In small companies, what are called performance reviews are usually done ad-hoc, occasionally, for only people with performance issues, and sometimes, not at all. But performance reviews are only one of the tools that can be integrated into a people management app. There are of course tools for recruitment, attendance, vacation management, engagement surveys, compensation and rewards tools, recognition, employee records keeping, and many more. Having an app to manage everything related to your team, even in a small company, has become very important. This article will go through the tools in the order in which an employee will come to join then work with the team, starting with hiring.

Recruitment

Before an employee start working in a company, he of course needs to be hired. There are several ways of recruiting potential employees, two of which are referrals from current employees, and the classic job posting approach. Another way is to hire a third-party company which will source candidates for you, but this method will not be discussed herein.

To make referring other employees attractive, incentives need to be provided. Typical incentives are usually financial, but can be anything else like a day off or any other perk. Some apps have this embedded. And although not critical when choosing an app, can make life a little bit easier.

A very important aspect is for companies the have ability to create and diffuse job postings, and allow candidates to easily apply on a portal. Many large companies use internally made portals for this, as well as using posting websites such as Indeed and Workopolis. Again, not a critical aspect, but if recruiting is embedded in an app, it makes the whole process easier.

Compensation

When choosing how an employee will be paid, several elements have to be considered. Firstly, direct compensation (or the employee’s salary) will be chosen. To do this right, having an industry benchmark is paramount. Without such a benchmark, the worker’s salary will either be too high or too low, creating issues either for the company or the employee. Direct compensation also includes elements such as bonuses, commissions, and sometimes company stock.

Indirect compensation, sometimes called benefits or non-monetary compensation, are given to employees additionally to monetary compensation. Such benefits usually include health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off and additional vacations. Companies sometimes choose to also add discretionary perks such as paid training and courses, memberships, free lunches, and even in-office gym workouts. An app can make sense of balancing monetary and non-monetary to ensure everyone is compensated fairly.

Onboarding and Training

When an employee is hired, in other words signs a work contract, onboarding can begin. By onboarding, we do not mean training the employee on job-specific tasks. We mean giving the employee all the necessary resources and support to seamlessly integrate the company and the team. Elements provided during onboard should include fully functional equipment, a complete set of accesses to all company and job-specific tools, who are team members (including introductions), what the organizational chart looks like, high-level company objectives, short- and medium-term performance expectations, and where the toilets are. Of course, an app can help track all those elements.

Once all onboarding elements have been provided, training can begin. Training is usually comprised of position-specific elements and dwell into the usage of software and hardware tools, processes, templates, checklists, and others. An app which contains a knowledge database (discussed later) enables employees to not only have direct access to references, but allows leaders to give training from the latest available material.

Attendance

Already discussed in what is needed to manage operations correctly, an attendance app is very important in any company. It allows to track employees time off, sick days, vacations, and when combined with timesheets, can also allow to track banked time and overtime. Most companies already have attendance tracking tools, but when integrated with other apps, truly brings out the power of its function.

Performance

Despised by a lot of company owners and managers, and even by a lot of employees, performance reviews are necessary and even positive for any company. They should be held at least twice a year, but can also happen ad-hoc, so long as objectives are clear and conversation results tracked. With performance reviews, compensation is made more fair, employees know what is expected of them, they know what they need to do for promotions, and feedback can flow both ways, improving both the abilities of the leader and the employes. Once again, a software app can help keep track of reviews for all employees, making the whole process easy and seamless.

Engagement

Last but not least, knowing how employees’ engagement towards the company and its goals allows the leadership team to create and adapt an employee engagement and happiness strategy. Employees stay when they are compensated well and when what they are looking for in a job is satisfied. Despite differences, some things tend to be recurring in what employees look for. The highest is of course compensation, but some other include having great challenges, a great team and a great direct leader, having a clear visibility on company strategies, goals and objectives, having recognition, and regular communication. An engagement survey can help provide visibility on what exactly employees are looking for within your company, and will therefore help with retention.

Takeaway

To some, there is a surprising number of elements to consider for people management tools (sometimes called HR tools). Recruitment, compensation, onboarding, training, attendance, performance, and engagement are most of the important ones. An app which allows management of those elements will most have positive results on employee happiness and engagement, as well as company culture. Contact Mondro to understand which apps suit best the people management needs of your company!