Innovative technology has helped make us more efficient in many aspects of our lives. When it comes to HR technology, these efficiencies are not limited to office life. In fact, HR software can actually be a huge time-saver, facilitating a healthier work-life balance for employees across your organization. From socializing to healthcare benefits, HR software gives employees the tools they need to focus on what’s important to them in both their work and personal lives.
The modern workforce has made it clear that work-life balance is a top factor in their job search and tenure. So how can HR software help you bring about healthier work-life integration for your employees? Here are 6 tips for getting started:
1. Use Social Tools to Get Personal
Your employees bring a diverse range of personal interests, hobbies, and experiences to the table. Chances are they’d love the opportunity to share their full selves with their peers. Use social channels like the Namely newsfeed or Slack as a medium for employees to share their personal stories and news.
There are a multitude of ways to engage employees through social outlets and help facilitate personal connections in the workplace. You might consider encouraging employees to
- Share pictures of their travels
- Post about big life events such as weddings, babies, and graduations
- Share photos from team outings
Encouraging creativity within your internal social channels will contribute to better peer relationships and help bring the company together. This helps make work feel more integrated with employee life.
2. Streamline PTO to Inspire Better Balance
Whether you offer unlimited vacation time or a standard PTO policy, you want to be sure your employees are actually taking time off. Overworked employees will become unhappy employees, and you want your employees to feel appreciated for their hard work. If employees have to jump through hoops to take time off, they will be less inclined to request well-deserved vacation days.
HR software can streamline time off requests and ease the process—making submitting and approving requests as simple as the click of a button. This not only simplifies things for managers and employees but also gives the HR team all company PTO data in one place. With this data, you can run analyses and adjust your policy in response to employee usage trends.
ALSO READ: 19 Really Obvious Signs Your Employees are Unhappy
3. Expand Your Definition of Goals
Performance management tools enable digital goal setting throughout an organization. However, goals don’t have to be all work and no play. In addition to work goals, ask employees set one or two personal goals‚Äîfor example, to run a marathon, learn to play an instrument, etc. Not only does this encourage employees to put their work down at the end of the day and focus on their personal hobbies, it also encourages more personal conversations during performance-reviews.
You can also work with your leadership team to set company-wide personal goals. This could be something along the lines of company outings, learning everyone’s name at the company, or even going to lunch with people from other departments. The possibilities are endless, and this will help your employees feel like their personal interests are a priority at your company.
4. Free Yourself Up for Employees
As an HR professional, your days can be consumed by check signing, emailing out documents, updating spreadsheets, and other administrative tasks that keep you from engaging with your employees. HR software can put valuable time back on your calendar by allowing you to automate processes that you previously ran manually.
Rather than spend time digging through old PDFs to send to every employee who asks a question, direct them to your resource center which lives right in the HR platform. From payroll to performance management, there are a variety of ways that technology can help your HR team run more efficiently, all so you can allocate more time to what’s most important‚Äîyour employees.
5. Offer Benefits that Give Employees Peace of Mind
Employees shouldn’t spend their work time or free time worrying about how to pay for their healthcare expenses. Using HR software to enroll and educate your employees on their benefits makes for a more efficient process and gives employees the tools to manage their insurance independently.
You can also use HR software to bring employees new and innovative benefits, such as telehealth and commuter contribution. If employees understand and feel confident about their benefits, they will have more peace of mind both at work and at home.
6. Go Mobile
If you’re constantly on your phone, you’re not alone. Meet your employees where they are, and make it easy for them to access their time off, social feed, and benefits through mobile HR software. Offering a mobile application enables employees to stay engaged whether they are on the clock, on vacation, or home sick.
By simplifying important administrative processes, everyone in your organization can have more time to focus on personal interests and cultural initiatives both in the workplace and after hours. HR software can be a game-changer for bringing better work-life integration to your company.
Rachel Fenton is a Content Marketing Specialist at Namely, the all-in-one HR, payroll, and benefits platform built for today’s employees. Connect with Rachel and the Namely team on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.