Record retention for HR professionals can be a very daunting and time consuming task. If an organization fails to stay in compliance with human resource record retention requirements, it can be subject to litigation and penalties.
The table below highlights each major hr related law and their respective retention requirements.
One of my favorite albums of all time is Facing Future by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. His album centers on rapid change and how change is viewed and dealt with. Okay, so how exactly does this relate to HRIS systems you ask? 2011 has been forecasted by many industry experts and mainstream economists to be a year of growth, as compared the previous three years.
Depending on what industry you’re in, this doesn’t mean you’ll see the kind of growth witnessed between 2004-2007, however companies are beginning to exercise talent acquisition strategies to fill vacant positions with the millions of highly skilled and qualified workers. As companies increase headcount, the HR department will ultimately undergo an element of change to adjust for the increase in responsibilities. These responsibilities include things like new hire orientation/training, daily administration & benefits management and (naturally) off-boarding and compliance management. Since your HR department works in conjunction with your HRIS system to support & automate these processes, knowing the current state of your system can be the difference between organized growth and chaotic scrambling. To determine if your HRIS system is capable of scaling to support added growth, it can be as simple as conducting a simple assessment.
The first step in conducting an assessment, and coincidentally the 2nd habit in Steven Covey’s “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People“, is to begin with the end in mind. Once the appropriate stakeholders are chosen and the end result is agreed upon, the team proceeds with the evaluation. This would be accomplished by taking into account all of the things the current HRIS system is capable of doing. Next, determine what other systems your current HRIS system integrates or interacts with. This could also be a great time to determine any IT infrastructure costs related to supporting the current HRIS system.
The next step is looking at the human element. This is done by collecting information from the super-users, or those involved with all of the HR processes. This step could be as simple as a one-on-one interview and end with an anonymous survey. It’s proven that employees tend to be more honest with feedback when it’s anonymous. Once the feedback is collected, you incorporate this into the final step, a gap analysis.
The gap analysis compares where the current HRIS system is to where you would like it to be. Once the gap analysis is complete and the user feedback is taken into consideration, you should be able to arrive at a clearer understanding of where you’re potentially falling short. The assessment process above, although explained at a very high level, is meant to help determine where a need exists to streamline your HRIS system.
Facing the future can be difficult without knowing where you are now and determining where you want to end up. If you need help determining what might be missing in your HRIS system, give us a call. We can help you figure out what you might be missing.
If you’re like most individuals working in Human Resources you know all too well how overwhelming open enrollment can be not only for your HR staff, but also the rest of the organization. According to SHRM, HR Managers spend “an estimated 25 to 30 percent of their time managing employee benefits.” During an open enrollment period that number increases, to the degree that some HR departments even bring in temporary labor to assist with the influx of inquires. Other times, a company will simply outsource inquiries to a call center, incurring additional costs. Since the Healthcare Reform Act was passed there is even more information that your employees need, and many more laws with which you must be in compliance. Many companies are trying to find more efficient ways to keep their employees informed on the heath care plans and information. In this post, we’ll discuss open enrollment, the major responsibilities of HR, and some ways to improve the overall open enrollment process and experience.
Simply put, open enrollment is a period of time your employees enroll in benefits or change from one plan to another. After open enrollment is closed, the employee coverage is locked until the next open enrollment period begins. To ensure employees choose the healthcare plan that fits them best, companies dedicate countless hours, additional resources and lots of time ensuring that employees are informed. After all, we want our employees to be happy and healthy, because a happy worker is a productive worker.
Some of the major responsibilities for HR during open enrollment include choosing a benefits package, selecting and preparing communications for employees, setting the stage to make it easy for employees to complete open enrollment and keying updates and changes into additional systems. In each of these responsibilities comes an element of change management. Through the use of today’s available HRIS/HRMS tools, companies are finding it easier to manage the open enrollment process. A great example of such a tool is AscentisHR which is a fully integrated solution connecting open enrollment, self-service and HR administration together as one. The truth is that open enrollment need no longer be a pain point. It doesn’t have to be so arduous or time consuming for HR or for the employee. Employee Self-Service is the answer.
What Self-Service Looks Like. Literally.
Click on this image to see the full screenshot
The self-service open enrollment wizard provides a straightforward and intuitive approach to guide and inform employees on benefit selection. The system allows the employees to compare benefits side-by-side, elect alternative plans, submit benefits electronically to the carrier, and much more. Outside of open enrollment, the onus is placed on the employee to update their personal information throughout the year, taking the burden off of HR. Click here learn more about self-service and other Ascentis solutions.
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Watch this archived webinar to learn how adding employee self service your HR technology toolbelt can automate and accelerate the open enrollment process, virtually eliminate costly errors and make employees (and yes, even HR) happier during the open enrollment process. Or, for a bigger picture overview, this four minute self service demo, will give you all the info you need to determine if you want to learn more.