HR Pulse

We live in the mobile office era and HR is following suit

Today, you no longer have to be office bound to get your work done because your business is where your smartphone or tablet is. So if your core business can be conducted out of the office, it makes sense that your business’ support functions – such as payroll and HR –should have the same flexibility. One of South Africa’s foremost businesses also thinks so…

In the 90s, the payroll and HR industries in South Africa were bombarded with countless legislation changes, e.g. the introduction of the SITE tax system and Skills Development Levy as well as changes to the way UIF was calculated. This meant that more complex calculations were required to work out employees’ net pay at the end of the month, said Madelein Van Der Watt, development manager: central R&D for the Sage group..

“All of these changes had to be consolidated and reported to the relevant authorities on a regular basis, which was a huge headache for payroll administrators,” she said.

Madelein Van Der Watt (pictured above), development manager: central R&D for the Sage group at the launch of Self Service

This problem prompted Sage Payroll & HR to develop their trademark software which would automate these calculations and reporting requirements.

In the early 2000s, the company saw that information needed to be shared between staff, managers and the HR department. However, the original process was time consuming and inefficient. Look at how a ‘simple’ leave application was processed:

Example

John is a journalist in XYZ Publishing. He wants to go on two weeks’ leave in December. This is the process he has to follow to apply for this leave:

• First, he has to go to HR to check how many days he has due to him.

• If John finds out that he has enough leave to take the required days in December, he will go back to his desk, fill in the form and  then ask his manager to approve it.

• To find out if he can approve John’s leave, John’s manager Tim will have to go back to the HR to find out how many leave days John has due.

• When he finds out that John does indeed have enough leave days, Tim will go back to his desk, approve the leave application and take it back to HR.

• The payroll administrator will then have to capture the leave on the system.
  
  

To eliminate the time wasted in the process above, the organisation developed Self Service, which is a web-based application that connects to the payroll administrator’s desktop software and allows them to record employee data in a secure, online environment. The employee can then access his or her data - i.e. payslip records, leave applications and personal records - using a computer with Internet access. The only catch is that the payroll administrator must have authorised the employee to access this data.

“Self Service eases the admin burden in any organisation. It reduces paperwork and increases efficiency, which means happy management,” says Madelein.

More SA households have access to cellphones than TVs

In addition, these cellphones can access the Internet at almost any time. A study done by Wits University states that there were 12.3 million online users in 2012. This means that to open Self Service up to a wider market, the company developed mobi access and a mobile app for this platform.

According to the TMT Predictions, which were published by Deloitte South Africa, we currently have over 10 million active smartphone users in South Africa. More and more people are using mobile devices as we look for more affordable ways to access the Internet. So with business making its way out of the office, it’s time for HR to do the same.

Author: Lia Marus is the editor of HR Pulse. She has a BA in French, Italian and Linguistics from UCT, an MA in translation from Wits and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management from the Wits Business School. She is currently studying towards her LLB through Unisa. Lia started her career off in corporate communications, where she worked as a sub-editor, researcher and marketing coordinator. She then heeded the call of the publishing world and went into the business-to-business publishing field. She worked as a sub-editor as well as a chief sub-editor. Before joining ITWeb, she managed an HR guidebook at a leading international publishing company.