Cloud HCM Services for Business
What are Cloud HCM services?
Cloud HCM Services describe the Human Capital Management services that are remotely hosted via a server and used via the cloud.
In more detail, the term Human Capital Management refers to the HR processes of recruiting appropriate candidates, effectively managing workforces, and putting conditions in place to make sure productivity is maximised.
Cloud-based solutions and HCM can be combined, to create software platforms that are implemented within companies to assist them in taking care of HR processes.
Often subscription based, Cloud HCM solutions can simplify and automate procedures including:
- Performance management
- Recruitment
- Administrating benefits
- Payroll
- Attendance and time tracking
- Training
- Reporting and analytics
- Compliance
Simplifying processes using one easy platform can enable financial savings for businesses, while also saving them time.
In today’s digital age, businesses are seeking more flexible, efficient HR solutions, to free up time to focus on growth, and Cloud HCM software can meet the need.
What services are typically offered by Cloud HCM?
Typically made up of a series of applications that support the strategic and administrative functions of a HR department, Cloud HCM can help an organisation in the following ways.
Forecasting and predictive analytics
Accurate data helps all the decision makers within a company. When it’s collated effectively, data becomes more than information - it provides insights into the business. Many cloud HCM solutions include forecasting and predictive analytics tools that enable early insights of internal trends, helping company owners to act and ensure the workforce can meet the needs of the organisation.
It can also help inform potential organisational changes, assisting the employer to predict how the changes would impact retention and performance. Helped by the right Cloud HCM software, employers can spot causes of high turnover rates through to recognising top performing employees and making strategies to retain them.
Ensuring compliance with automatic updates
Cloud HCM solutions bring the advantage of automatically making updates to software, so that companies stay aligned with evolving regulations. Each year, organisations must comply with the latest changes to workplace laws such as guidelines for data about employees, and rules on overtime.
Regulations can necessitate that companies produce in depth reports and demonstrate that their software complies with this recent legislation. Multi-tasking and carrying out a wide range of tasks at a fast pace can inevitably leave companies open to the impacts of human error. In place of manually pulling reports together from disparate sources or trying to stay on top of compliance updates – these tasks can be undertaken by Cloud HCM solutions, with reports generated from the one single source of data.
The ability to expand alongside businesses
Cloud HCM solutions that can expand and adapt, enable consistency in a company’s systems over time. This makes it easier for HR departments to manage employees and data if the business grows and their needs change. These changes could take the shape of adding a new location, hiring new employees, or making new acquisitions. Cloud HCM software has the capacity to support all these adjustments and grow alongside the business.
Reducing workforce and admin costs
Workflows that are automated by Cloud HCM systems in place of manual work by employees, could potentially reduce costs of labour and admin. Think of all the paper that’s traditionally used in onboarding staff – whereas HCM software can carry out paperless processes, from a single platform. There are numerous other ways that software can remove the need for time-intensive tasks - including automatic tax deduction to providing digital payslips via an app.
Protecting and securing data
Cloud HCM software is designed from scratch to be entirely secure. It hosts applications and data remotely, while also managing which employees can access relevant information. Features such as layers of protection and security alerts, can assist in preventing fraud and data violations.
Recruiting and retaining talent
As one of the central responsibilities of HR departments is to attract, recruit and onboard new staff members, the need for extensive data keeping is essential, from managing CVs to organising interviews and coordinating feedback.
Cloud based solutions can assist companies by removing the inefficient manual parts of these processes, along with potential inconsistencies and errors, and automating much of the admin involved from hire through to retire. Examples of the new, more efficient opportunities in this area include application form screenings supported by chatbot, and self-service mobile apps for employees to stay engaged with aspects of their job from monitoring their leave allowance through to accessing rewards and learning.
Case Study: Helping Merson with Cloud HCM Solutions
Merson was established in France in 1891 and is an expert worldwide in the industry of advanced materials and electrical power. Within their 60 production facilities and 20 sales offices across the globe, they employ almost 7,000 people.
The Challenges:
With expansions across the world, Mersen’s HR managers recognised the need for a Cloud HCM Solution to bring together multiple disparate processes and ensure consistency across their policies. They also wanted a new system to record data in a central source, helping them to manage the company’s human capital more effectively. Here’s more detail what they wanted from a new Cloud HCM system:
- An improved understanding of their workforce demographics.
- A range of performance analytics to help them better plan their next steps.
- Unified and consistent HR processes across countries, from annual appraisals to exit interviews.
The Outcomes:
Merson’s partnership with ADP began in 2012, when they selected an initial Cloud HCM Solution that enabled the company to simplify and automate their HR processes. Here are the outcomes in more detail:
- The two ADP modules that Mersen opted for were HR Process and HR Intelligence.
- HR Process models HR management tasks including calculating bonuses and initial feedback reporting. HR Intelligence collects and consolidates HR data, mainly from a company’s payroll system, giving an overview that can help steer policy.
- Since 2012, Cloud HCM solutions have been rolled out to Mersen plants that include Italy, the UK, the US, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Spain – and most recently, Canada in 2020.
“ADP has become our common language, in terms of salaries, job titles, competencies... Today, everyone speaks the same language and there is now more consistency across the 35 counties where Mersen operates. It’s a strategic tool that brings us together, supports decision-making and helps us to steer our Group. It is this drive to promote standardization at a global level that has led us to develop a common culture and greater transparency, allowing us to work together and improve performance.”
- Estelle Legrand, Group HR Director - Mersen
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