A quick HR guide to cloud computing

If you are an HR professional looking to save time, enhance employee engagement, and boost productivity, then cloud computing might be a good investment for you and the company you work for.

Cloud technology has completely changed the way businesses utilise and store data. Whether it is social media or email systems based on the web, majority of us make use of cloud computing every day without giving it much thought.

More and more businesses are looking for effective cloud solutions for the most important aspects of their operations because it’s crucial to enhancing efficiency.
Centralisation of data is one of the biggest advantages of a cloud-based setup. This allows effective organisation and easy access to all kinds of data for a business.

In such cases, departments that tend to be heavy on administration will benefit the most and HR is certainly one of them. When all employee data is in one place, it makes the job of an HR person much more hassle-free.

There is, of course, a lot more to cloud computing for HR. While significantly reduced paperwork is a major benefit, this is not all. HR software based on cloud technology can totally transform the culture of a company.

Centralisation of data

Processes are almost as important in HR as people. Therefore, consistency of approach is important. Big businesses that have operations and activities at different geographical locations may find it challenging to provide a level playing field to all employees. In particular, as an increasing number of companies employ in-house as well as remote employees, establishing company-wide standards is becoming an even bigger ask.

Cloud technology allows HR professionals to create that much-needed level playing field no matter what type of work structure exists at a particular company. Whether you need performance metrics that are applicable to all employees or structured salary and training procedures, a cloud-based HR system will centralise all data so that effective employee management can be carried out.

When you have uniform benchmarks in place, a cohesive and collaborative work culture can be established by making sure that everyone is working within the prescribed structure.

Streamlining recruitment

As one of the core HR functions, recruitment stands to benefit greatly from cloud computing. The time-consuming traditional approach of sourcing, evaluating, and ultimately hiring a new individual can be significantly streamlined. With a single forum facilitating all the different aspects, it becomes easy for HR personnel to go through candidates’ applications and give feedback at their own convenience.

Not only does cloud computing speed up the internal operations of recruitment, but a quick turnaround is experienced by the applicants as well. A slow and inefficient process of recruitment often leaves a poor impression on the candidates who might start to look elsewhere. Therefore, if companies want to hire the best and the brightest, they will need to be quick with their recruitment process and a cloud-based HR system can help them do that.

Enhanced employee engagement

Transparency is often one of the main factors responsible for employee happiness and a cloud-based HR setup can help achieve that. Open communication is what transparency in an organisation is dependent on. However, creating a dialogue between different hierarchical layers is not the easiest thing to do in a large company. Here again, cloud computing can prove helpful especially with regards to feedback.

A good example in this regard is a talent review system that enables managers to easily communicate with and identify individual employees, devise up-to-date training programs, and provide feedback as and when needed. In this way, managers and their subordinates can make optimum use of a platform that enables effective and continuous communication between them and they do not have to keep waiting for periodically scheduled reviews.

A cloud-based HR system ensures transparency and provides motivation for employees while managers can reap the benefits of a much more engaged and productive workforce. Effective employee engagement and proper management are essential for hiring, developing, and keeping hold of the very best talent.

Company goals can be converted into track-able metrics with the help of a cloud HR system. This ultimately fosters a highly collaborative work environment.

If you are an HR professional looking for the next step in your career, register with us. Alternatively, if you are a business looking to hire someone in HR contact us.