5 Reasons HR SaaS Software is Worth the Investment
Technology can’t replace the humans in human resources. But it can empower your team to do more — faster and more efficiently. With the right HR SaaS software, you can check in on your employees’ well-being, get continuous feedback, develop high-performing managers, and enable a more dynamic performance management cycle.
Read on for five reasons why a holistic HR SaaS software solution is worth the investment.
1. Streamline talent management
HR teams struggle to recruit and retain top talent in today’s competitive market. According to SHRM, the recovery in labor force participation since the pandemic has been slow, leaving a massive gap between supply and demand. As of spring 2022, job openings outnumbered unemployed workers by about 5.5 million. On top of that, people are still leaving their jobs in record numbers, indicating that workers feel comfortable switching jobs for better pay or culture.
So what does all this mean for HR teams? Essentially, it makes the already challenging job of recruiting top talent even harder. It also means modern HR solutions are no longer a nice to have — they’re essential in order to compete. The right employee management software can help leaders create the type of employee experience and culture people want to stick around for.
Hire the right talent
Recruiters aren’t just looking for warm bodies to fill open roles (at least we hope not). You want highly qualified team players with a great work ethic and a desire to learn and grow — individuals who will become top performers in your organization.
In most cases, those individuals aren’t going to fall into your lap after posting open positions on your website or job board. Your recruiters need the right HR SaaS tools to find those diamonds in the rough and wow them throughout the interview process.
Better employee retention
When a great employee leaves for a better opportunity, it hurts the company in more ways than one. Turnover is costly, and unwanted departures can create productivity gaps. A team’s morale can also take a hit, impacting employee engagement.
People won’t leave for something better if they can see those opportunities at their current company. With holistic performance management software, you can give employees visibility into the various career paths available to them and the skills, responsibilities, and outcomes expected at each stage.
Don’t lose another rockstar to better pay for the same role. Use technology to make more informed compensation decisions. Save time by quickly importing performance reviews and ratings into your compensation platform and eliminate the need for outdated, error-prone, manual processes.
Learn about performance management with 15Five >
Improve onboarding effectiveness
Sending your new hire a pdf of the employee handbook and instructions for logging into their computer is not onboarding. The first weeks and months — even up to the first year — of an employee’s journey are critical to how engaged and productive they will be.
Effective onboarding is a long-term process to get employees acclimated to their new role, team, and organization. It’s a time to help them establish their goals and career path so they can develop into high performers.
Making the investment into modern performance management software can help HR teams and managers collaborate on onboarding and allows new employees to be active participants in the process.
2. HR support and technology for today’s workforce
Talent management and people operations generate vast amounts of data. Without technological support, HR and people leaders would have no way to manage that data or take action on it.
HR SaaS technology creates operational efficiencies that reduce costs and allow HR teams to scale their efforts. With access to the right tools, HR leaders, managers, and employees can view and collaborate on the same information, removing communication barriers and allowing everyone to work together toward shared goals.
Store all people data in one location
The ability to manage and act on employee data and feedback benefits a company’s culture and its bottom line. Think of investment into a holistic performance management system as an investment in your company’s future.
By implementing an end-to-end solution, you show your team members that you care about them not just as employees but as people. You’re also setting your systems and processes up for future growth.
Support remote work
Whether your company is ready or not, the future of work is here. Remote work and the demand for more flexible options have only increased in recent years. According to Gartner, the number of employees who will work remotely increased from 30% before the pandemic to 48% post-pandemic.
With these cultural changes on top of company demographics shifting to more millennial and Gen X workers, businesses must learn how to create dynamic, high-performing teams in a new world.
For HR teams, it’s essential to invest in performance management solutions that employees can access from anywhere and that integrate with the productivity solutions people are already using, like Slack.
3. Increase HR team efficiency
Integrated technologies empower HR teams to streamline work that can be automated so that they can focus on more human-driven responsibilities and company culture initiatives. Financial investment into these tools is recouped through the efficiencies gained by scaling administrative tasks.
Automate manual tasks
Every hour your HR team members spend on data entry and other tasks that don’t utilize their full skillset is another 60 unfulfilling minutes of their careers. It’s also a waste of company resources, as there are HR SaaS software solutions that could automate many of those mundane tasks and take them off your team’s plate — so they can focus on truly making a difference for employees.
Look for solutions that integrate with your HRIS platform and sync automatically to ensure an accurate, real-time view of employee data.
HR admin and payroll
Ensuring the payroll process goes off without a hitch each and every pay period is critical (after all, employees won’t be too thrilled if they don’t get paid). But HR professionals shouldn’t need to spend a ton of time on administrative payroll tasks. Employee management software solutions can automate payroll and ensure people are paid accurately and right on time.
HR-related compliance
HR leaders are responsible for defining employment policies, procedures, and work practices that follow all applicable laws and regulations. But keeping up-to-date on constantly changing laws and market factors can be a full-time job in and of itself. Investment in HR solutions and tools that automate some of this work can free HR teams up to focus on more strategic priorities.
4. Improve data management and make better, data-backed decisions
Pulling data shouldn’t feel like pulling teeth. Good HR SaaS software can make it easier to get the insights you need quickly, so your team can focus on making decisions and taking action.
Use data to combat employee disengagement
Gallup estimates the cost of disengagement to be between $960 billion and $1.2 trillion per year. By investing in data-driven employee engagement measurement software, HR leaders can leverage data to better understand and address the causes of disengagement in their organizations.
Learn more about employee engagement measurement with 15Five >
Improve performance and processes
Performance management software is replacing outdated and time-consuming processes. Platforms like 15Five allow companies to ditch the annual performance review and revamp their employee feedback processes entirely.
With these HR solutions, teams no longer need spreadsheets or complex systems to calculate performance ratings across teams and departments. They can gather performance feedback and ratings across all employees quickly and easily.
When it comes to managing employee performance, HR teams can source performance management technology to help implement the types of role clarity, goal setting, and feedback programs that matter most.
5. Empower employees and managers
The relationship an employee has with their manager is one of the most influential drivers of employee engagement. Unfortunately, great individual contributors who are promoted to manager don’t always thrive because many haven’t had a chance to develop their leadership skills properly.
With the right HR SaaS software solution, you can upskill your managers to drive business results and employee engagement simultaneously. With 15Five, managers can learn how to leverage their strengths, set team objectives, motivate their team, drive performance, and provide coaching and feedback that fosters growth.
Unique to 15Five Transform, managers learn through a blend of instructor-led learning and coaching-based practice. They’ll apply their skills in the workplace before returning to their cohort to share what they’ve learned and continue advancing their skills.
Learn about manager training with 15Five >
How to select the best HR SaaS software solutions
Hopefully, we’ve drilled home why HR SaaS software is worth the investment. Now you may be wondering how to choose the right solutions for you — especially since selecting the wrong tools can lead to low adoption and wasted spending.
Here are five steps to choosing HR solutions wisely:
1. Start internally and set your priorities
Before going to market, ensure you know exactly what you’re looking for. If you don’t know what you need, it will be tough to discern between different options, and you’ll open yourself up to being sold unnecessary features and functionality.
Determine what business challenges you want to solve and boil your needs down to a few key outcomes. If this project could only succeed in three areas, what would they be?
2. Build strong cross-functional consensus
The last thing you want to do is spend hours falling in love with a specific software platform, only to find out your HR teammates or company leadership aren’t on board with the decision.
Before narrowing the field, get feedback and establish buy-in from all cross-functional stakeholders. Here are a few sample questions to use in the discussion:
- What do you hope to get out of this transition?
- What are your goals with this software solution?
- To be comfortable enough to move forward, what do you need to see from a vendor?
3. Focus on efficiency and research potential vendors
The first thing you’ll want to do is start broadly. Build an initial list of potential SaaS providers by canvassing review websites and blogs and reaching out to your colleagues and peers for recommendations.
From that list, visit vendor websites to see if they have the tools and functionality that meet all or some of your requirements (e.g., some vendors only do performance management, but not engagement surveys).
Look at different review websites for each vendor and check out their LinkedIn profiles to see how many employees they have. Also, check out their Crunchbase page to see their ownership structure and funding. All of this helps you find companies that are well established. You don’t need to go with the biggest option in the market, but the vendor should have a decent-sized team, some good customer reviews, and solid growth potential.
4. Control the conversation and go into demos with an agenda
Being prepared and setting expectations on demos and sales calls can help you make a more informed decision on HR solutions. Don’t show up to the meetings empty-handed and expect the salesperson to give you all the answers you’re looking for.
Create a meeting agenda with critical questions and workflow scenarios you want to see the vendors respond to. Create a scorecard to evaluate each solution based on those key criteria you and your colleagues have agreed upon.
5. Check references and negotiate the terms
If a vendor doesn’t offer up customer references, ask for them. And be specific about what type of reference you want (e.g., someone who left the same platform as me, is in the same industry, built a similar integration, etc.)
References can open your eyes to what the day-to-day partnership will be like, support turnaround times, the process of setting up integrations, etc. (If a vendor doesn’t want to connect you with a reference, you should see this as a red flag.)
Don’t hesitate to negotiate when you’ve found a solution that seems to be a good fit with a trusted and reputable vendor. Negotiations are the most underutilized step in the HRIS buying process, as buyers assume the product price or subscription fees are fixed and can’t be moved. Remember, your sales rep is your ally, so arm them with what they need to bargain on your behalf.
Learn why HR SaaS customers love 15Five
Check out our customer stories to hear from a few of the more than 2,800 companies that use 15Five to unlock the potential of their people.
