4 Telltale Signs That Your HR Systems are Outdated in 2022

Every year, many of us change/replace many of our personal devices — computers, home appliances, tablets, mobile phones, and so on — or at least, we consider if these are due for an upgrade. In the fast-moving digital world today, the life span of our personal belongings have been shortened dramatically, and as the demands of everyday life change exponentially. 

Similarly, this also applies when it comes to businesses and digital tools, particularly as digitalisation plans across the globe accelerate due to the pandemic. As such, it’s good to take a step back during regular intervals to consider if your company’s tools are due for an upgrade. 

After all, an effective HR system is key to ensuring that employee productivity is maintained — or even improved — when it comes to the flexible work models that have become increasingly prevalent in today’s endemic workplace. 

Here are X signs that your HR systems are outdated in 2022, and that it might be time for an upgrade.

1. Employee engagement is suffering

An unhappy workforce is an unproductive workforce. This rings particularly true during a time of unprecedented lockdowns and fragmented workforces due to the pandemic, which is why your HR system of choice must come with a suite that can keep employees engaged, happier, and ultimately, well-performing. 

A key to this is to ensure that you keep your team together — even if this isn’t possible physically, the right digital tools can be key to ensuring that remote teams can continue to feel a sense of togetherness and engagements. To that end, it’s important to have a centralised place for team members to stay updated on a regular basis, such as regular status check-ins, or even a collaborative team calendar.

Ultimately, an effective HR system keeps employees engaged, while showing them that they belong. As an employer, you’ll reap the rewards ten times over. 

2. Employee productivity is being affected by the pandemic

2021 has seen a huge increase in flexible working arrangements, such as remote or even hybrid work models. And with Accenture reporting that workers feel productivity as long as they have access to autonomy, positive mental health, digital skills, health policies, and supportive leadership, it’s important to understand the crucial role that your HR system plays in employee performance. 

Consequently, any HR system worth its salt needs to have add-on functionality that goes beyond simply the basics of HR. This includes modules that can handle the end-to-end of your company and employees’ needs, communications, and day-to-day of operations. Digi’s super app, for example, is designed with this in mind, with altHR’s Performance Management feature offering a centralised, transparent centre for regular performance reviews between leaders and employees. 

Additionally, with the Check-Ins, Rostering, and Time Tracking modules on altHR, you’ll be able to stay abreast with the latest updates from employees on a daily basis — including health status, working hours, and even where your employees are working from on any given day.

Read more about Performance Management, Daily Check-Ins, and Time Tracking & Rostering here).

3. You’re struggling to retain your best employees

2021 has been the year of the Great Resignation, hasn’t it? Employees across the globe have left their jobs at historically unprecedented rates, due to factors such as the pandemic (obviously), as well as a shift in focus towards employee-centric elements such as flexible work arrangements and even various digitalisation-related changes. 

Your HR system is a big part of the problem — or solution here. Keeping up with staff expectations, HR trends, and recruitment tactics for the digital generation requires a digital-first mindset, as well as a data-driven approach. As such, your systems need to be future-ready, with cloud-based HR solutions offering a centralised, transparent hub to track various HR matters, including employment tenures, contracts, handbooks, leave entitlements, performance reviews, or even the status of your employees’ health. 

Read more about that here. 

4. You’re constantly bogged down with paperwork

The repetitive nature of many HR processes, including manual, paper-based work, can be a huge load on HR departments — and consequently, the company. It’s hugely important to invest in the right infrastructure for HR digitalisation, with COVID-19 revealing a number of key lessons for businesses in Malaysia to stay agile and successful. 

As we move into 2022, your HR system must be able to comprehensively handle all core HR matters for your business to be successful — this is key. Look for a solution that can truly handle the entire employee lifecycle on a single platform, without having to rely on multiple legacy systems, with the basics such as, leave management and expenses effectively handled, and automated. 

Read more about that in the following section.