8 Key Features of HR Software for Managing Remote Teams

Remote work has become a new norm in the present era. Be it a small, medium or large size enterprise. However, managing remote teams has unique challenges from maintaining employees’ engagement to ensuring compliance with complex labor laws.  

With HR software, managing remote teams has been a breeze. Good communication among the remote team members and productivity have been easily achieved. Additionally, HR software eliminates the gap in engagement and participation of each remote member in any activities. 

In this blog post, we’ll introduce you to the 8 key features of HR software for managing remote teams. 

What is Remote HR Management? 

Remote HR management refers to overseeing human resource functions for employees working outside the office building. We can also say employees working in their respective homes.   

The process includes recruitment, onboarding, performance management, payroll, and employee relations etc.

What is the Role of HR Software for Remote Teams?

HR software is the leading player in managing remote employees by providing centralized HR functions. This type of self-service HR portal software automates processes, thus improving efficiency. Not only that, it ensures employees’ compliance with company working rules and ethics.

With HR software, HR team can:

• Simplify operation: Automate tasks such as onboarding, time tracking, and payroll.
• Enhance communication: Facilitate smooth communication within team members.
• Track performance: Monitor employees performance and set clear goals.
• Improve employee engagement: Implement employee engagement and monitor its impact. 
• Ensure compliance: Adhere to labor laws and regulations for remote workers.

8 Key Features of HR Software for Managing Remote Teams 

Here are the 8 key features of HR software you should consider for managing remote teams:

1. Simplified Onboarding for Remote Employees

For any virtual recruiters, onboarding is a significant task. This process doesn’t end with shooting an email to your new hires with a subject line, “Welcome New Joiner”. The process involves several steps to fully onboard your new joiners. So, HR software should ensure that new joiners have smooth adjustment into their new role.

Make sure that you select the right tool from the many virtual onboarding tools. And to do that, look for these onboarding functions:

• Document management: Completion of paper works and legal documents should be done electronically.
• Online training: Could cater virtual training with training materials, videos, and quizzes.
• Guided learning initiatives: Could cater the virtual pairing set up so that new employees could learn from the tenured employees.

2. Time Tracking and Attendance Management

Employees are paid based on their working hours and days rendered. So, HR software should have a feature for monitoring accurate working hours of remote team members. 

Additionally, precise attendance data is very important to ensure compliance with labor laws. The time spent on every project and task completed should be well recorded. This would help to have better task and project management.

To ensure that you are picking the right remote attendance tracking and time tracking software, make sure that it has the following features:

• Geotagging,
• Real-time updates, and 
• Customizable settings to accommodate diverse and flexible work hour management.

3. Centralized Collaboration and Digital CommunicationTools

An ideal HR software should have a platform for instant messaging and document sharing for collaboration. It should also have video conferencing integration for meetings and remote training and development as well as virtual team recollection. This would enable each team member to stay connected regardless where they’re situated. 

Moreover, it is important that important memos, polls, surveys, alerts, and resources are communicated and shared in a single hub. With this centralized hub, each team member has access to information. Furthermore, the hub helps the employees to feel inclusivity, thus creating a chance for each member to participate in any activities and discussions.

4. Performance Tracking and Goal Management

Businesses should look for HR software that has employee performance monitoring and goal management. This process is one of the complicated aspects of remote work setup. So, to ensure that the performance of each member is well documented for goal setting and tracking, HR software should include the following features:

• Goal Setting and OKRs (Objectives and Key Results: This is to align employees’ personal goals with company objectives toward shared success.
• Performance evaluation: Offers automated performance evaluation surveys to assess employees’ performance. Evaluation includes identifying achievements and areas of improvement for growth development.

5. Employee Engagement and Well-Being Initiatives

Maintaining employees’ engagement and their well being is another feature that one should consider when choosing the HR software. Remote workers can be considered as isolated and would tend to feel disconnected if their engagement is neglected. With software that provides a channel for all employees to participate in any activities, this gap will be eliminated. This would ensure a sense of belongingness and acknowledgement of their part in the organization.

So, choose an HR software that: 

• Automates pulse surveys: Regular employee engagement surveys can assess team members’ satisfaction and room for improvements. This would help in determining the team members who excelled for recognition and reward.
• Lays out wellness resources: Wellness programs and mental health resources should be accessed in the software. This would help team members to have ideas on how they can keep their mental health all the time.

6. Payroll and Compensation Management for Remote Teams

Payroll processing is considered the most complex because it involves consideration of leaves and different tax deductions such as PF, TDS, and PT, issuing salaries and payslips. Additionally, it involves insurances, retirement plans, and other government benefits.

What makes the payroll processing more complicated is when the team members are located in different regions, where there are different tax and law regulations. If this whole process is done by humans, it will take more resources and time to complete putting timely payroll at risk. 

And that is where HR software with payroll integration comes in, to automate this complex process while ensuring error-free payroll processing while maintaining labor laws and compliances. 

7. Comprehensive Reporting and Analytics for HR Metrics

It is important to note that reporting and analytics are essential features of an ideal software. The data stored by the software will be useful in making informed decisions for strategic planning.

However, data clustering and interpretation would be very hard if you do it manually. That’s why your HR software should not only offer stored data, but also offer comprehensive reporting. And to achieve efficient planning, your software should have:

• Real-time reporting,
• Personalized and centralized HR dashboard,
• Access control to prevent unauthorized access, and
• Automated data collection. 

8. Security and Data Protection in Remote HR Software

Managing remote teams requires strict compliance to security and data standards. Given the fact the team members can work anywhere at their own convenience, the security risk is higher. 

To ensure that your HR software can play the role of preserving data security and law compliance, you should look for these functions:

• Strong data encryption: Protect sensitive data such as employees personal information, company’s data etc. 
• Access controls: Implement strong access controls to prevent unauthorized access.
• Compliance Tracking Automation: Automatic tracking of labor laws, data security regulation, and company policies.
• Regular security audits: Conducts regular security audits to identify and address possible threats and vulnerabilities. 

Conclusion

Indeed, HR software is a great asset to managing remote teams. It can automate every process in your organization ensuring paramount productivity. 

When selecting your HR software, remember these eight features:

• Remote employees onboarding
• Time tracking and attendance management
• Centralized Communication and collaboration function
• Performance tracking and goal management
• Engagement and well-being initiatives
• Payroll and compensation management
• Reporting and analytics
• Security and data protection

Do not compromise your company’s operation and invest in the right HR solution!