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enableHR adds Mobile Portal for Candidates, Employees

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HR management app enableHR has added a self-service portal for employees, contractors and volunteers. The portal is designed to be used on smartphones and can remind workers to update work certificates, bank account details for payroll or report workplace incidents.

A mobile portal helps drive greater accountability to staff throughout the employment lifecycle, Richard Breden, CEO of enableHR, says.

“We are the first to market with a shared platform covering pre-employment to offboarding and workplace health and safety, and broadening this concept to contractors and volunteers. That’s never been done before,” Breden says.

The portal can be used for pre-employment activities such as collecting information from job candidates. This removes the administration in emailing out requests for CVs, work certificates and drivers licences to candidates.

Moving the onus of responsibility to the applicant drives greater efficiency, better performance and compliance in the hiring process, Breden says.

Mobile Training Enable HR screen
A screen showing training for an employee accountant in Enable HR’s self-service mobile portal. Click to enlarge.

The self-service portal can also be used to track, manage and update employees’ credentials. A company could use the portal to help employees keep up to date on training and qualifications.

“The self-service portal could tell them their licence is about to expire and ask for details of the new licence. The employee would take a photo with their smartphone and submit it through the portal,” Breden says.

Employees can use the portal to update their payroll information such as address, bank account details and superannuation fund. Details submitted through the portal must be approved by a manager before it is saved to the enableHR app.

Staff can report hazards or workplace incidents by taking a photo or video with their phone or tablet and submitting it through the portal. A company can match custom fields to the workplace health and safety module in enableHR.

Reported issues submitted through the portal are sent directly to designated managers which improves safety and the speed of reporting, Breden adds.

Companies that had deployed the self-service portal include Presbyterian Care Tasmania (500 employees), Aria Restaurants (400 employees) and Integrated Living (1000 employees).

Enable HR self-service portal Enable HR self-service portal
A request to update an employee’s details. Click to enlarge.

The portal, launched a month ago, is proving popular in the retail and hospitality industries which have high volumes of employees in different areas.

EnableHR plans to add online performance reviews to the self-service portal in July. The portal will encourage more regular goal setting and tracking with employees rather than the annual or biannual meeting.

“We want to make performance reviews accesible to employees at large and not be an arduous process. Condensed reviews monthly, for example, would keep objectives set by the employee and the business top of mind,” Breden says.

EnableHR has 8,000 clients, mostly in Australia.

Looking for Easier HR? Dump the Paper, Do it Online

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CASE STUDY

Enable HR CFO On-Call project summary

CFO On-Call, a franchise organisation with 10 staff, 40 partners and a turnover of approximately $3.5 million, needed a better way to manage employees and stay on top of ever-changing workplace legislation.

COO Sue Hirst had been managing HR issues herself with a manual management system that made reviewing past decisions and maintaining a consistent approach to staff cumbersome.

“To go back and see what happened last time and see records and conversations and what things were agreed upon; it was a bit more difficult to do that with a manual system,” Hirst says. “We had to flick back through bits of paper, trying to remember how we did things last time and trying to keep records of documents.”

Another concern was that the manual system was falling out of step with workplace requirements. Hirst was concerned the business could face fines for non-compliance.

“Nowadays, you are not just open to fines and penalties if there is a problem or an accident. You are open to fines and penalties if you do not have a work health and safety (WHS) process in place,” Hirst says.

The business couldn’t afford to hire an HR administrator and Hirst had little time to research best practices.

Problems

  • Paper-based system cumbersome and difficult to record and manage HR agreements
  • Risk of penalties from employment authority due to outdated contracts and policies
  • Lack of consistency with employment contracts and staffing arrangements
  • No standard process for reviewing staff performance
  • No budget for an HR administrator or time to research best practices in HR

 

 

 

HR administrator in the cloud

Hirst came across the cloud-based service enableHR at an accounting conference. An online HR, work health and safety, and contractor management solution, EnableHR contains practical tools, guides, templates and workflows to manage day-to-day workplace challenges.

The service is constantly updated to meet changes to industrial relations law by FCB Workplace Law, a national legal firm specialising in employment, workplace relations and safety. The system acts as a default HR administrator for your business.

enableHR is priced according to the number of employees; it starts at $49 per month or $540 per year for up to 10 employees. The software can be accessed from any web-enabled browser, including on a PC, laptop, smartphone or tablet.

“We reviewed enableHR and really liked the look and simplicity of it. We really felt it would be a terrific efficiency tool for our clients,” Hirst says.

Hirst briefly researched other options but was attracted to the simplicity, cleanness and thoroughness of the enableHR system. Hirst and her administration assistant use the enableHR system within the business, and find it very simple to navigate through and helpful in relation to daily activities.

The set up for enableHR was quick and easy. “We basically just chucked out our old system and started using enableHR. The material in enableHR was just so far superior it wasn’t worth the hassle of trying to integrate the old system,” Hirst says.

Hirst paid $400 for a training session with an enableHR consultant to get her up to speed with the system.

Forms and documentation provided by enableHR are “much better” than what Hirst and her team had been using in the past. For example, staff fill in a new form for performance reviews which has lead to “better quality conversations”, and Hirst says this has improved staff satisfaction.

“I think it helps us be more consistent in the way that we do things. With enableHR, it’s just all there and it’s in the same place every time,” she says.

This consistency has improved the quality of HR management within Hirst’s business and  made her feel “more confident” because she has a much clearer methodology to follow.

“You’ve got all the templates there and it gives you guidance on what questions to ask and how to run an interview and templates of communication with potential candidates,” says Hirst.

CFO On-Call has had a valuable jump in productivity as a result of using enableHR. When staff are unhappy because of poor management it undoubtedly costs productivity, Hirst says. “People aren’t working to optimum capacity because they are not being managed correctly.

“As a small business owner, if you are not managing people properly and compliantly, you are leaving yourself very exposed,” says Hirst.

She also stresses the importance of having a mechanism in place for managing work, health and safety within a business, and says she is constantly using enableHR for assistance in this area.

EnableHR is constantly updated by FCB Workplace Law every time there is a change to industrial relations or workplace safety legislation. As an online service there is no need to download updates so businesses using EnableHR are always compliant with Fair Work Australia.

In Hirst’s opinion, the best feature is the comprehensive layout of all the HR documentation. EnableHR includes 100 Q&A based templates, workflows, policies, guides and tools for HR management, WHS and contractor management.

“For any small business that doesn’t have any kind of HR management in place, enableHR basically does it all for you,” she says.

Hirst estimates that the software has saved her 10 hours a year in managing biannual HR reviews, although the benefits are far broader.

“I’ve always done the HR management myself, but for many business owners, if they’re not that way inclined or not that comfortable with the HR management side of things, they have to employ somebody else to do it, or employ a consultant to do it,” Hirst says.

“You still do need a person to drive it, but it certainly reduces the amount of somebody’s time that is required because it’s so easy to follow and so consistent.”

Benefits

  • High-quality forms, templates make HR tasks easier
  • All contracts and policies automatically updated to latest legislation
  • Standardised processes improve staff management and performance
  • Templates for fully compliant work health and safety policies
  • Slashed time required to manage HR issues at work

 

A new service for clients

When engaging with a new client, Hirst and her team at CFO On-Call ask about the client’s main business challenges, with one of the options being staff management.

“Clients often tell us that staff management is one of their key business challenges. If that is a true indication of the issues facing the wider community of small businesses, then using a system like enableHR is a really fantastic and efficient way of overcoming that issue,” she says.

CFO On-Call has also put their CFO partners in Australia and New Zealand in touch with enableHR consultants. If a client has a problem with HR, they put the client in touch with an HR consultant to find ways to improve their workflow.

“I think that any business that employs even one person needs it,” Hirst says.

Digital First case studies are vendor-independent interviews with business owners and are provided to readers as a free service. If you found the information in this case study useful please share it with colleagues and others.

'Go-Away' Money, Heavy Fines Paid by Naive Employers

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  • Businesses pay up to $40,000 to avoid unfair dismissal claims
  • Managing poor performance of staff a key issue
  • Cloud-based HR programs provide templates and advice

A painting company which fired a painter for not following his work schedule, being involved in a fight and swearing at his manager had already given him several warnings in the past two years.

But the Fair Work Commission said the company had failed to follow due process and found in favour of the dismissed painter.

Businesses typically turned to HR lawyers and consultants after an issue had flared up and were often unequipped to deal with legislated employment requirements. Inexpensive cloud-based HR services were helping business owners write their own staff contracts and avoid unfair dismissal claims.

Two Australian HR-focused cloud programs, Enable HR and Workforce Guardian, worked in a similar fashion. They used specialist law firms to create templates for employment contracts and a library of advice for scenarios such as unfair dismissal, setting holidays and performance reviews.

Unfair dismissals were a growing risk. Often businesses paid “go-away money” of $2,000 to $4,000 dollars on average to stop ex-employees proceeding. Some payments were as high as $40,000.

“Employees are far more educated now than they’ve ever been. There are more risks associated with not just the (unfair dismissal) application but defending and settling it,” said Richard Breden, managing director of Enable HR.

Issues with employment contracts and performance management could also cost a business thousands of dollars, even when not prompted a complaint.

The Fair Work Ombudsman has conducted thousands of audits to check staff conditions and documentation. It has aggressively enforced the law with heavy penalties for each breach.

Businesses are often reluctant to be proactive in managing employees because of fear of reprisals

“There are provisions in the (employment) Acts that can destroy a small business and destroy individuals. Regardless of how big or small you are you need to comply,” Breden said.

Companies selling HR cloud services claimed they could assist or even replace a part-time HR person in larger businesses. A 50-person business could save tens of thousands of dollars by avoiding the need to hire an HR specialist.

“One of the big business drivers for enterprise clients is that they can save lots of money on HR admins by providing (HR advice) directly to line management,” Breden said. Instead of employing an HR manager to instruct line managers in handling staff they can be transferred into more valuable areas such as training and skilling.

Small businesses tended to push aside HR issues altogether as a non-critical aspect to operations. An admin assistant or receptionist usually held responsibility for writing up employment contracts in smaller businesses, Breden said.

A lack of expertise in managing HR issues exposed a business to legislative breaches and accompanying penalties, as well as unfair dismissal claims.

“There is no way you can expect someone to keep the business aware of every aspect of (HR legislation) without some support,” Breden said. “The benefit (of a cloud HR service) is that it’s constantly kept up to date by one of the best HR law firms in the country.”

The most popular area of HR was performance management, Breden said. Scheduled reviews as well as managing employees through poor performance or conduct were hot topics.

“We’re finding that businesses are often reluctant to be proactive in how they manage employees because of fear of reprisals or the cost of these transactions,” Breden said. “Giving them tools to be proactive and track history to defend their actions is really important.”

Image credit: Enable HR

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Digital First covers news and opinions on accounting technology and is read by tech-savvy accountants who understand the importance of technology in establishing competitive advantage.
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