Finding a Human Capital Management (HCM) tool that meets every need your company has can feel impossible. One-size-fits-all programs typically don’t account for the nuances that make your business unique, which can make it even tougher to stomach the cost of paying for a product that won’t grow with you.

HCM covers all aspects of taking care (and keeping track) of the people who work at your company during their entire journey – from hiring and on-boarding to scheduling and growth tracks. The ideal HCM solution covers every touchpoint of an employee’s path through your organization and simplifies the process internally so human resource staff and management can quickly and efficiently find the data they need to make real-time business decisions. But what exactly are the touchpoints that an HCM solution should address?

We’ve compiled the top 4 areas to evaluate when selecting the right HCM system for your organization.

Talent Acquisition & the Hiring Process

Recruitment, hiring, and onboarding are some of the most time-consuming functions that human resource professionals manage. Finding an HCM solution that can streamline, track, and report on these functions can help streamline the process, ensuring that deadlines are met and duplicate work isn’t happening. An ideal program should be able to store and track employee information, including benefits, compensation, and performance data, providing a one-stop-shop for making real-time hiring decisions.

Arete’s HCM platform also comes with access to Marketplace, a built-in app store. These applications integrate seamlessly, including complementary applications and services, such as eVerify and background screening.

Attendance Tracking & Absence Management

Understanding the attendance and absence policies go a long way in controlling labor costs and lower compliance risk. An ideal HCM solution should do much more than simply manage timecards (although it should do that well, too!). Look for standard time and attendance features such as time-off request processes, customizable pay rules, and real-time data into overtime. Programs like Arete’s HCM solution also allow for the set-up of attendance, overtime, and exception policies, that will automatically block timecard entries that don’t meet specific criteria with little to no oversight.

Absence management should go beyond paid time off (PTO). Ensure that the HCM solution you select has adequate leave request documentation built in and automates enforcement of federal, state, and your organization’s own leave policies.

Scheduling

On paper, scheduling seems quite simple – pull out a calendar and fill it up. But changing schedules and business demands can make scheduling seem like a nightmare.

A strong HCM platform will allow users to build schedules based on real-time available budgets and business demands, suggest the ideal employee to fill openings based on skill and availability, and measure the schedule’s effectiveness allowing for improvements.

Talent Management & Annual Reviews

As a human resource professional, wanting to see employees grow with your company is part of the job. Consider your process for managing talent within your company – how is your turnover? Do you invest in upskilling employees to facilitate growth? Are you able to connect with employees one-on-one to ensure they are receiving feedback?

A top-quality HCM solution can help simplify performance reviews by automating the review cycle and sending alerts to both employee and manager. To ensure the review process mirrors your company values and needs, the review forms should be fully customizable and the ideal program will track all of this alongside compensation to assist in making fairer and more equitable pay decisions.

Once you’ve considered your needs in these areas, also take into account:

• Paper needs. Are you already paperless (or wanting to make the switch)? You’ll need a solution that can support that.
• Compliance issues. Has your organization struggled in the past with understanding labor laws and regulations such as the Affordable Care Act? The right program should have compliance tools built-in and provide helpful reports that lay a path to agency-wide compliance.
• Different types of reports. Having visibility into every area of your human resource process is important, but it does almost no good if the information is piecemeal and scattered across multiple areas. Programs like Arete’s are intuitive enough to know that when you’re looking at scheduling you also likely need to understand absences and incoming talent and onboarding. Arete’s HCM reporting allows you to pull reports across multiple areas quickly and easily with more than 150 standard reports to ensure you get exactly the data you need. Also, consider whether you’ll want regular email updates to go out to managers and how you prefer your workflows to look to ensure the HCM solution you choose is adaptable to those preferences.

Finding a perfect HCM solution can seem daunting, but by considering your needs across each of the areas we’ve outlined above, you can be sure that the program you invest in addresses your needs head-on. Read more about solutions for Human Capital Management by downloading our Solution Guide