We’ve all heard the phrase “There’s an app for that.” In a world increasingly dominated by technology, there are more solutions being presented to us daily, and sometimes there are proposed solutions for problems that we don’t have. The HR Tech space continues to explode, providing solutions to HR professionals in an industry that is being revolutionized by the advances in AI, automation, chatbots, and more.
Compliance is THE hot button for today’s HR pro. From onboarding and beyond, the challenges to maintain compliance to ever evolving regulations is paramount to the financial wellness of a company, as well as to the health of the workforce and culture.
Here is a short-list of areas that require compliance and risk management:
- Recruiting
- Hiring
- Background Checks
- I9/E-Verify Verification
- Time Collection, Payroll, And Billing
- FMLA Tracking And Compliance
- Mandatory PTO & Sick Time Tracking
- ACA Compliance
- Cobra Compliance
- Visa Expiration Management
- OFCCP Reporting And Compliance
- WOTC Reporting
The fines around compliance violations range from $100’s to $1000’s per error. If you take the list above, you know how costly mistakes can be multiplied over many forms and other requirements. As more businesses look to technology to help with compliance, there is a common trap in finding solutions. What is that trap? “There’s a solution for THAT.”
It doesn’t take long to find a myriad of possible solutions for every HR process, in which a single solution handles specific issues. The challenge comes in trying to find, operate, and keep-up with multiple solutions. Building your compliance process on multiple solutions is a recipe for disaster, and here’s why:
SILOS AND EXPENSE
These solutions create silos, the proverbial “The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.” When you have multiple solutions that stand independent from one another, there is no communication that happens between the systems, undercutting the necessary messaging that is required to assure timelines and completion of processes that are often dependent on one another.
Further, the expense associated with individual solutions is higher. Because of its lack of customization within itself, you end up paying for processes and options that you don’t need. Additionally, when it’s time for upgrades, you typically end up spending even more money for each specific upgrade.
EFFICIENCY
Efficiency is an enormously important need for today’s HR professionals. Redundancy management is time-consuming. I’ll say it again, redundancy management is time-consuming. (see what I did there) When individual solutions are used for multiple HR processes, efficiency goes out the window. You might be more efficient than when you were running paper trails, but you become inefficient in a technological way.
First, there is a learning curve required for each and every process. Some are more intuitive than others, while others are more user friendly. Nonetheless, however many systems you have in place, you have to multiply the time required to learn the systems by each system that you have.
Secondly, and more poignantly, after you have learned each system, a tremendous amount of time is lost in jumping from one platform to the others. Time is lost checking in on all of the systems to make sure that everything that you need to happen is happening in the time that you need it executed. This is not only inefficient time wise, but gaps still remain due to the lack of symbiotic cohesion between all the systems.
TIME AND MONEY
Two of the biggest markers for a company are time and money, and trying to maintain compliance via multiple systems is a recipe for disaster in communication, finances, and time efficiency. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to find a single solution for each individual process that’s important to your business. There are better options out there that provide one platform for multiple processes…and we just might be your PURPLE SQUIRREL.
