Helping Midsize Businesses Grow Through HR Technology

Helping Midsize Businesses Grow Through HR Technology As a business grows, the goal of streamlining operations is increasingly important. By maximizing efficiencies across the board, employee by employee, one can reduce the number of people needed to output the same or greater amount of product or service, without sacrificing quality. Organizations can reduce routine administration and paperwork as well as lowering costs HR Technological Goals HR technology can help achieve streamlined operations as well as other goals that are sometimes unrecognized. ECI Empower processes allow a company to become more efficient, more effective and help mitigate risks. Empower utilizes a single source database that can effectively manage HR, Payroll, Self-Service, Reporting, Time and Labor, Benefits & Online Enrollment, Recruitment, Learning Management and Performance Management needs. This integrated robust HRMS offers enhanced data management and strategic access for administrators. It is user friendly and can be extended through interfaces to third party benefit providers and other client systems. Empower manages critical company and employee HR, benefits, policies and forms, applicant and payroll data. Administrators have around-the-clock control over the information. All Empower users are assigned customized roles. The managers, recruiters, employees, payroll managers, finance administrators, benefits managers, payroll coordinators, and HR administrators have customized roles within the same system. Empower offers a balance between corporate control and remote location functionality by developing roles that fit the needs of each division, branch locations and specific users. By using an efficient HR Technology such as ECI s, organizations can reduce routine administration and paperwork. These efficiencies lead to lower costs and free up more time for management to focus on strategic initiatives. Retention can be increased by providing a high level of service to employees. Businesses can easily create accurate and timely reporting and analysis which will reduce the cost of compliance and risks associated with complex regulations. With respect to HRIS, more can be accomplished in less time since the process of data entry, administration, and reporting is greatly streamlined. While this achieves cost savings in the administration of HR, benefits, payroll and time and labor, the organization may see reduced direct costs in labor through better management of overtime and employee time off. This resourceful solution reduces errors which in turn reduces the potential for lawsuits. By keeping the reports updated in terms of new laws and internal company regulations, HRMS solutions help avoid penalties and fines that affect the bottom line. 1

In using a unified HR technology, all data is housed in one central location. There will never be a need to go through multiple channels in order to access all information which allows for powerful reporting An HR technology solution tackles complex business process automation and saves companies by going to paperless documents. One can mitigate certain risks by managing all information in a single location, accessible by all employees equally. This can include the consistent administration of performance reviews, pay rate changes, benefit eligibility, and documentation of disciplinary action. Automated business processes may be tracked in various ways including: Employee and Manager Self Service help managers to devise and share complex tasks electronically. The fully integrated payroll application is delivered via the web as part of ECI s Empower solution. Employee Self-Service Automation and Manager Self Service Automation reduce administrative workload on HR and management personnel, allowing more focus on strategic initiatives. This enables managers to focus their time on leading and less on managing day-today issues. Other benefits include the ability for employees to update their own addresses, phone numbers,w4s, contacts, beneficiaries, direct deposits, benefit elections, time off requests, and to view and print W2 s, paystubs, and benefit statements.they may also send and receive e- mail within Empower s Employee Message Center or to the supervisor or HR group work e-mail address, receive reminders, view their employee handbook, and see company events and announcements. Empower is a convenient place to store the company s policies, documents, and frequently asked questions to provide a proactive self-service approach for employees to seek out answers to questions about the company s policies and practices. This not only saves HR professionals countless hours of remedial Q&A sessions, but the information is available for all shifts, and reduces the company s risk exposure to inconsistent, ad-hoc answers to commonly asked questions. Applicant Tracking and Communication provides the tools to help reduce unqualified candidates via position-specific prescreening surveys. The online applicant feature can prevent unqualified candidates from submitting an application. Companies can weed out those who are unqualified and therefore save time and money in order to achieve higher productivity and reduce turnover. The Empower Applicant Recruitment Solution provides hiring managers with the tools that will help companies recruit and hire the most qualified candidates to fill open positions within the organization by utilizing the power of automation to enable the HR team to effectively handle responsibilities such as posting open positions, reviewing applications, screening candidates, and scheduling interviews. Employee Onboarding (coming in early 2013) assists the HR staff and supervisors to effectively and efficiently welcome a new hire into the company family. Through user-defined work flow, system administrators and managers can create, assign, and automate reusable tasks that facilitate the transition from new employee to fully immersed and productive employee. Whether it is adding a task for IT to order a new laptop, requesting a new badge for building access, or assigning the new employee the task of attending orientation, ECI s Empower Onboarding solution allows for rapid task assignment, convenient task 2

tracking and communication, and robust reporting, allowing department managers to evaluate the efficiency of the overall onboarding process, by company, strategic business unit, location, or department. Performance Management enables managers to establish and track employee performance and goals. Managers focus on relevant performance strengths and areas for improvement. Employees can manage all their past and current reviews. Managers can manage all past and current reviews for all their employees, and administrators can manage reviews for all employees within the company. Through ECI s Performance Management Solution, the main focus is to increase morale and create a culture of accountability in order to minimize concerns sometimes associated with completing reviews. The solution also helps organizations turn the employee review process into a tool for building a stronger workforce that can deliver greater business results. Learning Management enables HR professionals and hiring managers to create and track an employee s professional development in order for them to better support corporate goals. Managers can effectively identify and address training gaps, quickly respond to inquiries made by auditors and funding sources, and have the peace of mind that required skill development and certifications are being effectively managed, ensuring less risk and enhanced corporate performance. With ECI s Learning Management System, companies can achieve time savings, increased employee satisfaction and higher levels of documentation to enhance efficiency through unified training data within a single HRMS solution. Trainers can design learning paths through a combination of certification plans and ad-hoc courses, tailored to a specific employee, job, department, location, or even corporate wide goals. Managers and HR can establish new hire orientation and other training to be automatically assigned to all new hires as part of the integrated onboarding and performance management process. ECI's Learning Management is powerful and flexible which allows managers or employees to automatically enroll into available classes based on the tailored learning plan design but also allows for ad-hoc course requests by the employee or ad-hoc course assignments by the manager. The wait list feature is a convenient option that will automatically notify all interested parties and enroll the employee if a slot becomes available. These features lessen risks because they are consistently and accurately automated for sensitive HR processes. Companies utilizing Empower processes will have a better understanding of the link between their business strategy and their HR environment. Simple and complex company objectives can be supported by the technology. In addition to articulating the desired outcomes from using HR technology, organizations can clearly define what their vision is in how the technology will change processes for their employees. Once the new technology has been obtained, results will show the level of improved service delivery where metrics can be accurately measured and support effective management decisions. 3

Outsourcing minimizes the need for Internal Support There is no need for a full IT staff dedicated to an HR system when the maintenance and support are provided by an outsourcing vendor, such as ECI. With a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution like ECI s Empower, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is greatly reduced in comparison with costly in-house solutions. With a cloud based offering like ECI s Empower, your company does not have to maintain a dedicated IT staff to support your HRIS platform. There are no new costly hardware expenses, no additional third party software to buy, no consultants to solicit for integrating all of the disconnected systems, and no disaster recovery costs for your mission critical HR and Payroll data. These savings can be utilized for critical business needs. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is greatly reduced with SaaS solutions in comparison to inhouse solutions With ECI s Empower, all you need is a fast internet connection and the desire to unify and automate the processes that define how you approach Human Capital Management. According to a 2009 study conducted by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) titled SHRM Human Capital Benchmarking Study, most companies with fewer than 100 full-time employees average around two employees on their HR staff. Estimated median HR expense per full-time employee was $1,176 in 2007. By outsourcing current payroll systems, SHRM found costs could be reduced by as much as 25%. By having information available to employees and managers, HR generalists can spend significantly less time answering employee questions in order for them to spend their time on more strategic issues. Calculate Key Company Indicators Information available from an integrated HRIS platform can allow a company to compete more effectively. Following are some key information areas: Cost per Hire: Add up all the expenses associated with recruiting and then divide that amount by the number of new hires during the period. Labor Cost per Employee: Calculate total labor costs per employee by month and full year. ECI includes benefit costs and taxes. Performance Appraisal and Salary Adjustment: Allots for two-way discussion between the manager and the employee. The discussion can achieve the most success by generating a thoughtful and accurate appraisal. Salaried Employees Time-Off Tracking: The multiplicity of employees taking time off can best be tracked through a valuable software tool in which vacation, sick time, and personal days all are logged in order for both management and staff to understand how much time is in the bank. 4

Time to Fill Open Positions: The longer the position is vacant, the greater disruption in internal productivity. Calculate the number of days from the creation of a requisition, to when a position has sufficient applicants, to when the position is filled. Annual Turnover Rate: Turnover tracking can help to identify trends that provide early indications of potential problems in compensation, management, and workload. Valuable information can then be used to address issues before key employees are gone. Calculate monthly, quarterly and annual rates. Weekly Payroll Time Sheet: Employees can track the hours they work each day and/or when they take leave or sick time each day to estimate the employee s gross pay. Refer to HR.BLR.com /calculators.aspx, for additional calculations. Professionally Managed Implementation As a transparent sales process, clients expected deliverables and requirements are shared throughout each step of the sales, evaluation, implementation and support processes. Detailed solution analyses provide an in-depth initial insight allowing ECI s sales team to evaluate the client s current and future needs. Information gathered in this process serves as a guide to develop client expectations and the initial proposal which is shared throughout ECI during the implementation and support stages. This ensures that everyone has a clear understanding of each client s unique requirements. Many clients take this opportunity to evaluate inefficient processes and modify them to take advantages of the software features. Each stage of the Empower implementation is managed during the transition process. This includes user analysis to establish role based information access, reporting, security, and training requirements, among many other features. ECI s Data Conversion Services take existing company data and imports it into the Empower system. To ensure that client training is relevant it is delivered on a database that reflects the unique configuration for that client. Training is delivered either on-site or via web conferencing, which can ensure that your users receive the right amount of training at the right time. Parallel testing allows ECI to test payrolls, file transfers, custom calculations, and other system customizations that take place before the go-live date to ensure a clean transition to Empower. Formal roll-out involves the communication of ECI s solutions to all users within a company. ECI assists companies with sample checks, instructions and other materials to gain an enthusiastic acceptance of the value-added changes in service. Integrated Single Source Solution At ECI, the Empower SaaS-modeled Single Source Payroll/HRIS Solution is one with no seams. The core database structure is built on a single set of interrelated 5

tables that support Payroll, Benefits, HR and countless other functions. This integrated approach ensures the highest levels of data integrity, process control, and usability by all stakeholders. Organizations that are relying on the Multi-Source system applications for Payroll and HRIS are at a much higher risk of data leaks, incoherent reporting, and unforeseen errors that originate from incomplete interfaces or redundant data entry The Single Source Payroll/HRIS system is essential for HR executives to manage their employees. Integrated HRIS software provides accurate data that allows executives to evaluate performance and compensation, and manages each aspect of the employee life cycle. The necessary tools provide clarity of purpose to clearly define job-specific competencies for key positions across the organization. For more information on how ECI can assist with your company s growth through leading edge integrated HR solutions, visit our web site at www.ecipay.com. About ECI: ECI provides web-based solutions to Payroll Processing and Human Resource Administrators under a SSAE 16 Type II audited SaaS environment. Founded in 1996, ECI services clients throughout the United States. Our clients range from 50 to 10,000 employees in virtually every industry both publicly and privately held. While ECI has earned several awards recognizing outstanding business achievements including the 2006 Inc. 500, and 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 Inc. 5000, we are most proud of our 97% Client Retention ratio, which is a reflection of ECI s commitment to excellence in service, technology, and value. ECI Products and Services: Utilizing ECI s single-source solution, Empower, our clients can seamlessly deploy integrated web based technology throughout their organization that streamlines communications, automates workflows, and provides administrative users the power to fulfil the full array of administrative tasks. Some of Empowers areas of focus are Payroll Processing and HRIS, Reporting and Business Intelligence, Self Service, Benefits Management and Enrollment, Recruitment, Performance Management, and Time Keeping. Visit us at www.ecipay.com 6