Day by day, the improvement in technology as well as the changing attitude of the millennial workers towards work are posing a significant challenge to the organizations. But then, the trick lies in how you deal with the challenges. It is seen that many companies who consider the challenges, analyze, and make the best out of them are incredibly successful. In contrast, those that are not updated with the technology are struggling to survive the challenge. Where does your organization stand?

Ultimately, it is the human resource department that has to deal with the major changes and create a sync between the chaos, just to make sure that the business’s bottom line isn’t affected. And the fact that they are to deal with human individuals who are all unique with different ideas and opinions makes it even more difficult. But then, the ever-growing technology has been a solution for many issues. What’s the tech’s stand in assisting the HR in this regard?

Mobile is one device that is most commonly used by people. The arrival of smartphones and internet access has opened a new dimension for communication and connecting people. The latest statistics show that the number of global smartphone users is projected to be a total of 3.5 billion in 2020.

Surprisingly, the utilization is no more limited just for communication but has developed its roots in corporate communication, management, and workflow as well. If this is the scenario, how well can the mobiles be employed for human resource management’s efficient functioning? In this article, let us try to understand the importance, purpose, and possible ways of adapting an HR mobile app to streamline the HR processes.

What Led To Arrival Of HR Mobile App?

With the growing competition among the businesses and vices, unlike earlier, the role of a human resource manager isn’t just limited to recruitment. Along with recruitment, the scope of HR is witnessing incredible growth and greater responsibilities. And challenges are no exception, and efficiency being a major concern.

The research revealed that the HR managers are depressed with the piling papers, unanswered mails, continuous calls, etc., leading to inefficiency at the workplace. Added to this, it is the HR department of the organization that holds the crucial information of the employees, including the data related to benefits, compensations, training, etc. Any delay or loss of the data might lead to disgruntled employees and, ultimately, low productivity, which is sure to affect the businesses’ growth.

In order to safeguard from such mishaps, many organizations are adopting the HR software that allows the managers to carry on the functions on the web portal. But the businesses realized that just the web portal isn’t enough. This realization is what brought forth the idea of developing mobile apps for HR-related functionalities.

About 97% of HR leaders are already planning to increase the organization’s technology investment in the year 2020. Thus, the mobile application for HR has evolved into the business field and has contributed a lot towards efficient functioning, real-time data availability, and improved internal communication.

What Is The Purpose Of Mobile HR Application?

The primary purposes of developing a mobile HR application are to solve certain major issues the organization faces. They can be understood under three headings as follows:

● Communication

One of the major and common challenges for organizations is a suitable channel of communication internally. Companies usually either filter in communication as the information is passed on or ends up being one way. However, the HR mobile app rightly addresses this issue and also contributes to employee engagement.

● Employee Self Service

The mobile app provides an opportunity for the employees to be independent in many ways, which is a significant highlight. The workforce can do almost everything on their own. For example, they can even generate their salary slip without being dependent on the managers.

● Manager Self Service

As discussed earlier, the mobile application plays the role of a rescuer for the managers. It helps them with on-the-go access to the information, allowing them to make real-time decisions and focus more on the business’s bottom line.

What Are The Most Useful Features That A Mobile HR App Should Possess?

The awareness of the purpose of adopting an HR mobile app for the organization may give rise to a question further. What are the features to be included in the mobile app that helps achieve the purpose? Here are a few essential features mentioned that can be included in the mobile app.

1. Payroll Management

Payroll is always considered as the most tedious task compared to all other HR functions. However, with the development of technology, many software has now replaced the excel sheet and various other calculations to simplify the task. It reduces the burden on the manager drastically.

Enabling the management of payroll in a mobile app can give easy access and transparency to both managers as well as the employees. This also helps in the timely payroll process with enhanced accuracy, keeping the employees updated with every detail of the salary disbursement.

2. Attendance Management

Far gone are the days where the attendance was recorded using a pen-paper method. Nowadays, people use biometric machines to record their attendance. But including this feature in the mobile application can also contribute to contamination-free surface and easy integration to the payroll management.

In case if there are any regularizations to be made to correct the attendance recorded, they can be done right from the phone and sent for submission. This also reduces the irritation that’s caused by the unanswered emails from either the employee or the manager.

3. Employee Tracking And Time Off Tracking

With work from home and remote working concepts becoming more common, it’s witnessed that “time theft” is increasing too. This has made it important to track the employees as to where they are, if the work is being done, etc.

There are certain applications that reveal the time, kilometer, and location of the employee. This also enables transparency among the workforce and the management. Thus, the mobile application helps in monitoring and directing the employee regarding work.

On the other hand, imagine your organizations have field workers, and there is no proper internet connection or network in that particular place. This feature helps you in recording the timings and the location and then updating the same once the mobile enters the area where there is the availability of a network connection. Thus, this feature helps in reducing time theft and records accurate attendance.

4. Compliance Management

To comply with the statutory laws, which are changing quite often, becomes challenging. Whereas, with the mobile app, you can clearly understand the amount payable under different heads. The updating of the new rules is the responsibility of the application vendor and subsides the burden on you.

During the payroll process, taxes, PF, pension, etc., are all automatically deducted. Thus, the mobile application enables you to accomplish the complicated process at ease and peace of mind.

5. Expense Reporting

Generally, any expense borne by the employee for the business’s sake is reimbursed when all the related bills are submitted. However, collecting the bills in the hard copy form and submitting it can be a little risky and a matter of trust.

But then, using the HR mobile app that has the feature for reporting the expenses and claiming the amount becomes very seamless. The feature also enables you to store the information and access it even after many years. Thus, the entire process of reporting your expenses by submitting the bill, preparing a claim request, and approving as well can be completed on a single platform.

6. Employee Schedules

Another essential feature to include on the mobile app is the schedule of the employee. The reason is that this feature helps the managers or the team leaders to organize and delegate the tasks and also to keep things transparent among the team members.

Thus, the employees are also aware of the tasks assigned to them. And more significantly, the mobile app improvises the collaboration of the team and its members for overall better output.

7. Performance Reviews

Many organizations overlook the performance review feature as not an important one. We need to understand that just because we do not regularly update the reviews doesn’t mean it is not needed. In fact, it plays a vital role in employee engagement when it is appropriately scheduled and diligently performed.

The reviews need not be limited to the managers alone. But then giving access to co-workers and colleagues also can help a lot in creating a positive work atmosphere and contributes to building professional relationships among the workforce. When the employees are encouraged and engaged, obviously, the company is sure to experience better results.

8. Travel management

The travel management feature in the mobile application lets you process all the necessary things on a single platform. Right from feeding and applying for the official trip details, request to book tickets, etc.

The best part of the travel management feature is that it allows you to integrate the same with the attendance system and automatically marks your attendance details too. Apart from this, the manager and the employees can organize the related needs of the traveler like stay, food, reimbursement, etc. This feature comes in handy in not letting you be worried too much regarding the procedure undertaken for an official trip.

9. Chatbot

The statistics related to chatbot shows that 85% of the interaction will be handled by the chatbots instead of human mediators by the end of 2021. More than considering chatbot as a feature, it’s gradually becoming the necessity for the businesses survival. There is a need to be updated with the latest chatbot, as they are most likely considered as the cause for the fourth industrial revolution.

The chatbot can interact with the employees and answer the queries, using the words that are already programmed in it. Even in this case, the burden on the manager is reduced unless there is no other way that the chatbot can clarify the query.

10.  Applicant Tracking And Recruitment

The organizations that look for a long term commitment from the candidates should first streamline their hiring process. An advanced recruitment feature succeeds in streamlining and making the process simple for the benefit of both the management and the candidate.

The applicants will just have to fill in the mobile form and can apply on the go. The details requested to fill usually have only the basics that are needed for quick screening of the applicant. Thus, the mobile app enables a healthy and easy way of conducting recruitments.

Apart from those features mentioned above, the mobile app can also include-

• Timesheets
• Employee onboarding
• Employee offboarding
• Training programs
• Scheduled calendar tab shared among the team members.

What Are The Benefits Of Using HR Mobile App?

There are a number of HR mobile applications made available that businesses can incorporate into their daily routine to save both time and money. They help in the smooth flow of the HR-related tasks. The human resource department can literally get rid of massive stacks of paperwork by automating the process. Apart from this, the following are the major benefits that the organizations experience with the use of HR mobile app-

• Employee engagement (engaged employees lead to 21% greater profitability)
• Increased convenience and productivity
• Reduced human errors
• Time-saving
• Provides more time to concentrate on strategies
• Enhances communication and collaboration
• Reduces the administration cost
• Mitigates the risks of compliances
• Instant access to information
• Accelerates and enhances timely decision making

Conclusion

If you are planning to adopt an HR mobile app for your organization, all that you need to do is make sure to understand the type of app that suits you the best, along with the features that enhance your target achievement. Because it’s not necessary for all the apps or features to be acceptable for all the organizations. The need differs from company to company.

In the constantly evolving digital era, it’s easy to improve productivity and develop the business, as long as you discern well before making any decisions related to automation. Identifying the need and then making the right choice of automating HR workflow is very essential.

Author bio:

Divyang Metaliya is a Business Consultant working with factoHR. Apart from managing and improving business processes, his hobby is to spread his vast area of knowledge to the people out there. He loves to create content that is innovative and engaging for the readers.