Gather your EE and WSP data painlessly!
Gathering data for your employment equity (EE) processes and workplace skills plans (WSPs) is a nightmare! Being inundated with countless figures, spreadsheets, names and categories is enough to make the sanest of us go mad. But not anymore…
As you’re in the business of processing EE and WSP reports for your clients, have a look at how you’re currently doing this and the time you’re taking. As an HR professional, your time is valuable, which means that you don’t want to spend hours and hours simply crunching numbers.
Train your customers: Use a standardised spreadsheet
A lot of your time is usually dedicated to fixing company errors. Even with a company of 50, if it’s taking you a couple of hours to go through the data they give you, then it’s extra time you need to bill them. Alternatively, you might absorb that cost for whatever reason, and there go your margins…
Creating a relationship with your customer must be a two-way street
Design a simple-to-use spreadsheet that you can teach your customer to use. Explain to them that dealing with the errors you’re receiving are taking up valuable consulting time that you could be spending with them on other things. This way they know what’s expected from them and you have more accurate, easy-to-use data.
Does software help?
When you deal with any type of reports or spreadsheets, for any length of time, your eyes are bound to blur, and roll to the back of your head in protest! Computers do most things for us now, so why not invest in a software program that does the hard work for you.
If a program can cut your processing time by a third, that’s an extra third of your time you have to invest back into the business, back into yourself or to drum up more business.
How do I choose a program to help me do this?
When looking for a suitable program, make sure you ask as many questions as you can from the vendor, such as:
- Is the programme compatible with my current computer system?
- Can I get a demonstration of the program?
- What operational areas of my business will it improve?
- What support is available for this program?
- What will this programme cost my business in terms of, for example, training, support and upgrades?
Is software too expensive?
What you must look at is the return on investment (ROI) of your software. Calculate how long it now takes you to correct, collate and input the information for your EE and WSP manually into the required reporting format.
Then speak to a software vendor and go through the proposed program. Let them demonstrate the system for you and see what improvements it can make to your business process.
This is where you and the vendor must understand your specific needs:
- First work out the process and time it takes you to submit an EE report electronically (via the Department of Labour’s (DoL) website) and manually (by post or fax). Once you’ve worked this out, calculate the cost benefit and ROI of investing in software for your business. This will easily show you if the program you are looking to invest in is worth the price it’s selling for.
