I have to confess, anytime I go to the doctor and fill out the packet of forms they give me, I never fill them out fully. I will pick the questions that seem pertinent to me and ignore the questions that seem like a waste of time or that are redundant. Why? Because I feel like (probably wrongly so) that the doctor either already has this information or that I have answered a similar question on a different page. For example, how many times do you want me to enter my birthday?!?! No, I’m not going to enter my social security number again. Just look at the previous page if you really need it, right?
I skip questions mainly because I find it annoying to enter the same information multiple times on different sheets of paper. Will this potentially cause my doctor to treat me for the wrong illness, I sure hope not! While it doesn’t affect a person’s personal health, HR systems can be a lot like doctor offices when it comes to managing data – same information, entered multiple times, on different sheets of paper or software systems.
This creates frustration from employees, HR departments, and business leaders, but does it have to be that way? In today’s technology-focused world, everyone is trying to get to the one perfect system that does all of the things with one push of a button or click of a mouse – I see you Amazon Dash – and depending on your payroll system, this may be easier to accomplish than you think.
Payroll is a system of record for ALL your employees
Why does this depend on your payroll system? Well, your payroll system is the primary system of record for ALL employees. Think about it, are you ever going to have a real employee that isn’t setup within your payroll system? Didn’t think so. So we start with a payroll system that contains all of your employee data and then find ways to link that information into other systems that you may use.
For example, you may want to push all of your employee data to your POS system where your people punch in and out, or you may want to push all of your employee data into the open enrollment system that your benefit provider uses. This all starts with understanding the capabilities of your payroll solution. Some providers, like ADP and Paylocity have a vast network of partner systems they integrate with whereas other systems like Intuit’s Quickbooks Desktop are limited with their integration capabilities. Some systems run off of connections with APIs that require internal software development resources and others may work with third-party connectors like Zapier.
Consolidating your systems makes for a smoother process
Regardless of the systems you use, it is important to start with the big picture where you can map out all of the systems and needs that you have in order to find the best way to connect the dots.
For us at Whirks, we start by consolidating multiple systems into one single system to avoid these connections altogether. We house your payroll, benefits enrollment, HR records, time and attendance, applicant tracking, and employee development systems all in one database that communicates seamlessly with each other so that integrations aren’t necessary. And when opportunities to evaluate integrations do pop up, we have robust data feeds that can easily import or export information to third parties that we help manage. All of this to help reach our goal of not being a doctor’s office that requires redundant information!
If a single-sign-on system backed by an easy-to-reach customer support team sounds like a game-changer to you, we may be a good fit for your business. Check out our resources page for more helpful back office tips, or book a call with us below to see if we might be a good fit for your business.
