Replacing good people is never going to be easy. Research from PricewaterhouseCoopers suggests that the cost of replacing a competent member of staff equates to approximately a year of that person’s salary.

Another key recruitment issue is that the selection process is not an exact science. HR professionals are required to jump through a series of administrative loopholes, running a series of interviews, sorting out contracts and inevitably picking someone that they think provides the best fit.

And as we all know from our interaction with new employees, there is no such thing as a perfect fit; organisations simply have to hope that the person selected through the timely and costly recruitment process proves an asset to the team. Recruitment is, therefore, a bit of a ‘finger in the air’ process.

But it doesn’t have to be like that. While any new employee is likely to come with a degree of risk, organisations can make use of specialist software to help ensure that the transition to fully-fledged team player is as painless as possible.

The right human capital management (HCM) software can provide a valuable asset to any recruitment strategy. From identifying a gap in the workforce and sifting through the candidates’ applications through to awarding the contract, HCM software can help generate significant efficiency and cost savings during the recruitment process whilst increasing the chance of recruiting the right type of person.

Look for automated HCM technology that will help you to match potential employees against established criteria. Integrated HCM reporting tools will also highlight the recruitment methods that have been most successful and at what cost. Such tools will also enable you to track the success of costly recruitment agencies, creating a preferred supplier list of worthy partners.

Finally, look to automate as much as possible to free-up the HR team’s time. Automating response letters and other recruitment correspondence can help slash administration costs. Meanwhile, electronic recruitment forms which can be automatically uploaded to the HCM system, will help save both time and expense.

Attempting to find the right person is never going to be easy. But it doesn’t have to be a struggle. And with the right software in place, you will have a good head start and the intelligence needed to do the best job possible as you attempt to identify that perfect needle in that rather large haystack!

Using software for smarter recruitment is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

Maybe it has got something to do with maintenance. Ask for perceptions of such functions and many employees immediately think HR exists simply to help serve core business operations, such as finance, sales and purchasing.

It would be anathema to suggest finance is a second rate service that is not crucial to the business. So, why is it OK to simply write-off HR as a second tier service? In short, it is not – and your business is likely to miss out if you take such a blinkered view.

Tough economic conditions mean organisations, particularly in the hard-hit public sector, will be looking to cut costs. Staff reductions are often seen as the first, rather than the last, resort – meaning the HR function is regarded as a means to handing out redundancy notices.

But how can the business know it is cutting the right people? And should it really be cutting people anyway? The answers to such complicated questions can only be provided though a more strategic HR department.

Such a position relies on HR contributing to boardroom debates, something that is often missing in large organisations. Providing such a meaningful focus will rely on clear analysis and reporting.

HR, therefore, needs to take responsibility for facts and figures covering a host of crucial areas, such as productivity output, training value, absenteeism rates and engagement levels.

Corporate performance management – HR-focused business intelligence that includes methods and metrics – will provide the type of detailed analytics that will help HR directors and managers illustrate organisational success.

The right tools will allow you to share HR information across the business. And with the right information to hand, HR directors will be able to take their rightful place at the top table and provide an extremely valuable contribution.

No longer just a service, HR needs to be seen as a strategic function that helps the organisation prove that people really are its most valuable asset.

Is the HR function perceived as having a real impact in the boardroom? is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

We were all working to the Labour plans to reduce tax relief to 20% for those with income above £180K, with even those with income of £130,000 at risk too. With pension saving a tax inefficient option for such individuals the move has been to look at CGT related options such as shares and corporate ISAs. Now we are plunged back into uncertainty with CGT on the increase and no clear steer on tax relief – let’s hope we know more on 22^nd June.

What was in yesterday’ agreement was:

• Confirmation that the default retirement age will be phased out, not just increased – will that hamper your successional plans?
• Confirmation that the state pension age will rise to 66 – this is less ambitious than Labour who had already set a timetable for a rise to 68 for both sexes by 2046
• Abolishing compulsory annuitisation at 75 i.e. being forced to trade in your pension pot for a pension – this is controversial, as is allowing individuals to dip into their personal pension funds early. The reason we have a 25% cap on lump sums in the UK is to avoid the situation in countries like the US where individuals can cash in all their funds and then find as we are all living longer they have to go back to work or rely on the state
• Auto-enrolment is here to stay. Both parties recognise that the 9m non-pension savers have to be ‘encouraged’ to start looking toward funding their extended old age, but it’s certainly not clear that the NEST scheme or the contract awarded to Tata Consultancy to run the scheme (they were the only bidder in the end!) will survive in its current incarnation
• A commission will look at the political hot potato of the affordability of public sector pensions
• Restoring the link between state pensions and earnings will be brought forward to 2011 – a year earlier than Labour had said, and 3 years earlier than the Conservatives had previously promised

Kate Upcraft
Payroll writer and lecturer
ISIS Support Services Ltd

Pensions and the coalition – what we know and what we don’t! is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment

Since Stringer and Pereda we have already had two cases (Shah v First West Yorkshire Ltd and Rawlings v The Direct Garage Door Company) that had been stayed at Tribunal pending the ECJ ruling, where the judge has ruled that carry over of statutory holiday must be allowed, even though the ECJ made no comment on this.

So have you carried out an audit of your long term absentees to consider your cost exposure, and what does your company policy say about the carry over of holidays? In Rawlings the claim only went back two years but costs the employer £1500. Remember that it is likely employees can go back six years if they make a claim within three months of leaving if no holiday pay has been paid so the costs can soar.

Kate Upcraft
Payroll writer and lecturer
ISIS Support Services Ltd

Working time review – no excuses now BIS is a post from Advanced Business Solutions - Supplier of accounting software, business intelligence and document managment