A dedicated HR department is not within the reach of every small business as every business can’t afford them. It’s true that not having an HR department saves some money for the business but it also means that small businesses are unable to plan their human resource requirements properly and that may lead to ill will among staff members as various HR functions include sick leave and pay to get haphazard treatment.
If HR management isn’t up to the mark, it may lead to uncooperative staff and limits on production. Thankfully, there are quite a few online human resource tools that can help busy business managers to cope with complex HR needs. Here is a list of the five best HR tools currently available in the market.
1- Jazz HR Software
This software integrates with the email system and automates the hiring process. It allows you to directly post job vacancies on many well-known job websites but that’s not all. It also parses the resumes sent in Word or PDF format. You may also post vacancies on various social media platforms using this tool. You also have the option of creating your own jobs web pages that are hosted by Jazz for you.
This online system also includes a workflow setup that gives you a schedule for completing the necessary steps required in the hiring process. As far as the cost of this software is concerned, its cost may be justified only if you operate an employment agency or you have a fast turnover of staff. It is sold only on a monthly subscription basis which means you may not have any use for the unlimited capacity offered by this HR tool, especially if you’re a small business and you want a tool for hiring one or two people throughout the year.
In case you hire staff on a regular basis, there are onboarding as well as training modules that can be added to the basic tool for an additional fee.
2- Zenefits
This software is designed to cover the operational aspects of the HR department. It helps you with compensation payments, disability, insurance, tax management, calculation of payroll as well as keeping employee records. The system also logs employee attendance and records timesheets. The payments made to employees may include various benefits including stock options.
This software allows you to produce a wide range of reports on the basis of all the operational data fed into the system. These reports may be used for filing taxes as well as correctly analyzing resource utilization. In simple terms, it is an extremely comprehensive HR tool but it has been specifically designed for compliance with US taxation and employment laws which means Australian, British, and Canadian businesses won’t benefit from this software.
3- Upwork
Small businesses need to be flexible. Online companies usually have very short-term requirements for content creators and programmers which mean they cannot justify hiring employees on a long-term basis. Instead of paying top dollars for an expert consultant, you should utilize Upwork for sourcing specialist skills from freelancers. Many skilled workers who offer their services on this online portal often live in remote locations and like telecommuting.
One of the biggest advantages of using this method of employment is that you don’t need to arrange for extra office space or office equipment for short-term work. Also, you do not need to worry about any overhead cost of hiring the services of a specialist, either. Keep in mind that this tool is much more than a mere job board. It allows you to track work hours as well as goals and it also allows you to make payments to the freelancers. This platform charges 10% of the fees to freelancers and employers like you are not required to pay anything for the service.
4- Staff Squared
As mentioned above, Zenefits has been designed specifically to comply with the US taxation and employment laws. This system is similar to Zenefits in terms of features except it does not cover payroll. This makes it suitable for use by businesses all over the world as there are no restrictions. Since this is a cloud-based system, you are covered in case the system crashes. The cloud-based tool also means that your data records are stored remotely and you can get access to all the HR files from anywhere, even when you are working from home or are sitting halfway around the world.
This system comes with an employee interface that mediates various requests such as shift change requests as well as vacation requests. The system directs these requests to the appropriate managers on e-mail for approval. It comes with a monthly subscription and costs US$4.5 each month for each user. Since all the employees in a business are required to access the system for various functions such as time-off requests, every single employee is counted as a user. In case your business has a lot of staff members, it could quickly get pricey for you. However, you can check out the features of this tool for 14 days without paying anything.
5- Jobatar
If your business keeps you extremely busy, you may not be able to find time for interviewing job applicants for a particular vacancy. This tool offers a solution for this problem as it’s an interviewing scheme. With the help of this tool, you may record questions to be asked to the interviewees and send them invites to access these questions and record their answers through this tool.
The responses given by the interviewees are recorded with the help of a webcam on their laptop or PC and you can view the responses of each interviewee, whenever you are able to find the time. Since you can access this system from your smartphone as well as a tablet, you are not required to be in your office to go over the interviews. Therefore, this tool is the right choice for you in case you are always on the move.
6- Neocase
One of the most time-consuming parts of any business is communication and ensuring that communication is understood. This is where Neocase comes into play.
Neocase is a software CRM that reduces calls, webmail, fax, and mail volumes and allows all queries and issues to be dealt with on a faster basis. It allows businesses to analyze and monitor employee satisfaction rates and also boost their business workflow, to ensure a cleaner and faster business. All of this comes together to create a far better way of dealing with internal and external communication and better use of human resources overall.
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