6 ways startups can use HR tech to retain the best staff

New trends in technology are making it possible for organisations to engage with their employees on a deeper level, making the employees more likely to stick around and contribute to sustainable business performance.

For startups, automated talent management, enabled by new technologies such as cloud computing and mobility, can increase the frequency and depth of employee engagement significantly. Studies from Gallup, Hay Group and Towers Watson have shown that employee engagement has a quantifiable impact on business performance and employee retention.

For example, companies with top quartile engagement generate revenue 2.5 times higher than the bottom quartile companies, and The Corporate Leadership Council found that employees with lower engagement are four times more likely to leave their jobs than those who are highly engaged.

Technology can now automate the entire employee lifecycle, from recruitment to exit, making it possible to understand each employee and manage their relationship with the organisation. Cloud services and mobility access have meant that relationships with employees are extending beyond the workplace, becoming more personal, which deepens engagement and increases the likelihood of retention.

Given that startups can’t incentivise with large salaries and generous benefits as readily as more mature companies, perhaps HR technology can support staff retention in other ways. Let’s have a look at six.

Recruiting the right people at the right time

People are more likely to be engaged if they are right for the job and working with other people who are placed in suitable jobs. With technology driving recruitment, it’s possible to really focus on the job requirements. A startup can easily create a job profile, and the system will publish it across various locations and on various media, receive CVs and automatically reject those that are not suitable. It makes the whole recruitment process transparent and shortens the cycle, with higher accuracy in recruitment of staff.

Managing people’s skills and careers effectively

People feel that they are in dead-end jobs if there is no visibility of their career paths. Technology brings the employee lifecycle closer to the employees themselves, allowing career and skills discussions to happen based on the availability of easy to use, and practical, solutions containing real-time information.

Career discussions have to happen because they align the expectations of the employer and employee. They can temper expectations or create excitement about the employee’s current role. Today, software can guide those discussions and create a record as a base for meaningful skills development. The same technology also allows for plans to be put in place to upskill employees in line with their career goals and the needs of the startup. The value derived from development and training can then be measured against defined outcomes.

Managing employees

A startup might not have the luxury of a line manager, or even an HR department. And so even the CEO can be tasked with the day-to-day management of their employees. Without supporting technology and data in place, this can be a near to impossible task. The flexibility afforded to employers by cloud services and mobility solutions is providing management with user-friendly tools to assist them in this task. HR solutions can automate leave management, time management, succession planning and skills development, and even highlight low productivity or high productivity individuals, so that they can be appropriately managed.

Managing staff issues proactively

Managers often don’t want to deal with poorly performing staff, so they get sidelined or transferred out of the department so that they can do less harm. Many managers don’t have the tools to deal with weak performers. Technology can facilitate this conversation, by putting a performance improvement plan in place, and create opportunity for skills improvement. This process is completely transparent, so that both the startup and the employee understand that procedure is being followed – whether the end result is an improvement in performance or the exit of the employee.

Providing business intelligence to support planning

Companies, and especially startups, need to understand their strengths and weaknesses so that they can implement a talent management plan to have the right people in the right place, and recruit where necessary while addressing any weak areas. Technology provides all sorts of business intelligence across a company – level of employee engagement, average performance, employee profitability, money spent on development and training. This allows managers to identify trends and understand what they need to do to drive the company forward.

Managing performance and aligning it with organisational strategy and goals

The key thing is to utilise technology to drive the correct behaviour, and cascade your growth strategy down to the lowest employee level. You can do this through having balanced scorecards in place, showing all employees what they need to contribute to, for example, product testing or improving customer service.

Performance management software can align the startup’s activities towards achieving these goals, ensuring that performance indicators are clear and the measurement is agreed upon. Automating HR operations forces people to weight performance objectives and provides for self-assessment online. This coupled with interim discussions, can ensure that staff understand what they need to deliver.

This makes the processes fair, ensures that staff are engaged and motivated and even excited about their work and careers. All of these different software tools deepen employee engagement and result in higher retention and a greater contribution to the bottom line. Technology is an enabler, helping companies in reaching their business objectives. But this time, cloud computing is making it affordable and easy to use, highlighting its use for startups, across all industries.

Image by sberg1115 via Flickr.