Businesses are obviously attracted to the benefits of implementing a unified, automated HR system. Fortunately, conversion does not mandate the disposal of baby and bath water. Existing software investments can still form part of the picture. “We don’t walk in somewhere and say look, we’re replacing everything,’” explains Anton Wootliff, systems architect with Edmonton’s Terra Prime Development Corporation. The company provides high level consulting, specializing in enterprise level software systems for government and corporate clientele. Using the Internet as an interface, it frequently touches on human resource functions. There is a lot of custom programming being done for clients, but it is part of the Terra Prime philosophy to address a company’s software assets and not merely build from scratch. “We’ll try to leverage existing solutions and technology wherever possible. In the case of some clients, we’ll take three existing technologies and synthesize them to make a solution faster.”
Set to launch this December, PrimeDex, Terra Prime’s new software, handles corporate human resources and project management needs. While the system provides an all-perspectives view of a given project, it works with corporate security programs to give the user access to human resource functions, explains systems engineer Amar Kulshrestha. “If you need to secure documents or have the system send out invoices for you, or generate time sheets based on Web interface, that allows those things to happen at a client site.” The software pushes the information to users so they do not need to dig for it. It’s like having a book materialize on one’s desk rather than having to get up and pull it off the shelf.
“Recruitment software is the way to go!” says Shellie Marshall, president of Calgary’s Marshall Personnel. Frequently done internally, recruitment can, as they say, be a real bear. Businesses of all sizes can turn to recruiting services. Where an internal service is in place, the HR person’s client would be, for example, the accounting or marketing department. Marshall feels that it can work as well for companies that handle HR internally as it has for her on a daily basis. It is no longer adequate for a database to merely maintain interview notes. Human resources software on the market today can track an employee from the first interview with the recruiter through every transaction until the day that employee leaves or gets fired. Everything is there from offer letter to vacation pay, warning letter to promotions and raises.
Marshall contracted an external developer to customize an off-the-shelf software package. The resulting system allows both corporate client and potential employee to access the company’s Web site and roam the database with ease. Either can size up the service quickly and determine its potential in locating an employee or job.
On the flip side, the software had to be “bust proof” and highly functional for Marshall and her staff. Anywhere, any time, the recruiter can search for information like notes and candidate skill sets while managing and maintaining the database. He or she is never at a loss as to the progress of the client’s employee search or the candidate’s job search. “I don’t want just my résumés in my database,” adds Marshall, “I want every single contact and I want to be able to draw on them as leads or future contacts.”
Calgarian Roger Forrest of Fokos Designs Limited experienced staff problems over the course of 30 years running a year-round landscaping business with 30 to 85 employees. Then he took the digital bull by the horns. In 1991, he designed and implemented comprehensive payroll software. Fully compatible with other payroll systems, it calculates elapsed work time automatically, tracks overtime and generates a fully detailed report slip that accompanies each pay stub. Just last year Forrest began marketing his Performance Payroll System, selling and servicing it himself. Close to 20 businesses now employ the software.
Forrest’s system takes care of more than the mere ins and outs of wage calculation. In his business, he found that no amount of censure would stop employees from arriving late or quitting without notice. The routine loss and abuse of company equipment also impacted profits. Fokos’ software puts the onus on the employee to perform according to a set of acceptable standards designed by each business. Should employees break this agreement, the employer can reduce the performance bonus portion of their remuneration by X number of dollars. As it is illegal to reduce a person’s wage, the penalty is calculated on the portion above the minimum labour rate at the time. Any time there is a change in the labour rate, Forrest just plunks in a software update. The system painstakingly conforms to the Alberta Labour Code and has easily withstood several recent challenges. The beauty of the punitive aspect of the system is that it is rarely used as such. Bookkeeper Nan Janke of ULS Maintenance and Landscaping Incorporated says her company has saved money through the software’s simplicity and speed as well as the elimination of paperwork and through employee co-operation. “It has definitely helped. Employees make sure they’re on time and they call in when they’re sick. There’s none of the fooling around like there was in the old days,” she laughs.
Another HR aspect undergoing revolution is employee learning. With software like Gemini SWIFT 5 by Calgary’s Gemini Learning Systems Incorporated, e-learning can be integrated seamlessly into existing systems, like SAP or PeopleSoft. The remote administration of training courses sees information on courses and learners efficiently gathered and reported. Gemini’s authoring program even allows the user to create employee courses with the option of partnering with Gemini in their resale. Live instructors remain part of the process but content can be better managed. HR departments can easily justify training programs.
“There’s the effectiveness of the training itself,” says president and CEO Kim Adolphe. “There’s the effectiveness of being better able to capitalize on existing content. There’s also knowledge management. If you are relying on your instructor and your instructor goes away, often you lose that knowledge. Now you put it into something that is everlasting.” Simply, HR has become more strategically important to organizations. “That has really driven the evolution of enterprise-wide solutions,” says Barry Huybens, a senior consultant at Sierra Systems. “The software vendors have responded not only with better ways of integrating and interfacing the various HR components, they’ve found new ways of delivering that at the client end.” At their best, these systems eliminate a measure of tedium, allowing better, more humane interactions to occur. “No matter how brilliant the software is,” says Shellie Marshall, “at one point somebody needs to talk to somebody. It’ll never get to where the recruiter won’t need to talk to the candidate or the company.”
The same can be said of any HR function. “You’re not talking about boxes or products, you’re talking about people.”
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