The Benefits of an Integrated HR System

What is System Integration?

System integration is the process of connecting a number of different sub-systems or components into one more complex system. The integration of all your employee management tools means you can say goodbye to manually exporting data from all your HR systems into spreadsheets and have a complete view of the employee lifecycle within your organisation.

Why System Integration is Important

Businesses can struggle when it comes to managing the ever-expanding data they are collecting from their people, clients and suppliers. Especially if the business is growing rapidly.

When your systems and processes aren’t aligned, it can be very time-consuming to manage everything individually. By effectively integrating your systems, you will reap the benefits of increased efficiency and effectiveness in your processes – whilst reducing the disruption caused by having all your data in different places.

Whether you want to align employee survey feedback with your HR system, gauge client satisfaction, maximise your resources and investments, reduce inefficiencies or work smarter – an integrated approach will help you to achieve your objectives.

Below are some of the organisational advantages: 

Easier For Administrators

HR system integration allows the user to work from a single system and/or work station. Changes can be made from one screen, instead of having multiple computer systems and processes running simultaneously. This will reduce the time spent on training your administrators to use multiple tools, and ensure they have an in-depth knowledge of the integrated system.

As the data will not have to be exported, imported or replicated, there is less chance for human error. This will provide you with more accurate and trustworthy data.

Costs and Storage Savings

Having all your data in one central location will reduce costs related to installing, procuring and maintaining multiple systems. You will also reduce costs and time spent on upkeep and troubleshooting. Some businesses benefit from licencing fees and subscriptions being reduced too.

Having all your information in one location will save on computer storage space (and costs). On top of this, the wealth of information that is collected off the back of an integrated system is easier to access, which leads to better decision making.

Better Analysis

Previously you may have analysed all data in different places and taken the necessary steps to make the data comparable between different systems. Normally this involved downloading it from each separate system and exporting it into a different tool. This can be a cumbersome and time-consuming task. An integrated system will provide faster access to current developments, figures, data – ensuring the whole process is simpler and easier to manage.

You will no longer have to rely on external tools to analyse your data. You can view the insights, data, statistics – or whatever else you are analysing in one tool. This holistic view of your data allows users to easily see patterns and that would previously be difficult when working with multiple tools and datasets. This will help you to make comparisons and see trends, whilst freeing up time for other tasks.

Improved System Security

Most businesses deal with sensitive information that requires special measures to ensure it is protected. By using one system, you can easily build in the security tools necessary to prevent access by unauthorised users. This will help to keep unwanted visitors and hackers out. This is far more difficult if you have several tools and systems in use.

Ultimately your data will be safer and your system will be more secure; leading to happier and more loyal customers.

Real-Time Data

Transferring data from one system to another will always take time. If you have large amounts of data this can become a problem as your data will rarely be up-to-date. Only through an integrated system will your data be transferred to your preferred system in real-time.

Real-time visibility is important in making accurate and timely decisions. When information can be accessed instantly and no resources or time are wasted on extraction – your data will be transferred much quicker. This means your people will be better informed on recent developments, which will assist them to make faster and smarter decisions. This ensures all aspects of business will improve – ranging from marketing, through to account management and finance.

Accelerated Growth and Innovation

With an integrated software system, expansion to different locations, the induction of remote workers and additional sales and marketing channels can be achieved quicker. This is because of the unified process whereby all data goes through one channel and simplifies all other processes. Due to improved access to information and the ability to analyse the data in more detail – businesses can benefit from upselling and cross-selling to their customers more effectively.

An integrated system will free up more time for IT. Therefore, they may feel empowered to create innovative strategies and initiatives that will improve business and generate income.

The Unique Ways we Can Help

Whether you manage individuals through an internal HR system, such as Cascade or via a CRM like Salesforce we can help you to have synergy between your systems and ours. This will help you to get a holistic view of the data and the individual/business it relates to.

• Pushing and pulling data: We can pull any requested information through from your internal HR systems and integrate it into our employee engagement and happiness platform for you to view. This will allow you to view everything through our dashboards and insight pages. We can also push information out. This is beneficial if people don’t have access to our tech but need to view the insights. For example, you could be looking at a client record on Salesforce and not only can you see the latest activity and opportunities, but you can also see their scores from our surveys. If you wanted to contact the individual, you will have all the data from both tools in one central place.

• Bridging gaps: Through our advanced APIs, we can link systems that normally wouldn’t be able to integrate. We can essentially be the middle-man and create a bridge between the two. This will pave the way for richer insights and more efficient business processes. Find out more about APIs and how they work.

"Customers require the effective integration of technologies to simplify their workflow and boost efficiency"

Anne M. Mulcahy - Former chairperson and CEO of Xerox Corporation

Why Wouldn't You?

Through having an effective system, that fully integrates your data – businesses can achieve their objectives more efficiently. This ensures their operations are more cost and time-effective.

It is all about speed of use and efficiency of interpreting the information. Not to mention having everything on one screen will really benefit you when you are making those important decisions.