A conducive work environment creates motivated employees, improving employee engagement levels and reducing turnover rates. Overall, this contributes to the overall business revenue, lowering costs and profitability for the business in the long run.
The definition of a “good” workplace is ever-changing. At the same time, this definition also differs between organisations across industries. Yet this does not change the fact that organisations are constantly trying to improve their existing workplace environment – be it to make it a better environment for employees or simply to maintain the status quo.
With the advancement of technology today, this can significantly help organisations to build a better workplace for employees. Here are some ways in which technology can be leveraged upon to create a conducive work environment for employees.
Building a strong Employee Value Proposition
Majority of organisations struggle with the issue of departments working in silos instead of cohesively. This results in departments being detached and misaligned with the overall organisation goals. The best way to ensure that departments do not lose sight of the organisation’s goals is to ensure that there is a strong foundation of Employee Value Proposition (EVP) in place. Senior management and HR can make use of the organisation’s intranet or set up a microsite to clearly state the organisation’s EVP. That way, employees are made aware of how they can contribute individually, beyond their own departments, to the organisation.
Enhance the employee experience
The last thing that employees want to struggle with is on the organisation’s internal software or finding someone within the organisation. More often than not, organisations have implemented numerous software that it makes it extremely difficult for employees to access multiple databases on a single platform. The lack of clarity on who to look for in such cases simply makes the situation worse. As such, creating a smart office can significantly enhance the overall employee experience within the workplace such as chatbot for employees to direct their queries. Such enhancements can keep employees engaged and they are likely to stay around longer.
Encourage office collaboration
Today, remote workers are increasingly common within organisations. However, this lack of face time can also result in poor communication and lack of collaboration amongst employees. Besides an open space office concept, online communication tools such as video conference and team messaging apps can help to bridge the gap between employees working remotely and employees in office. This helps to boost employees’ and team’s productivity in the long run.
Technology is a powerful tool in terms of boosting employees’ productivity and keeping employees engaged. At the same time, technology can help to automate numerous HR administrative tasks, improving efficiencies and reducing costs for the organisation. There are plenty of software tools in the market today to assist organisations in building up that dream workplace environment. If your organisation has yet to start investing in technology, perhaps it would be good to start today given the Digital Resilience Bonus support offered in Singapore to offset the cost of digital transformation.
While organisations can roll out the latest technological tools, it is up to leaders to manage change communication to employees and provide them with sufficient time to learn and understand the benefits of these new technological tools.
Here are some ways in which organisation can slowly implement digital transformation into their organisation and getting employees to slowly embrace it.
Provide a step-by-step guide.
When it comes to operating a new technology system or tool, the lack of a proper guide is likely to frustrate any employee. Providing a step-by-step guide through each of the functions is likely to alleviate any fear or worry.
Suggest video tutorials.
Video tutorials are particularly useful for employees who simply do not have the time to read through guides or for less educated workers.
Have a subject matter expert.
Finally, training a team of employees to be the go-to person for new technological tools can be extremely helpful particularly when employees have questions that cannot be addressed by guides or video tutorials.
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted labour markets globally in 2020. The short-term consequences were severe – people lost their jobs, small businesses struggled to stay afloat. Employees scrambled to adjust to remote-working arrangements.
At the same time, we also saw how organisations and their payroll management schemes continually adapt. They also keep on top of the ever-changing schemes implemented by the Singapore Government to support employees through this difficult and uncertain time. Digitalisation, automated work processes and flexible working arrangements were some of the adjustments that organisations had to make. This is to ensure employees are still paid their salaries in a timely and accurate manner.
Considering the way COVID-19 has impacted businesses and operations, organisations may have identified certain limitations in terms of HR operational processes when it comes to working remotely. As a result, many organisations and HR professionals recognise that there is a need to improve their payroll operations. Here are some of the payroll management trends that we can expect after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Managing payroll with cloud-based payroll software
Businesses have moved towards a remote-working arrangement during the pandemic. This means that running payroll on on-premise payroll software becomes extremely challenging and complex. The first limitation is the lack of accessibility. The payroll staff are unable to physically go back to office to use the organisation’s payroll software. The second limitation is data security. Payroll contains sensitive and confidential information. Managing payroll outside of the organisation’s IT systems and servers exposes the data to potential security breaches and hackers.
The pandemic has highlighted an imperative need for advanced payroll systems. They are accessible to employees regardless of location or geographies. Cloud-based payroll software addresses those limitations by allowing remote access to payroll data, eliminating the need for payroll staff to be physically present in the office while ensuring that the necessary data security controls are in place. Most cloud-based payroll software are also able to integrate other HR functions. For example, time-tracking and tax filing as well as regular software updates to ensure compliance with changes in employment laws. This allows organisations to streamline standalone HR processes onto a unified HR platform, ensuring accurate and compliant payroll despite remote work arrangements.
Robust remote data security
Businesses are gradually adapt to the new norm of hybrid working. Data security within payroll software becomes an increasingly critical focal point for organisations today. According to Shred-It’s 2018 State of the Industry report, they found that more than 80% of C-suites in North America believe that the risk of a data breach is higher when employees work remotely. Organisations are moving towards adopting a hybrid work arrangement. Employees are allowed to work a certain number of days remotely and the rest of the days in office. This means having to overhaul internal security controls to strengthen data procedures. Particularly in the case of managing payroll processing. Payroll staff have to handle sensitive and confidential payroll and employee records. It is imperative to introduce new data security protocols as well as educate employees on data security procedures.
Some of the new data security controls that organisations can put in place include multi-factor authentication (MFA). This requires the user to go through a two or more steps verification process. Then they are able to access the payroll system. Other controls could include introducing Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Instead of using unsecured WiFi networks to access payroll if it happens to be a cloud-based payroll platform. Besides implementing new data security protocols, payroll staff should also be trained on the internal data security procedures. They are well-equipped with the necessary knowledge to handle potential payroll data breaches.
