. 

Contact us today!

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Selecting an HRIS for your business is no small project. It can seem overwhelming with the large number of available options ranging from free downloadable tools to fully customized and integrated systems. While there is no shortage of HRIS solutions on the market, it’s important to know exactly what your business needs before choosing a solution. Outlining your needs can help precisely determine the necessary features for your company’s situation and keep costs in check. This makes the undertaking of selecting an HRIS run smoothly and efficiently. Here are some things to consider when selecting the best HRIS for your business:

1. Why do we need an HRIS?

This is a question you will be asked multiple times as you propose this project, so make sure you have a solid answer prepared. Your business case needs to include a few key pieces of information; the anticipated benefits from implementing the software, the anticipated costs and ROI of the project, the set-up time required before the software is operational and any necessary training for the employees. Having this information ready will help get the stakeholders and management behind your project.

2. What are we trying to achieve?

Take stock of what goals you are trying to achieve with your new HRIS. For example, if your business needs to improve its performance management or recruitment process, note them as a goal. Once your goals are clear and prioritized, use it to derive a list of features that are needed to achieve those goals. A well-organized list of key features will help you quickly weed out software vendors that don’t align with your needs.

3. Who will be using the tool?

Anyone who will be using the HRIS – members of the HR team, managers, and employees – should be consulted early on the process. Getting a well-rounded perspective from all stakeholders helps assess your goals and feature requirements to ensure everyone gets what they need. This step will facilitate easy adoption among employees and ensure that you don’t end up with a software that no one likes or uses. Getting these stakeholders to buy-into the project makes the process of selecting an HRIS less stressful.

4. How does the implementation process work?

Once you’ve narrowed down your list of vendors to say the top 3, the next step is to investigate the implementation process. What is the vendor offering in terms of timeline, resources, and support for each HRIS you’re evaluating? Come to the demos or calls prepared with questions to help narrow your search even further:

• Who are the implementation specialists? Are they dedicated to my project? Their certifications and availabilities?
• What are the process reviews and change management tactics? Will you help us streamline or just copy/paste our current processes into the system? 
• When is the project set to start? Ask about the timeframe for implementation, start to finish, along with availability of resources for questions and ongoing support.
• How is training scheduled? The outlines and timelines. Are they live, in-person sessions or pre-recorded webinars?
• How much? Ensure there are no hidden costs for any of the above-mentioned items. Clarify what type of after-sale support is included in your proposal. The most common complaints about support are those of neglect following implementation. 

Take the time throughout the process to follow the steps above for selecting an HRIS. The choices are wide and varied but only you will know what is best for your team. Narrow your focus and keep your organization’s goals in mind to arrive at the best solution.

Are you preparing for an HRIS project at your organization? Contact us at info@hrwize.com and we’d be happy to help guide you.

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Communication etiquette is evolving with new technology emerging daily for messaging, file sharing, video meetings and more. All these changes caused a learning curve and the need for updated language and communication etiquette. We all need to update our notes on what is appropriate in the virtual workspace whether you are a manager dealing with employees, co-workers, clients, or potential customers. 

There are some basic standards of communication that remain critical no matter what type of environment we are in. 

• Be respectful of others and use appropriate language.
• Speak clearly and slowly to help ensure our message gets across.

Optimizing the language tools at our disposal

Verbal language is our strongest and most basic communication tool, though not always easily mastered. Having effective language skills in the workplace can contribute to the long-term success of a person or organization. On the contrary, poor communication can cause problems and misunderstandings. Speaking slowly, choosing words carefully and sometimes opting to listen instead of speak, are all good communication tactics. We often find ourselves just waiting for our turn, instead of listening and really engaging in the communication that is happening. 

Written language is another important tool in daily business communications. Whether it be emails, instant messages, or company memos, we are reading different communications all day. Clear intention, direction and guidance in a written communication can help reduce time wasted on follow-ups, questions, and clarification, leading to a more focused and productive team. On the flip side, not providing context, using vague terminology, and disregarding the other person’s perspective can all cause major miscommunication. For example, a response like “I don’t care”, could mean, “I’m open to you accomplishing this however you see fit” but could easily be perceived as “I’m giving you this piece work because I truly do not care about the outcome”. 

Body language, our final and arguably one of the strongest communication tools, can communicate intention or context and is very valuable in face-to-face interactions. This includes facial expressions, hand gestures, posture, and even the clothes you wear. All these elements send unspoken messages about mood and intention. Body language, however, is often unavailable when on the phone or conference calls, which makes it even more crucial to leverage these tools in those face-to-face opportunities. 

Communicating on a personal level

Being able to connect with another person is an important part of good communication. One way to do this is by acknowledging them by name and showing sincere interest in what they are saying. Communication is a two-way street of listening and engaging. Secondary only to our name, pronouns are the other way people acknowledge us. Asking for, and correctly using someone’s pronouns is one of the simplest ways to show respect and engagement. Using proper language and pronouns in the business world is critical in making a good impression and presenting yourself as a professional who respects others. Correctly using pronouns helps build an inclusive work environment, and can create strong relationships with colleagues and clients.

There is an important social movement currently happening to normalize the practice of displaying one’s pronouns on social media, email signatures or company directories. The goal is for everyone to participate in this new practice, including cisgender people, to normalize this type of language in the business world. The end goal being to not single out any specific groups based on how they identify which will help mitigate misgendering. 

Taking all these things into consideration can be overwhelming when trying to have a meeting or discussion with coworkers or clients. Taking it one step at a time and being aware of your personal difficulties in communication etiquette, will allow you to be better equipped to address them one by one and become a stronger communicator.

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More of us are working from home than ever before. Between those who are still working from home due to COVID-19 restrictions to those who have made the transition to self-employment, conventional ideas of what a typical “office” looks like have begun to vanish. Along with this shift in the physical office space has come a change in how people work. The typical work-life boundaries that have been in place for decades have now begun to erode. “Leaving” work is no longer a physical act, and as a result, shutting off for the day is becoming much more challenging.

In part, this has led an overwhelming number of people to experience work-from-home burnout. HRWize shares four solutions that you can use to start feeling better.

Create a daily self-care routine. 

Having a consistent self-care routine is essential to thriving. No matter your industry or schedule, everyone needs to take care of their physical and mental health to thwart the effects of burnout. Research has backed this claim many times over, revealing that self-care activities can reduce stress levels, decrease symptoms of anxiety and depression, and even boost your immune system.

If your self-care routine could use a lift — or if you don’t yet have a self-care routine — now is the time to begin practicing wellness-focused actions. Exercise, meditation, yoga, journaling, eating nourishing foods, and the like are all critical in restoring your mental health. If you don’t know where to get started, working with a wellness consultant can be highly beneficial.

Utilize employer-provided mental health benefits.

Those who are full-time employees may have a wealth of unused mental health benefits at their disposal. If you’ve not yet explored what your company provides, now is the time to do so. For example, some employers offer benefits such as paid counseling sessions through their employee assistance programs (EAPs). This can include both in-person and online counseling sessions. Additionally, some organizations support employee mental health through flexible scheduling, providing access to wellbeing coaches, free meditation app subscriptions, and written resources on various mental health conditions.

Take time off. 

One of the best ways to begin healing from burnout is to schedule time off. Although this sometimes isn’t possible, even one extra day off can go a long way in recharging your batteries. If you have unpaid PTO or paid vacation, consider using one or more of those days. Explore the idea of taking as much time off as you are allowed. Whether you choose to stay at home or go somewhere during this time, stepping away from your work routine can be extremely restorative. If you’ve been struggling significantly and need to take several weeks off to recover, taking a leave of absence could also be an option.

Open up to close friends and family.

Vulnerability is crucial for maintaining good mental health. When we open up to others and disclose our struggles, we can enhance our connection with others, decrease our stress levels, and reduce feelings of loneliness. Select (at minimum) one or two trusted individuals in your life, and have a conversation with them about your challenges. More people than you may realize are going through the same struggles with burnout and working from home. By opening up, you may even create a safe space for someone you love to share their own struggles.

Rather than ignoring the symptoms of burnout, it is incredibly important to address your mental health concerns right away. If left unchecked, these struggles may get worse. If you are feeling far more depressed and anxious than you’ve ever felt before, don’t wait to speak with a mental health professional. Seeking support is the most effective way to start feeling like yourself again.

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Evaluating a company requires much more than tallying up production and profit margins. In most organizations, employees have a direct role in how successful a business becomes in achieving its full potential. And the truth is, employees really can make a difference — which is exactly why it’s important not to overlook their contributions in the growth and sustenance of a business.

Whether preparing a valuation for your company, getting ready to review selling a business checklists, or simply looking for more opportunities to connect HR initiatives with employee needs and possible contributions, it’s important to get a full picture of your organization’s biggest asset: its employees.

Take a look at these five ways employees can make your business more valuable.

1. Employees are the backbone of your business.

Businesses rely heavily on their workforce showing up and putting in the effort — for most, this means showing up every single day or for several shifts a week. Most operations can’t run on a single pair of hands alone, which is why it’s important to recognize the dedication of employees to getting the work done each and every day. Teamwork, though sometimes difficult, tense, and uncomfortable, is absolutely essential for mid-size and large organizations to operate. Recognizing that devotion is important so that employees feel appreciated and seen.

2. Employees can make or break your business.

Without the work of employees, not much would get accomplished for most organizations. Thus, employees truly have the power to make or break the business. Training, efficiency, and a feeling that their actions matter can help employees feel motivated to do their best work. On the other hand, employees that slack on tasks, show up late, or perform duties haplessly may end up costing the business big time — a risk that most companies can’t afford to take.

3. Employees can create new opportunities for your business.

Employees have an insider’s view of how the organization operates and the specific challenges faced. Oftentimes, employees can see wonderful opportunities for networking, collaboration, marketing, and improving operations that others simply can’t spot from outside of the organization or from other departments and positions. Taking note of their ideas can help business owners improve their procedures while also making employees feel valued and heard.

4. Employees are the first customers of your business.

There’s a reason why people gravitate towards certain jobs and career opportunities. In most cases, employees are attracted to companies because they appreciate the specific goals, values, or products put forth by the company. When these supporters experience a fulfilling work experience at one of their favorite companies, their devotion and appreciation for the business is usually deepened, and in many cases, they become lifelong customers of the business. This extends the overall reach, reputation, and growth of the business itself — something that shouldn’t be taken lightly!

5. Employees are your business’ #1 advocates.

Likewise, when an employee has a good experience on the job, they usually spread the word to friends and family members. Happy employees can defend a business’ reputation, services, and quality in a much more authentic way than any marketing campaigns ever could. And vice versa, if an employee feels unhappy at work, they can end up spreading negativity about the company in their downtime — even unintentionally — so it’s important to stay connected with the employee experience and understand the pulse of the company.

Employees Can Add Real Value — If You Let Them!

By doing the legwork, supporting business goals, spotting room for improvement, and being a company advocate outside of the office, employees can wield a lot of power and add incredible value to the business. Recognizing employee potential is absolutely essential for a business to gain traction, grow, and succeed in today’s environment.

As an employer, what you can do in return is to look after their best interests and help them grow as a valuable member of your company. A few ways of doing this is by providing them with great training, a great work environment, and giving them excellent employee fringe benefits to name a few.

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Every start of a new year, I take some time to put together a year-in review. Sure, it allows us to highlight HRWize’s accomplishments throughout the past year, but mainly, it’s a moment I take to reflect and introspect on what the last 52 weeks have brought; the good, the bad, and the Covid, of course.

This year, I asked my team to do the same. I wanted to get to know them better while finding the similarities and the differences of how we each experienced pandemic life. Their responses, though not shocking, were beautiful. Gratitude, appreciation, health and wellbeing, internal peace, relationships, connections, those were the topics that invaded the introspection exercise.

Rewind to summer 2020, the HRWize team started talking about what our goals, vision and values were, as we planned out 2021. Covid forced us to conduct some of these conversations outdoors, perhaps with some sangria, and we surely made the best of it. We talked about what mattered to us, how we wanted to conduct business, who we wanted to conduct business with and much more.

It was obvious; ours is a people-centric business (duh… “HR”Wize), but connection… that’s what made us shine. Connections amongst each other, connections with our clients, connections with our partners, connections with prospects; connection is the common thread that set us apart.

So here I am, looking back on what was our best year since inception, from a business viewpoint, and the single thing I am most grateful for is the people I am lucky enough to call my HRWize family, direct and indirect. I believe we have built a nucleus of smart, kind, caring people who, in turn, attract smart, kind, caring people to collaborate with. We are seemingly building a synergistic ecosystem.

We have a pretty neat line of products that bring tremendous value to organizations trying to streamline their growing business’ processes.  But behind that technology and those implementations, lies a group of people who genuinely care about what they are doing, why they are doing it and who they are doing it with and for.

For 2021, our single biggest focus is just that: building out our ecosystem connecting smart, kind and caring people. We will continue to roll out successful implementations of HRWize, EarnWize and our other innovations, while bringing a people-first approach to everything we do. We will bolster and show off our awesome team through our “Get to know” posts so you can get to know the people behind the brand. And we’ll do all that while giving back to organizations that matter to us, and to the people within our ecosystem.

A big thanks goes out to all of our clients who have been there through it all. Your trust in us has allowed us to learn and grow both as an organization and as individuals. We are forever grateful that you propelled us into this new reality we get to call ours.

Join us, connect with us, I assure you… this is the start of something great.

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