Strategic human resource management (HRM) is a proactive, future-oriented HR practice in which HR leadership develops and taps into current workforce talent to help a company achieve its broader business goals.

Being strategic about the strengths of a company’s people—and the rich skill sets and backgrounds they bring to the workplace—requires an understanding of how a company currently manages human resources and how they can be better leveraged to accomplish a goal. With a solid understanding of current HR management and a future state, a human resource strategy serves as a roadmap for how to get to the goal.

See also: Human Resources (HR) Software Guide

What is strategic human resource management?

Strategic human resource management is an approach to maximize the value that employees bring to an organization. In order to leverage a workforce in the most optimal way, companies need a human resources strategy.

A human resources strategy outlines how HR will develop and tap into employee strengths to add value and contribute to a company’s broader goals. Each company’s strategy will look different depending on the company size, industry, culture, goals, and current strengths and weaknesses.

What are the benefits of a human resources strategy?

Depending on the strategic emphasis, a company can reap the following benefits from an HR strategy:

• Orientation: A strategy provides a sense of direction and includes milestones and built-in accountability.
• Higher Morale: Having a people-centric plan that management, HR, and employees support has positive downstream effects on employee satisfaction, performance, and workplace culture.
• Stakeholder Empowerment: An actionable plan creates a sense of purpose, ownership, and responsibility for stakeholders at all levels. Empowerment boosts engagement which increases the chances of success.
• Better Retention: An HR strategy provides direction which, in turn, brings about a cohesive, more engaged workplace culture that employees want to be a part of. When employees want to stay, reduced turnover means decreased hiring expenditure.
• Preparation and Resilience: When HR has a strategy in place, it minimizes the chances of business disruption that can arise as a result of skills gaps or staffing shortages.

How to create a human resources strategy

Look at current business and HR data

Get a sense of the business’s current circumstances, pain points, and opportunities by first looking at current business data. Business intelligence software like Qlik or Tableau provide comprehensive as well as drill-down insights for points of improvement.

Read more: Qlik vs Tableau: BI Software Comparison

Compare comprehensive business data to HR-specific data from the human resources information system (HRIS) to identify points of overlap where HR can support and directly impact the company’s overarching goals.

For example, HR metrics that have ripple effects on the rest of the company include:

• Turnover rate, employee performance, and compensation strategy all impact finance.
• Employee performance, skills, gaps, and time to hire all impact if and how things get done, from day-to-day tasks to lofty initiatives.
• Skills gaps, time to hire, average employee tenure, and average time to promotion impact employee morale and company culture.
• Feedback about the workplace culture from exit interviews, pulse surveys, or reviews is a barometer for how well the company trains managers and leaders.

Set goals

Making these connections between people management and the business’s performance uncovers critical opportunities to act on. And these opportunities need to be backed by qualitative and quantitative data points like those noted above.

HRIS and BI software generate reports or display dashboards to identify opportunities for improvement in HR processes. Human capital management (HCM) systems with predictive people analytics, such as Workday HCM and Oracle HCM, go beyond assessing a company’s current needs by providing forecasting tools to make a well-informed data-driven decision about future workforce needs. These are good starting points to coming up with goals and an actionable HR strategy.

Also read: Workday vs Oracle HCM

Develop programs, processes, and policies to achieve your goals

Create goal- and budget-aligned programs, processes, and policies that feed into and support broader business strategy.

Programs, processes, and policies that HR might create to support the bigger business goals might fall within these general categories:

• Compensation and benefits to attract and retain top talent.
• Performance management to routinely assess and improve employees’ performance.
• Training and development to invest in employees’ professional development.
• Employee relations to cultivate a supportive, cohesive work environment to retain talent.

HR can plan for specific initiatives and set goals within these areas. For instance, if training and development is a priority to help the company expand into new markets, starting a mentoring program or rolling out a learning management system (LMS) are just a couple of ways HR can support that company goal.

Invest in the right software

The feasibility of people-centered initiatives doesn’t entirely fall on people to implement. Software tools help or even take over initiatives outlined in HR’s strategy, as they produce valuable insights, especially in goal-setting and progress-tracking.

Companies prioritizing efficient HR operations should check out HRIS software, as these typically include automations that boost HR efficiency and enable employee self-service. Examples include Rippling, Gusto, and ADP Run.

Rapidly growing companies prioritizing hiring in their HR strategy should invest in applicant tracking systems (ATS) and recruiting software. Applicant tracking systems like Greenhouse and JazzHR help companies manage candidate pipelines for multiple positions at once by keeping employees moving with automated workflows and candidate communication. Recruiting software solutions like Zenefits, Zoho People, and Breezy HR:

• Use AI to source and engage talent faster than the manual work of a hiring manager or hiring team.
• Syndicate job posts for maximum reach.
• Offer creative ways of tapping into often-overlooked talent pools through niche job boards, passive recruiting, and talent discovery tools.

Also read: 9 Employee Recruitment Strategies to Improve Your Hiring Process

Companies whose HR strategy focuses on people development and retention should utilize performance management software, such as BambooHR, Lattice, and Namely, for employee development.

Training, reskilling, and upskilling in a learning management system is a logical next step for employees who are ready to expand their skill set. Examples of top LMS include Absorb LMS, Docebo, and 360Learning.

Culture-oriented HR strategies influence both recruiting and retention from an angle of how employees connect with and relate to one another in the workplace. Fetcher, Jobvite, Paylocity, Workable, and Zoho Recruit are examples of recruiting software solutions that support diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) efforts by:

• Anonymously screening resumes and assessments.
• Integrating with a variety of job boards that target underrepresented demographics.

Employee engagement software improves company culture by soliciting, analyzing, and enabling actionable acting on feedback.

Also read: Strategies for Cultivating a Diverse Talent Pool

Course correct if necessary

As with any plan, expect change to happen as the HR strategy gets implemented. Unforeseen scenarios can change an HR strategy in ways big and small, so companies should have a change management strategy in place to account for situations that require a company to pivot or reprioritize.

Strategic human resource planning is as strong as the software that supports it

Strategic human resources planning is a forward-thinking approach to managing a workforce in a way that leverages current talent and develops more valuable strengths.

An HR strategy guides that approach toward tangible outcomes. As a roadmap for workforce optimization, each company’s HR strategy is unique because it’s based on current circumstances and where leadership envisions its workforce in the future. Having a roadmap for achieving goals is important because it gives direction to everyone involved and promotes accountability.

Implementing software increases the chances of seeing the HR strategy through to fruition and achieving goals more quickly because solutions take care of or assist with a particular goal and provide data to track progress.

To explore the right solutions for your HR strategy, check out our HR Software Guide.

The post What is Strategic Human Resource Management? appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems can help your sales teams get more leads, improve customer engagement, close larger deals, and more. However, CRMs are very complex systems that present a lot of potential challenges when it comes to implementing and maintaining them. In this guide, we’ll talk about why CRMs fail and discuss how to tackle some of the most common CRM challenges.

What are the challenges of CRM?

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Teams implementing and maintaining a customer relationship management system may run into five main CRM challenges: high cost, too little time, bad data quality, lack of communication, and limited technology and IT capabilities.

Cost

One of the major barriers to CRM success is the budget, or lack thereof. CRM themselves can be very expensive, and the implementation costs can add up quickly. Some companies try to save money by skimping on implementation support, which can backfire on them and make it difficult to get the CRM up and running. Downtime to complete training and get up to speed on the new system also eats into company profits.

Solution: In order to make the most of your CRM, your company will need to invest the necessary money to fund the implementation upfront, with the knowledge that it will pay off in the long run as the CRM improves sales over time.

Time

Choosing and implementing a CRM takes time. Your teams need to research, test, onboard, deploy, and train, which can result in downtime for the business and for employees. Sometimes companies try to save on this “lost” time by rushing through these steps or even skipping them entirely, which often results in a CRM failure.

SOLUTION: Switching CRMs can’t be done both quickly and successfully, so companies need to set their expectations accordingly and embrace the process.

Data quality

Following the “garbage in, garbage out” principle, if you put poor data into a CRM, then the output will be poor quality, too. This poor or incomplete data can come from many different sources, including a faulty import from the previous CRM or incomplete data entry by sales reps.

SOLUTION: To prevent this from happening, your company will need to carefully import existing CRM data in order to ensure data integrity. Teams should also incentivize the CRM users to input new data into the system correctly to maintain the overall quality of the data pool.

Communication

If your employees have been kept in the dark about the CRM transition — either intentionally or unintentionally — that can lead to a lack of adoption and training and result in a CRM failure. Conflicting information about the migration can also confuse employees and make it difficult to determine what is true and what is false, further hindering their use of the CRM.

SOLUTION: Appoint a committee comprised of a representative from each department affected as part of the adoption process. You hired your staff because you trust their judgment, so taking it into account could save you a lot of headaches.

Technology

Both the technology itself as well as your IT staff can contribute to a CRM failure. Your IT staff might not have the skills and knowledge necessary to successfully implement the new CRM or to maintain it. The CRM itself might also lack necessary integrations with the rest of your company software stack and may not offer the ability to build custom connections with an open API.

SOLUTION: Even if it does have the right integrations, if they are set up incorrectly the CRM will fail anyways. If you’re not confident in your IT staff’s capabilities, you might need to hire outside professionals to assist with the CRM deployment process.

Why does CRM fail?

CRM typically fails for four main reasons: lack of clear goals or strategy, absence of buy-in, failure to adopt the technology, or not enough employee training. It’s also possible a company can simply choose the wrong CRM for its needs.

No clear goals or strategy

When choosing and implementing a CRM, both the company at large and each individual team or department need to have a handful of goals for what they want to accomplish with the software. If they don’t have a very clear vision in mind, then it will be difficult to succeed with the CRM even if all the other pieces are in place. Also watch out for too many competing goals, which muddies the waters and is just as confusing as no goals at all.

Not enough leadership buy-in

Another CRM problem occurs when top-level leadership doesn’t buy into the software change; this can also happen with rank-and-file employees as well. The entire leadership team needs to be on board before making a company-wide change on the scale of replacing your CRM. Appointing one ambassador or super-user per team can help get the rest of the team motivated to adopt the CRM and improve buy-in across the organization.

Failure to adopt

Failure to adopt a new CRM can occur for many reasons, including resistance to change, lack of training, and bad data quality. Employees may not want to learn a whole new platform or they may resist the new accountability that the CRM platform will create. Identifying the root causes underneath the failure to adopt is key for addressing the issues and improving adoption rates. The story linked immediately below illustrates this well.

ALSO READ: The Technology Adoption Curve: A Guide to the 5 Stages

Not enough training

Sometimes, your employees simply haven’t been given enough training or guidance to learn how to use the CRM. Thankfully, this problem is often relatively simple to remedy, and most reputable CRMs provide lots of training resources. Help forums, training videos, and webinar demonstrations can give employees the education they need to take full advantage of the CRM and make sure that your company is getting a return on its investment.

Software doesn’t meet needs

In some cases, your CRM problems might not fit into any of the above categories. If this situation arises, consider whether or not you may have chosen the wrong CRM, or if your company has scaled beyond the capabilities of your current CRM and marketing automation software. In both of these situations, the ultimate solution is often to seek out a new CRM that can meet the needs of your company and scale with it in the future, instead of trying to make the current subpar tech work.

Read more: What the Evolution of CRM Can Teach Us About the Future of Project Management Software

Looking for the latest in CRM solutions? Check out our CRM Software Buyer’s Guide.

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The post Top CRM Challenges & Strategies for Overcoming Them appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

The more employee data a company captures, manages, and analyzes for its entire workforce, the more it stands to reap the benefits of human resources information system (HRIS) software.

An HRIS serves as a centralized repository for employee data, such as name, address, and salary, as well as organizational data, such as policies and a directory. An HRIS also serves as a foundation to layer on more advanced human resources management system (HRMS) and human capital management (HCM) capabilities, such as recruiting and performance management.

An HRIS is more than a mere database. HRIS software comes with several benefits to help streamline HR functions and free up time for HR teams and employees to do more value-added tasks.

Also read: The 5 Main Types of Human Resources Information Systems

8 essential HRIS benefits

What can your HR team achieve by implementing an HRIS?

1. Real-time information access

Unlike paper files, spreadsheets, and on-premises software, an HRIS as a cloud-based database means one source of truth for all authorized users, primarily employees and HR. An HRIS helps with version control for documents that HR updates routinely because it syncs changes in real time. That way, HR team members accessing the same document don’t have to worry about whether they’re viewing or updating its most recent version.

2. Reduced manual effort

An HRIS can automate HR tasks that staff would otherwise have to perform manually. Automating an onboarding workflow, for example, saves both HR staff and new employees time. HR staff can then focus on more mentally-demanding, value-generating projects—like rolling out a new learning management system (LMS) or setting up a mentorship program—rather than getting bogged down with manual data entry or reconciliation. And employees can focus on the tasks more immediately relative to their role instead of asking HR how to get their benefits set up.

Automated approvals keep projects moving forward, so stakeholders don’t have to wait for someone else to complete their task and check off a box manually. For example, when processing an employee reimbursement, the employee can simply upload documentation, and the software can take it from there to sync up with accounting and payroll. If there’s an issue, it can alert someone in either of those departments.

Need an HRIS that earns high marks on automation? We suggest checking out BambooHR.

3. Increased efficiency

An HRIS enables companies to streamline HR data and processes in one place instead of investing in individual tools stitched together via an application programming interface (API). HR software vendors usually allow companies to bundle tools for cost savings.

Once a company builds and analyzes historical data in an HRIS, reports reveal opportunities for cost savings without sacrificing function or employee experience. For instance, a company can utilize HRIS reporting to track the cost of benefits and potentially renegotiate pricing with carriers.

The upshot of centralized real-time data, automation, and streamlined processes is cost savings for the company.

4. Pattern and insight discovery

An HRIS without added HRMS and HCM modules doesn’t deliver the highest level of analytics possible, but since it contains a lot of employee and organizational data, it can deliver basic reports that are nevertheless useful.

For example, HR can view benefits enrollment data to determine which benefits to expand and which to scale back. An HRIS like Rippling can also pull payroll data to generate a comprehensive compensation report the user can filter by department or role.

As a company adds on HRMS and HCM tools, the reporting becomes even more complex, even predictive, and the data contained within the HRIS powers those analytics. The more modules that get added, the more data HR teams and company leaders can leverage to proactively make well-informed decisions about its workforce.

5. Higher employee satisfaction

Having the right HRIS in place makes HR and employees’ jobs easier by helping new employees get started with less guidance and by allowing employees to update their own information when necessary.

An HRIS like the one at the heart of ADP Workforce Now, for example, automates onboarding workflows. This not only saves HR staff time, but it also puts employees in control of onboarding tasks to complete, such as e-signatures for documents. A clear workflow also makes a good first impression on new hires because they understand what they need to do and when.

The HRIS continues to serve as an important touchstone for new and tenured employees alike to return to as they manage their own data throughout the employee life cycle, such as benefits, time off, or tax documents.

6. Better compliance

Storing and managing data in an HRIS helps a business stay compliant with industry and government regulations because there’s an electronic paper trail to refer to if the need arises. Plus, some HRIS solutions have built-in, automated compliance features.

Regardless of the industry, a business manages sensitive employee and organizational information. Storing it in an HRIS means less chance of data getting lost or stolen, since an HRIS administrator can configure access controls. Moreover, in the event of an audit or a legal investigation, the HRIS contains all of the necessary data a company must legally store and maintain for a certain period of time.

Businesses must also adhere to local, state, and federal regulations, such as FMLA for paid time off, ACA for benefits management, or minimum wage requirements in payroll. Some solutions’ foundational HRIS modules are capable of automated compliance to ensure compliant payroll and benefits administration.

Need a solution that helps with automated compliance? We recommend Gusto or Zenefits.

7. Access to improved features

When using paper-based or on-premises systems for storing and updating employee information, companies miss out not only on the benefits already mentioned but also the advanced features HRIS vendors release in their cloud-based solutions.

With an HRIS comes customer support and routine updates to improve system performance. Some new features may even be added. Rippling, for example, is adding scheduled report runs to its core HRIS platform.

8. Scalability

An HRMS or HCM system can’t function without the core HRIS, so investing in an HRIS paves the way for greater scalability as a company’s workforce needs become more strategic and more interconnected with other areas of the company.

After investing in an HRIS like Zoho People, for example, customers can add modules on top of it as needed, such as Zoho Payroll, Zoho Shifts, and Zoho Recruit. Adding these directly to the HRIS avoids a sprawling ecosystem of disparate tools and the potential security risks that accompany a patchwork-style tech stack.

Moreover, having an HRIS upon which to build improves user experience because users don’t have to navigate and integrate various software tools; they’re all managed and accessible via one central platform.

Elevate your HR processes with an HRIS

Businesses of all sizes benefit from an HRIS. As a unified data repository, it automates repetitive tasks, generates reports, enables self-service, and more. Businesses with a hybrid or fully remote workforce particularly benefit from HRIS software because employees and HR can access critical, up-to-date information whenever and wherever they are.

The best part is that companies can expand upon the HRIS database to include more sophisticated capabilities that match their needs. Your company might need an HRIS, HRMS, or an HCMS depending on the following characteristics:

• Your company’s current size.
• People management pain points.
• What kind of data it wants to collect and analyze.
• What it wants to accomplish with that data.

Check out our explanation of the differences between an HRIS, HRMS, and an HCM to understand which type of HR system is best for you. Or, explore our HR Software Guide to browse top vendors across all three categories.

The post The Key Benefits Of HRIS Software (2023) appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Microsoft Outlook is a prominent and valuable email client — quite possibly the most prominent. Still, it’s not the best for helping you to organize and manage your meaningful customer relationships. A customer relationship manager, or a CRM, will help you and your entire team manage and track your contacts so you can create and grow deeper relationships. It’s only logical a CRM for Outlook could be the bridge you need.

Why You Need a CRM for Outlook

CRMs help your team with critical sales information. Client details such as job titles, phone numbers, budgets, locations, and uses of social media platforms are easily accessible. 

Additionally, adding a CRM for Outlook allows automation of the data entry process and can auto-fill contact records. This can save a substantial amount of time and allow you the freedom to better manage the most critical people on your contact list. 

Furthermore, a CRM can help organize Outlook and keep your inbox in line so you and your team can stay on track of top priorities. You also have the ability to streamline communications by syncing contacts and calendars — an often underutilized feature. 

What Makes a Top CRM Solution?

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When looking for a top CRM solution that will integrate well with Microsoft Outlook, we looked for a few things. First, we sought those CRM solutions that include most or all of the features we look for in a CRM. We then factored in other considerations, such as pricing and customer reviews. Lastly, we looked at how easy the solutions are to implement and use. With that, let’s take a look at the top CRMs for Outlook. 

10 CRMs that Integrate with Microsoft Outlook

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HubSpot CRM

HubSpot’s purpose is to make marketing automation better. Founded in 2005, HubSpot is an all-in-one solution offering marketing, services, operations, and sales. HubSpot is an excellent CRM solution for those who aren’t using other apps and integrations. It’s best for companies of all sizes. 

Pipedrive

If you are looking for a CRM solution that is easily set up and easy to use, look no further. Founded in 2011, Pipedrive launched as an alternative to large enterprise solutions like Salesforce. Pipedrive focuses more on sales teams. However, its relatively low integration abilities make it a better choice for small companies and mobile-ready platforms — but it does have the necessities.

Insightly

Insightly combines sales, project management, and marketing in one place. For example, you can use Insightly to leverage leads to ensure your team delivers on time. In addition, Insightly has a sidebar that will appear in your Outlook, making it easy to access features. Insightly was founded in 2009 and is best for account and project managers. 

eWay-CRM

You can upgrade the potential of Microsoft Outlook using eWay-CRM. This solution offers project and task tracking as well as advanced admin settings. Founded in 2008, eWay-CRM is an excellent solution for sales and project management teams. Its embedded mass email feature is also a handy tool. When you convert an email into a lead, eWay-CRM automatically captures relevant information, such as contact info, and files the email.

Salesflare

Salesflare is optimized to make following up on leads easier by bringing 100% CRM functionality into Outlook. With this functionality, you’ll never need to switch between Outlook and your browser because everything you need will be right there at your fingertips. Founded in 2014, Salesflare is a great choice for small and growing B2B companies. 

Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is an excellent choice if you already use a full Microsoft suite of products. Founded in 2016, Microsoft Dynamics fully integrates with the desktop and online versions of Outlook. In addition, Microsoft Relationship Sales allows sales representatives to customize their engagements with prospects. This solution is best for large teams already using Microsoft Outlook. 

Keap

Keap makes maintaining client data, invoicing, payments, and all messaging easy. It connects directly to your Microsoft Outlook inbox. Founded in 2001, Keap is a solid choice for small businesses looking for a turnkey solution. 

Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM offers multiple tiers and products and has two Outlook integration features available. It also provides email templates and live-syncing of Outlook emails and Microsoft Office 365 calendar meetings. These features make Zoho the best for marketing companies focused on lead tracking. 

InLoox

InLook’s Outlook integration makes it a formidable CRM solution. InLoox has been on the scene since 2011 and is great for project managers looking to plan, create, and assign tasks. Managers and teams can assign and view tasks, then track progress updates while a job is being completed. In addition, Microsoft integration allows you to add new items from an email without having to leave Outlook. 

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is a customer experience automation platform, or CXA. ActiveCampaign added the CRM offering in 2014, and the integration between email automation and CRM is what makes this solution so popular. Offering transactional email, email marketing, marketing automation, and sales automation, ActiveCampaign can be a good solution for small companies with an IT team, as setup can be a challenge. 

What Features are Included in an Outlook CRM?

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Deciding between CRM options can be intimidating while sifting through different solutions and features. We’ve curated a list of features to keep in mind while looking for a CRM that integrates with Outlook. Let’s take a look at some top features you should be looking for in a CRM. 

Workflow automation: One way a CRM can make your life easier is by automating your workflow. It would be best if you look for software solutions that allow for custom rules that can help with productivity. Using rules, you can set your CRM to auto-perform specific actions based on certain triggers. Some of these triggers include automatically directing messages to the correct department, sending an automated response to messages, and sending follow-up messages after a specific time has passed.

Customization: The best CRMs will have features you can customize to meet your specific business needs. Look for solutions that allow the customization of areas such as your dashboard, plugins, add-ons, and contact fields. Some CRMs go even further, allowing more advanced options through APIs. With APIs, developers can access all technical specs and codes, allowing them full software customization abilities. 

Third-party integration: If you’re already using additional software and features, getting a CRM which offers lots of third-party integrations makes sense. HubSpot CRM does this well. Choose one that is compatible with other software you use and implement. For example, you can automatically sync sales and order information with your point of sale system to manually cut down or eliminate entering data. You can also back up and sync data with cloud storage systems. 

Customer service: Acquiring and retaining customers is key to any business. Looking for CRM features that allow your sales and customer support teams to provide excellent customer service is a great way to get and keep those customers. Going that extra mile can be the difference in client retention and contraction.

Employee tracking: Keeping track of employee hours, meetings, performance goals, and other similar tasks can be easily tracked and managed with CRM software. Upper management is allowed access to employee dashboards, where they can measure productivity. This can help save time on employee reviews and determine a need for incentives and rewards. 

Social media monitoring: Monitoring your company’s social media accounts can be time-consuming. However, a CRM with built-in social media monitoring can save your marketing team hours by performing actions like gaining insight into the number of shares, likes, and comments. With a CRM solution that monitors your social media, you can also check multiple social media sites and gain strategic insights into how to strategize postings. In addition, you can also gain insights into who your customers are based on age, location, and other analytics. 

Lead management: If you need a feature that will help you identify leads and their actions throughout the sales journey, consider a CRM with lead management features. With this feature, you can acquire leads and convert them into customers. In addition, a sales manager can keep on top of leads and redistribute them to different teams for conversion.

Analytics: CRM analytics offer valuable insights into customer data. This data can help you make better decisions about service, marketing, and other communications you send to customers. For example, with an analytics feature, you can learn about profit and loss data and use web analytics that shows customer website behavior. 

Real-time data: Getting real-time data helps you make informed marketing decisions. A real-time data functionality can help you figure out where and when to place ads. You’ll get an instant idea of market demand and identity which products and services generate the most revenue. 

Reporting: Reporting features bring results from all of your marketing and sales efforts and help you identify opportunities to close leads quickly. Reporting gives you insights into which sales agents close which sales, the number of outbound calls made, and the effectiveness of your marketing emails. 

While these are quality options for a business searching for a CRM for Outlook, the list is not complete. Still looking for the latest in CRM solutions? Check out our CRM Software Buyer’s Guide.

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However, performance management software helps HR teams address these concerns by offering natural ways for employers to clarify employee goals, combat burnout, and meet employees’ rising demand for continuous feedback. Although there are many choices on the market, explore our top picks below for solutions to create a more motivated and goal-driven workforce for your business.

If none of these options seem the right fit, browse our Performance Management Software Guide for alternative solutions.

What is the best performance management software?

These top performance management solutions offer a wide range of features for employers concerned with various aspects of talent management in their organization, such as customizable performance metrics reporting to training and development modules.

BambooHR: Best all-in-one HRIS integration

BambooHR is one of the top HRIS on the market for a reason; its people-first approach to HR software attracts small businesses with little to no HR or IT departments. For companies already using BambooHR, it is easy to add their performance management module to their existing HRIS framework.

BambooHR’s native performance appraisal solution lacks some of the more advanced, customizable features—like career development and continuous feedback meeting options—compared to other top solutions.

Instead, BambooHR focuses its performance management capabilities on manager and employee self-assessments, peer feedback, and goal setting. As a result, BambooHR’s simplified approach allows for a more accessible and efficient user experience, even for companies just adding performance review flows into their company processes.

In addition, BambooHR’s performance management module also seamlessly integrates with its current mobile application. Employers already using BambooHR’s mobile app for employee information, time tracking, or document sharing can seamlessly add performance management to start tracking and updating their goals from anywhere. Both managers and employees can add or respond to comments on goals through the app, so managers and employees can be held accountable, even in roles not typically tied to a desk.

BambooHR pros and cons

Key features

Add-On Modules: As an all-in-one HRIS at its heart, users can leverage other BambooHR modules for a more well-rounded employee experience. With additional modules like employee training tracking and payroll, employers can capture employee data in one centralized source of truth. In turn, employees remain informed about their performance throughout their tenure at the company for a more transparent and consistent experience.

Performance Management Integrations: Bamboo’s popularity as an HRIS means users are not limited to its native performance management add-on. Through BambooHR’s marketplace, users already subscribed to BambooHR’s Essentials or Advantage plans can integrate with other top performance management solutions. Thus, scaling businesses don’t have to sacrifice their core HRIS as they outgrow BambooHR’s native program in favor of more advanced functionality.

Leapsome: Best for performance analytics

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Leapsome, unlike BambooHR, is a dedicated performance management software without traditional HRIS capabilities like payroll, time tracking, or applicant tracking systems (ATSs). However, Leapsome has significantly more advanced and customizable performance management features, such as objective and key results (OKR) management, one-on-one management meetings, 360-degree reviews, and engagement surveys.

Instead of a performance management software, Leapsome frames itself as a people enablement platform that gives employees the tools to exceed their goals. To do this, Leapsome offers five different modules, Perform, Align, Learn, Engage, and Reward; customers can either choose them à la carte to address specific business needs or use them together for a more holistic approach to performance management.

Although the modules are priced separately, they are meant to interlink, so every area of performance management is addressed, from employee-manager feedback to compensation management and career planning and development.

While other performance management solutions include standard performance management reporting like visualizations to identify achievers and underperformers quickly, Leapsome takes its analytics further with multi-language support and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

For instance, multinational corporations can use Leapsome to track the performance data of their international employees in the language of their choice. Meanwhile, Leapsome’s AI can track employee sentiment across the organization based on engagement survey results and predict departments at risk of turnover. By combining this data, employers can determine where they can focus their retention efforts, address poor performers, and drive engagement on a global scale without needing to leverage multiple platforms.

Leapsome pros and cons

Key features

Review Analytics: Leapsome includes multiple ways for employers to engage with performance data following review cycles, including visualizations like heatmaps, 9-boxes, distribution charts, timelines, and radar charts.

HR teams can customize the data to track an individual’s performance over time and even compare performance data among teams. Employers can then make data-driven decisions when determining the best players for particular projects to improve overall company performance.

Engagement Survey Benchmarks: Leapsome users can conduct employee engagement surveys and set internal company benchmarks to track employee sentiment, satisfaction, and employee Net Promoter Scores (eNPSs) over time.

HR teams can also use benchmarks to compare their engagement data with similar companies that use Leapsome based on location, industry, and size. By comparing their data to others, Leapsome provides insights for employers on areas of their business that need improving while remaining competitive in their field.

PerformYard: Best for customer experience

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PerformYard is at the top of many performance management software lists because of its intuitive user interface (UI), transparent pricing, and attentive customer service. PerformYard has a limited breadth of features, like career development and compensation management, compared to other performance management solutions on our list.

However, PerformYard provides users with just enough customization within its modules to tailor their performance review cadences into their dynamic workflows without overwhelming employees in the process. As a result, employees, in particular, praise PerformYard for its ease of use and ability to quickly tie their goals to performance.

In addition, PerformYard gives employees a sense of ownership over their performance through self-assessments, private performance notes, anonymous reviews, and constructive feedback requests. Managers can even create their own review questions and cadences to monitor employee progress and support underperformers.

PerformYard pros and cons

Key features

Continuous Feedback: PerformYard emphasizes continuous feedback in every aspect of its software, from one-on-one meeting cadences with managers and peers to immediate feedback and 360-degree review cycles, including input from external stakeholders.

Peers and management can even recognize other employees by broadcasting their wins to the company on PerformYard. By keeping employees informed on their performance, employers can address performance issues quickly while encouraging employee career development and growth.

Customer Service: In addition to traditional customer service support options, PerformYard provides a dedicated customer success manager to every customer to answer questions and address any challenges they come across. PerformYard also has an extensive support page with how-to articles and in-depth videos. For companies without an IT team or little technological know-how, PerformYard’s support ensures companies are set up for success, even past the implementation stage.

15Five: Best for career development

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Like PerformYard, 15Five uses a simple user interface and weekly feedback structure to foster employee transparency and continuous improvement. However, 15Five stands out for its holistic approach to performance management and emphasis on career progression.

15Five includes four different products—Engage, Perform, Focus, and Transform—that companies can pick and choose to address the areas of performance management most vital to them. However, 15Five intends for all four products to work together, as each builds upon the previous.

For example, employers can identify what areas of the company need improvement in Engage, tie this with employee performance in Perform, address problems with goal setting in Focus, and give employees opportunities to grow with Transform.

Because of this approach, 15Five documents employee progress throughout their time in the organization, so employers can make calculated decisions on fostering employee career development. This allows managers to upskill their current staff to address recruitment challenges and aid in succession planning strategies when employees leave or retire.

15Five pros and cons

Key features

Role Clarity: With Role Clarity, managers can outline an employee’s job description and responsibilities, so employees understand what is expected of them from day one on the job. Employees can also engage in two-way conversations about their assigned tasks and work together to adjust their responsibilities as needed. Managers can then tailor employee responsibilities as they watch their employees grow in the role, so they remain energized and motivated to succeed.

Career Vision: Through Career Vision, employees can access a vision board to identify their ideal days, what things they want to do more, and what things they want to do less. Managers can then adjust their meeting cadences and workflows to maximize employee efficiency while aligning employees’ career goals with manager expectations.

Coaching Sessions: 15Five’s Transform add-on allows employees to engage with career experts to grow in the areas most important to them. As a result, turnover reduces, as employees feel encouraged and supported by their managers and companies to succeed personally and professionally.

Lattice: Best for compensation management

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Lattice is a top favorite performance management solution among employers and employees because it offers the most comprehensive selection of features, such as continuous feedback cadences similar to PerformYard, career development features like 15Five, and robust analytics like Leapsome.

However, Lattice is an expensive solution, with a minimum annual contract of $4,000, and a steep learning curve among administrators and employees alike. Therefore, it may not be the best option financially for teams with limited budgets or just starting with a performance management solution.

Despite this, Lattice is optimized to handle large, diverse teams while providing customized and granular insights into their performance. Notably, Lattice differentiates itself from the other solutions on this list by offering a Compensation product dedicated specifically to measuring performance to inform promotions and raises.

Besides setting up compensation review cycles, Lattice also allows users to create compensation guidelines and benchmarks to maintain consistent and fair compensation practices among employees with similar roles, experience, and tenure. As such, Lattice may be perfect for organizations needing to implement equitable compensation strategies that directly correspond with employee performance-based metrics instead of a manager’s gut feelings.

For a more in-depth analysis of Lattice’s features and top competitors, check out Lattice Alternatives & Competitors.

Lattice pros and cons

Key features

Benchmarking Data: During employee compensation reviews, Lattice allows managers to access compensation market data according to the employee’s role, location, and industry. Companies can remain competitive and reduce turnover by comparing an employee’s compensation to similar positions. Moreover, it helps companies reduce internal pay disparities by ensuring employees in the same role follow similar pay schemes.

Budget and Spend Tracking: Managers can review compensation changes over time to determine an individual employee’s return on investment. In addition, Lattice provides merit and promotion raise guidelines, so companies can easily tie employee performance with appropriate compensation changes while staying within budget.

How to choose the best performance management software

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A performance management solution can significantly improve employee engagement and retention while supporting career growth and development. However, the best option depends on what areas of performance management are top-of-mind for the business as well as company size and budget limitations.

For companies looking for solutions to integrate with their current HRIS solutions, choose BambooHR or Lattice. Both companies offer various integrations with standard tech stacks, including Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Suite, and Outlook. BambooHR, in particular, is an excellent option for teams already using the platform, as it allows companies to integrate with other performance management software outside of the native solution for more advanced functionality.

For its simple user interface and emphasis on continuous feedback, PerformYard is best for companies that value employee experience. Likewise, 15Five’s platform fosters training and development, giving employees a sense of ownership over their career paths.

Finally, for companies that prioritize data-driven insights, Leapsome or 15Five’s reporting features allow companies to identify top performers and employees who need more support quickly. Leapsome, especially, gives multinational companies the tools to compare talent performance on a global scale and pinpoint locations to focus their efforts as they scale.

However, if none of these vendors meet your unique needs, visit our Performance Management Software Guide to browse other solutions.

The post Top Performance Management Software for 2023 appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Employee versus independent contractor. Full-time versus part-time. Exempt versus non-exempt. What is the difference? Considering up to 30% of employers have misclassified an employee in their lifetime, odds are they’ve asked themselves before and gotten it wrong.

To ensure employees receive the pay and benefits they are rightfully owed and to keep themselves out of legal trouble, employers should analyze whether they are correctly classifying their workers. Follow our guide below to identify the main types of employees, so your business remains compliant while keeping your employees happy.

What is employee classification?

Employee classification is a system of categorizing employees to determine their pay and tax circumstances. Employers could also use it to identify employees eligible for company benefits.

Beyond the scope of pay and benefits, there are additional classifications that employers need to reconcile. For example, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) — the governing body responsible for the I-9 form in onboarding paperwork — requires employers to monitor employees’ authorization to work in the U.S. As a result, employers could divide their workforce into U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens, with further subcategories under non-citizens requiring additional legal considerations.

For organizational purposes, employers could also categorize employees into groups that satisfy particular business needs. For example, companies could subdivide workers by title, executive status, or paycheck frequency. Doing so aids companies not only in compliance matters but administrative ones as well.

What are the types of employee classifications?

Generally, U.S. federal law classifies private-sector workers based first on their economic dependence on the employer, such as the amount of control over their work schedules. Federal law further classifies employees based on whether they are subject to overtime pay.

State and local laws also affect the classification of workers for access to particular state benefits. Michigan, for example, requires employers to distinguish employees between full-time and part-time to determine eligibility for sick time benefits under the Paid Medical Leave Act.

Beyond that, employers can adopt a classification strategy that addresses the level of compliance risk they want over their workers, benefits, and company productivity. However, once they outline their classification strategy, companies must enforce it consistently throughout their organization.

Employees

In the U.S., employees are workers who are economically dependent on their employer for things like pay, work schedules, equipment, and job permanency. Unlike contractors or volunteers, they are protected by federal labor laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and other employment-based state and local labor laws.

Employees represent a considerable portion of the workforce and require the most oversight by employers. Employers can further subdivide employees by the level of compliance risk they want over the employee life cycle and, below that, based on access to company benefit programs and particular production requirements.

Direct employees

Direct employees, or direct hires, are employees whose pay and benefits are the responsibility of their employers. In most contexts, they are considered “traditional employees,” as their employers dictate how and when they do their jobs.

Employers are entirely responsible for direct employees’ pay, benefits, discipline, safety, and other compliance matters. Because of this, direct employment relationships make the most sense for businesses with well-established human resources (HR) departments to monitor employment law compliance, employee health and wellness, and proper employee pay and benefits administration.

However, employers have the most direct influence over these workers, with the ability to control their schedules and training and development. So, these workers easily grow with and invest in the company as needs evolve.

Exempt vs. non-exempt employees

Under the FLSA, employers must classify all direct hires as either exempt or non-exempt from overtime. While the FLSA defines overtime as any time worked over 40 hours a week, state and local laws may also have their own definitions. California, for example, defines overtime as any hours worked over 8 hours a day.

So what makes an employee exempt or non-exempt from overtime? The FLSA criteria are quite involved, but the distinction is based mainly on how employees are paid (salary or hourly) and their role in the organization.

Exempt: These employees are paid on a salary basis of at least $684 a week. They also must work in an exempt profession, such as executives or administrators. IT and other learned or creative professionals, like attorneys or graphic artists, also fall into this category.

Non-exempt: Employees paid an hourly rate and who do not work in the above roles are considered non-exempt from overtime. They are subject to both minimum wage and must be paid at a rate of one and a half times their normal hourly rate for any overtime hours worked in a week.

Paying an employee a salary does not automatically make them exempt from overtime. Likewise, developing bogus job titles to align a non-exempt employee’s job duties with that of an exempt employee sets employers up for serious labor law violations and deprives workers of their entitled overtime pay. If an employer is unsure if an employee is exempt or non-exempt, it’s better to consult a labor law expert for advice before risking FLSA fines or decreased employee confidence in the workplace.

Also read: How to Avoid These 3 Costly Payroll Mistakes

Full-time vs. part-time employees

The federal government does not regulate the terms “full-time” and “part-time” regarding employee compensation. However, it is used by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and other state and local governments for access to specific government benefit packages or mandated sick leave laws. The ACA, for instance, states a full-time employee works an average of 30 hours per week for more than 120 days a year.

Generally, the distinction between full-time and part-time employees is up to the employer to decide, often in consultation with their benefits administrator. Most employers designate full-time employees to work between 30 and 40 hours per week to be eligible for benefits like paid time off or medical insurance. Part-time employees work less than 30 or 40 hours per week, depending on how the employer defines their full-time employees; they are also typically ineligible for company benefits.

Most employers have a mix of both part- and full-time employees. Full-time employees may be more costly for the employer but are usually more loyal and knowledgeable of company practices and priorities. Meanwhile, part-time employees are great for businesses looking for individuals with a more flexible work schedule to fill personnel gaps as needed in high-turnover industries, such as retail or manufacturing.

On-call employees

These are employees who are required to work should their employers contact them. The employee could either be on the employer’s premises waiting to work or at home waiting to come into work for a specified period should the need arise.

On-call employees are necessary for businesses in unpredictable industries, such as healthcare, public safety, or maintenance, and either replace or supplement staff during moments of crisis or other unforeseen events.

Seasonal employees

Seasonal employees work for an employer for a specified period, usually during the winter or summer months. For example, workers at an amusement park in a seasonal area may only work during the spring, summer, and fall months but not during the winter when the park is closed.

Indirect employees

In contrast to direct employees, indirect employees are not paid directly by their workplace employer. Instead, these employees are paid by outside organizations, who then either co-employ or lease the employee. As a result, indirect employees are advantageous for employers looking for temporary workers or small businesses needing to outsource their payroll and mitigate compliance risk.

Professional employer organizations

Professional employer organizations are companies that engage in a contractual relationship with another company and share employer responsibilities. For instance, if ABC Corp and a PEO shared a contractual relationship, all of ABC Corp’s employees are also the PEO’s employees.

PEOs run payroll, administer benefits and workers’ compensation insurance, and provide HR support for their clients’ employees. Small and midsize businesses can benefit from the co-employment relationship, as it eases the administrative burden off of their smaller staff while reducing the costs and liability associated with a full employer.

Leased or temporary employees

Leased or temporary employees are workers who are contracted with a staffing agency but work for another employer. Employers use these workers when staffing needs require additional help for projects for a specific period.

They are an excellent alternative to part-time, seasonal, or independent contractor work, as most of the administrative and regulatory tasks associated with leased employees remain in the purview of the staffing agency, not the employer.

Contract workers

Contract workers, as opposed to employees, are workers who have the most flexibility in their work and schedules. These workers either work for themselves or provide work within a limited timeframe or until they complete an assigned project.

Contract workers can be subdivided between direct contracting and subcontracting depending on the number of parties involved in obtaining the contract worker.

Direct contracting vs. subcontracting

The main difference between direct contracting and subcontracting employment types is the degree of separation between the employer and the worker.

Direct contracting involves a relationship between the organization and the worker. Subcontracting, on the other hand, consists of a relationship between the employer, the worker, and a third party. Organizations pay the third party or vendor for the worker’s labor in a subcontracting relationship.

A direct contracting relationship means employers have contingent workers on their payroll. Outside of traditional employees, these workers are the second most common employee classification but often the most misclassified.

Contingent workers

Contingent workers are the most independent of all employee classifications. They include independent contractors, freelancers, gig workers, and consultants. Although employers directly hire these workers, they are not eligible for employer benefits or traditional employee tax advantages. This can be enticing for employers with limited budgets, as contingent workers are an effective way to keep labor costs low.

However, employers must make sure these workers are contingent under the FLSA before classifying them as such to avoid significant penalties. For example, employers must pay back taxes plus additional penalties from the IRS and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) for each employee misclassified as a contingent worker.

Misclassifying workers also places workers at a financial disadvantage. A typical construction worker, for example, loses out on as much as $16,729 a year in income and job benefits through classification as an independent contractor, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Nevertheless, contingent workers can provide for projects requiring higher staffing levels or specialized knowledge traditional employees lack. Moreover, offering contingent employment opportunities may help attract incoming Generation Z workers who value autonomy and flexibility in the workplace.

Volunteers

Volunteers donate their time to public or nonprofit organizations for public service, religious, or humanitarian goals. Volunteer schedules are flexible, and the employer does not pay them; instead, they receive either charitable or educational experience.

Unpaid interns or trainees also fall under the volunteer category. The FLSA has strict guidelines on the intern-employer relationship, but generally, interns receive academic credit for their unpaid time at a company.

Employers can leverage volunteer work in specific industries as a cost-saving measure; however, they should not replace the knowledge or experience full-time employees can offer an organization. Similarly, paying interns instead of offering academic credit is often a better way to motivate these employees to learn and make a more meaningful contribution to company priorities.

How can HR software help with employee classification?

As laws revolving around the classification of employees change, a tactical solution helping employers remain compliant is both a time and cost saver. For example, small teams can avoid recruiting additional HR support or consulting legal experts. In addition, software solutions can help automate payroll taxes and benefits while implementing unique strategies to address the concerns of multiple employee types side-by-side.

Automate payroll and benefits administration

Depending on how the employee is classified, requirements for payroll and benefits differ. Leveraging payroll software or other top human resources information systems (HRIS) can streamline payroll processes for employees in disparate classifications.

Gusto, for instance, allows employers to juggle payroll for employees and contractors from the same place. Namely, on the other hand, automatically keeps track of benefit eligibility for qualifying employees and allows them to complete the benefit enrollment online. As a result, employers can guarantee employees receive their pay and benefits accurately and timely without resorting to manual tracking methods.

Compliance safeguards

It can be difficult for employers with vast multi-state or multinational workforces to keep track of varying and sometimes competing regulations on employee classifications, even with the most dedicated HR department. However, many solutions have prebuilt compliance safeguards to notify companies of potential labor law infractions, so companies can resolve violations before they become serious.

Rippling’s Compliance 360, for example, monitors the number of independent contractors on payroll and notifies companies when they should change them to employees according to the laws in their work areas. Scaling companies can rest assured knowing their talent force is properly categorized while focusing their energies on higher-priority matters.

Time tracking tools

Both labor laws and company insurance carriers require employers to track employee hours for overtime and other benefits eligibility. By investing in a payroll or benefits solution that integrates with current time tracking software or includes native time tracking features, companies can consolidate payroll and benefits administration in one place.

For instance, QuickBooks’ time tracking software reminds non-exempt employees to clock in and out to ensure accurate numbers. In addition, employers can easily monitor employee hours and adjust employee categorization should their hours fluctuate.

Worker management

Worker and employer relationships change constantly; good HR software accommodates this with little effort. Deel, for example, centralizes both the employee and independent contractor experiences by offering unified pay and benefits for both. Therefore, should a worker’s situation change — such as moving from a full-time employee to an occasional company freelancer — the software documents the change while providing a consistent experience for the worker.

Why is classifying employees correctly important?

Employee classification laws are constantly evolving to accurately reflect the changing nature of work. The difference between independent contractors and employees has always been complex, even more so now with the rise of remote work.

Employers must be diligent in identifying the most accurate classification for each of their employees. Indeed, classifying or reclassifying employees is time-consuming, but the process helps avoid costly labor laws violations while ensuring workers receive all of their due pay and benefits.

Moreover, as companies grow into international markets or hire remote talent, proper worker classification can help organize and optimize a company’s workflow in an increasingly complex workforce. Many businesses need a mix of employees, consultants, temporary workers, and freelancers to remain competitive and attract employees who demand more flexible working conditions in today’s market. Understanding how employees are classified is the first step toward hiring a more diverse workforce to address the changing needs of both businesses and workers.

Misclassifying an employee can put a company in legal hot water, but a tactical software solution can help. Browse our HR Software Guide for proactive solutions to accurately identify and pay your workers.

The post Employee Classification: HR’s Guide to Classification Compliance appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

• Now more than ever, sales and marketing need cross-discipline support, and they need quantifiable proof of the value of their efforts. MQLs and SQLs can offer a lot in this regard.
• When the two teams work together to define their qualification criteria, both benefit from better leads, and both avoid the frustrations of wasted efforts. 

Some industry terms have definitions with precise, universally agreed meanings. Others are more linguistic guidelines than actual rules. And some are listed in the dictionary under “it depends.” Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) fall into the latter category. 

SQLs and MQLs are metrics that can be either meaningful or meaningless depending on how they’re used. And missteps or masterstrokes for either begin with what the term actually means.

What Are MQL & SQL?

Here are the best general-purpose descriptions that can be offered for MQL vs SQL:

A lead is a potential sale, especially in B2B. A “qualified” lead is one marked as heightened interest, and thus more likely to convert to a customer/client for the brand. In other words, it’s a label instructing the marketing and sales teams to track, nurture, and follow up with the lead.

If the lead was vetted by the marketing team, it’s labeled as an MQL. If it was qualified by sales, it’s marked as an SQL.

That’s it. Those are the only commonalities that apply across the board. Anything more granular or specific will vary by organization, team, strategy, and a host of other factors. 

ALSO READ: Finding B2B Sales Leads That Don’t Suck 

Common Threads

Some of those factors are popular enough to merit mentioning, however, and may help organizations that want to set their own MQL vs SQL standards. 

Lead Priority

Most teams that have defined criteria for one type of qualified lead will usually have criteria for the other as well. SQLs and MQLs tend to go hand in hand. However they are not the same, and in some organizations one will have primacy over the other.

Differences in department functions are the main reason for this viewpoint. Marketing teams are tasked with increasing brand visibility and reach, but typically don’t see the end of the process (where a sale is made).

Conversely, sales teams interact with leads more directly, but usually on a one-on-one basis. They can see what concerns and details contribute to a lead’s final decision, but often don’t see the beginning of that journey for any customer they contact.

The divide-and-conquer approach can either be a strength or a weakness here (more on that below), but either way it tends to create a hierarchy between the two lead types, whether that’s part of the official process or not.

A more formalized sales funnel may have MQLs serve as a handoff point. Once a lead becomes an MQL, their information is passed on to the sales team for follow-up. If they respond to further sales outreach, they’re upgraded to an SQL, and sales reps work to determine if a deal can be reached.

For organizations that are more siloed in their approach, SQLs and MQLs may not be part of a sales funnel at all. Instead, it may be more a matter of interdepartmental politics. If marketers send along MQLs that don’t convert well, sales staff may instead prioritize their internally generated leads whenever they can.

Qualifiers

Qualifiers are the benchmarks used to separate the warm leads from the cold. When discussing SQLs and MQLs, this is the aspect that makes them impossible to define concretely. Different organizations—and different teams—will use different benchmarks in their qualifying process.

That said, the majority of qualifiers are tied to specific engagement metrics, both for sales and marketing. Below are some examples of popular qualifiers.

Marketing might qualify leads that:

• Sign up for a newsletter.
• Engage with the brand on social.
• Share brand content on their own social account.
• Download an ebook or other digital asset.
• Click on CTA buttons in emails, on landing pages, or on ads.
• Visit a set number of site pages (e.g. blogs or product pages) or return to the site a set number of times.

Sales might qualify leads that:

• Respond to email outreach.
• Sign up for a demo or free trial.
• Call the company directly.
• Engage with the website chatbot.
• Connect with sales reps on social platforms, or respond positively to messages there.

Marking a lead as qualified may happen after just one benchmark has been reached, or it may require crossing multiple thresholds before the lead is tagged for follow-up. Qualifiers may prove more or less effective over time if leads tied to them are consistently resulting in the same outcomes.=

Making the Most of MQL vs SQL

Marketing and sales both bring important insights and expertise to the table, but when the two teams don’t work in concert, that ineffectiveness can result in frustration and wasted efforts. MQLs and SQLs, regardless of how leads are classified or what the process does with them, are only valuable as metrics when they are calibrated to accurately gauge a lead’s interest.

Below are some guidelines on how to achieve that cooperative calibration, and some common mistakes that complicate the process.

ALSO READ: Defining Qualified Leads: What Marketing and Sales Need to Agree On

Effective Lead Qualifying Strategies

Leads, even qualified leads, are just a metric—a key performance indicator (KPI). Ultimately, it’s a value in a spreadsheet cell, and doesn’t mean anything beyond its numerical value. As a result, many teams find that the metric fails to measure or promote real success.

The ones that do see success recognize that the leads metric is a placeholder; one that represents actual human beings.

The Human Factor

Leveraging MQL vs SQL to build an effective sales funnel is an exercise in psychology and empathy. These aren’t numbers or email addresses moving down the funnel. They’re people. They have agendas and interests all their own. So, benchmarks need to indicate alignment between the lead’s use case and the brand’s offerings.

This all starts with questions. Why did they read the blog, download the ebook, or sign up for the newsletter? What questions do leads ask on sales calls? Who’s choosing not to convert, and were there quantifiable reasons for their decision?

Some of this can be accomplished internally, via empathy mapping, consulting experts among the staff, and looking back on previous experiences and data. Getting those answers directly from the target audience, however, is the more reliable strategy in the long run.

Surveys, solicited customer feedback, focus groups, social media polls, the list of possible tactics here runs pretty long. Regardless of how the information is gathered, the goal is to understand three things:

1. How users discover your brand.
2. Why they interact or engage with a given touchpoint.
3. What do they find compelling or repulsive?

As this information is gathered, it should provide guidance toward benchmarks that are stronger indications of interest and alignment, allowing those to be used as the qualifiers for leads. The process can then be repeated as more leads and new touchpoints start to add to the stack. It’s a feedback loop that ensures conversion rate optimization efforts actually optimize anything.

Done right, this data will aggregate into concrete answers regarding who is being qualified as a lead that shouldn’t be, and how to prevent those false leads from moving down the funnel.

Cooperation

Sales funnels that struggle to find value in their lead generation efforts typically suffer from a sales-marketing segregation. Siloing the departments prevents either side from being bolstered by the insights of their counterpart. The result is poor lead gen, poor conversion rates, and often, poor retention rates for sticky business models.

Marketing professionals are trained to reach a broad audience. They look for ways to broadcast the brand message so that it will find more of the right people, so that anyone who might find the brand’s offerings beneficial will know how and where to get those offerings.

Sales professionals are trained to help people weigh the costs and benefits of a purchase. Where marketers are usually one-to-many, salespeople are more practiced in having a direct dialogue with their audience. They hear the feelings and concerns of their audience straight from the source, and usually have a better idea of what benefits or features are real linchpins.

With a little collaboration, marketers can leverage the expertise of sales teams to refine branding and messaging. If an experienced sales pro knows exactly what to say, an experienced marketer gives them the right megaphone and points them in the right direction, metaphorically speaking.

Sales can help marketers know what details to focus on, while marketers can build processes that effectively pre-screen leads. Done properly, sales can focus on only the most valuable leads, and marketers can minimize efforts spent on ineffective tactics.

When the two teams work together to define their qualification criteria, both benefit from better leads, and both avoid the frustrations of wasted efforts. 

Lead Qualifying Pitfalls

Much of this has already been pointed to, but these missteps bear repeating, at least in summary.

Don’t:

• Define MQL vs SQL standards in isolation.
• Set qualifying benchmarks at random.
• Assume the other department just doesn’t know what they’re doing.
• Ignore customer/lead feedback.

Do:

• Plan metrics around direct audience insights.
• Measure lead performance and optimize over time.
• Build sales funnels via marketing-sales collaboration.
• Prioritize methods that produce brand evangelists.
• Leave room for mistakes that can be lessons learned.

Unless carefully crafted, lead generation processes struggle to produce a measurable impact on long-term growth.

Reaping the Rewards

Current economic situations have prompted many brands and organizations to cut back on spending. In most cases, the first budget cuts are assigned to marketing and sales teams.

Now more than ever, sales and marketing need cross-discipline support, and they need quantifiable proof of the value of their efforts. The MQL vs SQL debate can offer a lot in this regard.

When done right, MQLs can:

• Prove the value of marketing investments.
• Those writers, SEO pros, and social experts are more than just another line on the HR budget sheet, and MQLs can help prove it.
• Help sales pros focus their time on more profitable leads.
• Weed out the false leads (like the story above).
• Provide a system of measuring and optimizing demand- and lead-generation efforts.

Ultimately this can lead to improved conversion rates, sales numbers, and customer retention.

SQLs, when done right, can:

• Align sales and marketing priorities, so everyone knows which green flags for which to be on the lookout.
• Connect marketing efforts to sales wins, so the whole team succeeds together.
• Set benchmarks for marketing, so they know when to pass leads on to sales, and when to let them incubate a little longer.
• Identify methods, tactics, strategies, and efforts that are providing reduced ROI.

Done together, lead quality can be improved dramatically, providing a catalyst for accelerated growth in the market (without leaving a bunch of unhappy former customers in the wake).

The bottom line is that progress is easier to achieve when it’s measured accurately. Improvement is easier to achieve when results are quantifiable and attributable. The right processes can give us those numbers, and can validate our efforts to those in the company responsible for deciding what budget items are “indispensable.”

But these numbers still represent people. Management may not always be intimately familiar with the humans behind the figures, but those of us in sales in marketing should be. It’s our job to make sure the brand is offered to the right people.

Looking for the latest in CRM solutions? Check out our CRM Software Buyer’s Guide.

FAQ 

What are Marketing Qualified Leads?

A marketing qualified lead, or MQL, is a lead identified by standards established by a marketing team.

What are Sales Qualified Leads?

A sales qualified lead, or SQL, is a lead identified by standards established by a sales team.

The post MQL vs. SQL: Differences & Comparison in 2023 appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

• Have proof that a minor product adjustment will reduce overhead by 50%? Visualization is the difference between more numbers on a spreadsheet and being impossible to ignore.
• Visualizations are key to helping share information that would be otherwise difficult for most people to process.

Numbers are great. People aren’t always great at making sense of them (or putting them to good use). Ensuring you have quality data visualizations can help your employees and clients better understand your business. So, why is data visualization so important?

Computers are far better at this than humans. Their base language is literally numeric in nature. Which can make words, images, and sounds harder for them to parse.

What is data visualization?

The same dilemma faces businesses that want to leverage data and analytics to improve their processes. The key here is using the machine to pre-digest the data, and output it in a format that the wetware can grasp with ease. We call this Data Visualization.

Here are three compelling reasons your business needs stunning data visualizations.

ALSO READ: How to Optimize Your Data Visualizations

Data visualizations are easier to understand

Playing with blocks

Our brains have limits on how much they can learn, think about, and remember. So, humans evolved to use some hacks to compensate. The go-to tactic is “putting things in boxes.”

Phone numbers illustrate this well. Long strings of numbers aren’t very user-friendly, so we break them up into blocks to make memorizing them easier. In the US, for example, numbers are hyphenated into three sections: 555-555-5555.

Making numbers matter

Even the most practiced mathematicians will start to see spreadsheet cells blend together after a thousand rows or so. No one can be expected to be handed a mountain of unorganized data and understand what it all means.

Data visualizations provide the means to more efficiently communicate insights from all the number crunching. Thousands of data points might not be easy to remember, but a single stat or pie chart is more likely to be treated as its own block in working memory.

Context and relevance

Here’s how data visualization can make this happen.

First, the process uses graphs, charts, and other forms of visualization, shifting the burden of parsing the information from the reader to the machine (a system better suited for comparing countless abstract numerical figures). This frees up the reader to simply consider the ramifications of the data. In other words, it provides context.

Without benchmarks against which we can measure numbers, understanding their value is difficult. This is the same problem experienced when temperature is being compared between the Fahrenheit and Celcius scales. Forty degrees can either be sweltering or chilly depending on your frame of reference.

Second, data visualizations let the machine handle all the parsing. Using visualization tools to present that information, it’s much easier to strip away irrelevant data and findings — because not everyone will benefit from every pie chart. Presenting the data that’s most valuable to a given audience highlights the most important or urgent info.

Bottom line: Data visualizations provide context and relevance, simplifying your message, and promoting comprehension across a wider audience.

ALSO READ: Top Tableau Alternatives for Data Visualization and Analysis

Data visualizations are easier to share

Images, catchy quotes, and well-chosen sound bites are a lot easier to share than lengthy reports, articles, or rants. Social media pros have been leveraging this fact for years, and data visualizations offer the same solution to analytics teams.

Whether you’re sharing findings with your internal team, an entire organization, or an even wider external audience, the data will have greater reach if it’s easy to reference. No employee is going to pin a 12-page report to their office wall. Even if they did, there’s no way for them to effectively leverage that information in their day-to-day efforts.

An easy-to-read graph, however, or a short list of powerful statistics … that’s a different story.

Data visualizations are easier to use

The goal here is for the data to affect and guide future decisions. Data visualizations help here, too, and largely for the reasons already discussed. Removing the excuses of “I didn’t know” and “it’s too complex” drastically improves the odds that the insights will actually generate positive results.

When data is visualized in an approachable format:

• It’s easier to understand.
• Audiences digest it faster.
• Sharing happens more readily.
• It remains top of mind.
• Professionals will reference it more frequently in their own efforts.

Visualizations are key to helping share information that would be otherwise difficult for most people to process. Not everyone has a head for numbers (especially that many numbers). The visuals present the information in a format more conducive to consumption by the general audience, which often means achieving better results, faster.

Here’s the whole argument in a nutshell: Have proof that a minor product adjustment will reduce overhead by 50%? Visualization is the difference between more numbers on a spreadsheet and being impossible to ignore.

The dark side of data visualizations

A word of caution here for anyone who wants to achieve more than short-term goals with their data. Numbers don’t lie, but people often do. The problem with abstracting data into a graphic or visual is that the numbers can lose their context — and flashy visuals can be used to misdirect viewers.

When used unscrupulously, data can facilitate the manipulation of information and present a version of the facts that doesn’t align with reality.

For example, “Vanity metrics” are heavily maligned in marketing despite their usefulness in the right circumstances. The bad reputation is well-earned, though, in some settings. Traffic to the site might look like progress, but if none of those users are members of the target audience, the high traffic volume may simply be hiding poor conversion rates.

Presented this way, data can point to lots of busy work on the part of certain teams, but very little actual performance or progress. So when you start putting together all of the graphs you need, make sure to illustrate the appropriate context.

In summary

Data can be a powerful tool in business. It can improve business strategies. It can prove ROI of efforts and resources. It can highlight issues with the market, the business, the team, or even the data itself. Data can also be formatted to transmit important insights quickly and compellingly.

Most of this is accomplished through visualizations. Business intelligence tools are excellent for such purposes and can make short work of quality analytics. 

Looking for the latest in Business Intelligence solutions? Check out our Business Intelligence Software Buyer’s Guide. 

FAQ 

What is data visualization?

Data Visualization is a software process that takes raw data from spreadsheets and other sources, then turns it into colorful graphs, charts, and tables to make it more easily understood.

Why is data visualization so important?

Data visualizations provide context and relevance, simplifying your message, and promoting comprehension across a wider audience.

The post What is Data Visualization & Why is it Important? appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Despite employers’ best efforts to protect their employees from workplace injuries, it’s impossible to prepare for every scenario that might put a worker at risk. Accidents can happen to anyone at any time, and there are numerous ways an employer may be liable, even if the injury doesn’t happen on company property. When preventative measures fail and an employee is injured on the job, employers must understand their responsibilities and take swift action.

Check out our HR Software Guide for solutions that help maintain compliance with workplace safety requirements.

Workplace Injury Laws to Know

Workplace injuries involve the intersection of several federal laws, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), along with state-run workers’ compensation (WC) programs. High-risk industries, such as construction, maritime, agriculture, and manufacturing, must also contend with industry-specific federal and local laws. However, these laws provide a framework by which companies can begin to address workplace injuries.

Related: Field Service Management: Safety and Compliance

Workers’ compensation

Workers’ compensation started in the 1910s and is considered the first example of social insurance in the U.S. At the time, social programs were primarily the purview of the states to enact and implement. As a result, WC programs today are individualized, state-run programs.

Workers’ compensation employer obligations

Generally, employers are expected to cover medical, disability, vocational, and death benefits for workers who are injured, fall ill, or lose their lives on the job. In addition, employers must cover the entire cost of the worker’s medical treatment. If their doctor determines the worker to be temporarily or totally disabled, employers must also pay the employee a percentage of their pre-injury wages following a waiting period.

State plans, insurance carriers, and self-insurance

Some U.S. jurisdictions, like California, New York, and Illinois, require employers to purchase WC insurance through an insurance carrier. Others, such as North Dakota, Ohio, Washington, and Wyoming, require it through a state fund. Still, other jurisdictions may allow employers to choose between enrolling in private insurance, state funds, or self-insurance.

Employers who choose to be self-insured take on the financial burden of providing full WC benefits to their employees in the event of an illness or injury, including medical and any necessary lost time wages; their state, however, must grant the employer approval before they can be self-insured.

Regardless of the options available in each jurisdiction, employers must consider the programs that provide the most cost savings while meeting or exceeding minimum regulatory benefit requirements for their workers. Employers with few minor injuries might benefit from WC insurance through private carriers. WC premium costs are competitive and significantly lower for sedentary businesses. Private insurance carriers also assist in injury management, investigations, lost wage benefit payments, medical bill payments, and settlements.

In contrast, larger enterprises, with the capital and resources to maintain their own safety and injury management standards, could benefit from a self-insurance program. In addition, employers are more directly involved in the injured or ill worker’s recovery and could save on state-fund or private insurance premium payments if they have few injuries.

Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act)

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Known at the time as the “safety bill of rights,” the OSH Act of 1970 was enacted to ensure safe and healthful working conditions. To do this, the act created three agencies, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). OSHA, and its state-run equivalents, are the main watchdogs of workplace safety and training among private sector employers in America; Washington, D.C.; and other U.S. jurisdictions like Puerto Rico.

OSHA employer obligations

The primary employer responsibilities under OSHA involve creating and maintaining a safe workplace. Although some of the duties are industry-based, below is a short list of key responsibilities:

• Make sure workplace conditions conform to OSHA standards.
• Ensure workers use safe tools and equipment.
• Conduct appropriate safety training programs for employees regularly.
• Post in a conspicuous location the OSHA poster and any state equivalents.
• Use labels and posters to warn of hazards.
• Keep records of work-related injuries and illnesses, and post OSHA 300A logs from Feb. 1 through April 30 every year.
• Report any work-related inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within 24 hours and any fatality within eight hours to OSHA.

OSHA enforcement

Employers must make sure their safety plans are, at minimum, following their jurisdiction’s guidelines and OSHA standards. More often than not, OSHA conducts inspections without notice, and employers could face a fine of up to $15,625 for each “serious” violation.

OSHA also follows up on whistleblower complaints about dangerous workplace conditions or from workers claiming retaliation following their workplace injury or illness. Frequent evaluation of OSHA standards within the business protects a business financially from potential fines or lawsuits and maintains a safe work environment that protects employees’ livelihoods.

Family and Medical Leave Act

Because there is a potential for employees to be off work for long periods while they recover from serious workplace illnesses or injuries, there is a tendency for WC benefits to overlap with the FMLA and other employer leave of absence policies.

FMLA employer obligations

Under the FMLA, if an employee needs leave for a “serious health condition,” they are entitled to a minimum of 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave, during which their company-sponsored medical benefits remain intact.

Injured employees should be placed on FMLA leave that runs concurrently with the time they are off work. Even if an employee is not eligible for FMLA, the company may still have other leaves of absence, like sick or personal, that may apply. Leave policies should be consistently upheld among all employees in similar situations, with leave of absence or FMLA documents distributed appropriately to the injured or ill worker.

Upon exhaustion of FMLA leave, employers should refrain from terminating an injured or ill worker. Employers are still obligated to provide WC benefits to such employees, and premature terminations could result in claims of WC retaliation.

Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act

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Under the ADAAA, employees with disabilities have the right to reasonable accommodations. However, there are some cases where an employee’s workplace injury or illness seriously limits a major life activity, and they cannot work at pre-injury or -illness levels. While WC benefits could help these employees financially, the ADAAA requires employers to maintain certain standards when hiring and retaining employees with disabilities.

ADAAA employer obligations

Employers should engage in a meaningful dialogue with the employee whose workplace injury or illness results in a permanent disability and make a good-faith effort to provide reasonable accommodations to the employee. Depending on the employee’s injury, conversations with the employee, and recommendations from their doctor, this could take the form of providing extra breaks, opportunities to sit and rest, or even job transfer.

Therefore, even if an employee reaches the point at which they cannot get any better following their workplace injury or illness, the employer’s responsibility to an employee under the ADAAA does not end. Establishing policies regarding reasonable accommodations for workers and other individuals with disabilities ahead of time can mitigate the time and money lost in the event of an ADAAA lawsuit.

Preparing for workplace injuries is key

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Considering 2 to 3 out of 100 U.S. workers experience nonfatal workplace injuries or illnesses, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is likely a company will experience at least one workplace injury in its lifetime—even in a mainly sedentary business. Therefore, failing to follow the minimum standards set forth by state WC, OSH Act, FMLA, and ADAAA regulations could significantly impact the business’s financial health in the form of fines or lawsuits.

Additionally, employer workplace safety negligence adversely affects the livelihoods of injured or ill workers while eroding employees’ confidence in company safety protocols. Even worse, it could result in preventable fatalities.

Although large businesses may have the resources to implement safety programs in their organizations, small businesses may not have that luxury. OSHA has consultation programs to evaluate safety standards on the work site and resources for developing safety programs, training, and voluntary risk assessments specifically geared toward small businesses.

Enterprises or other businesses in high-risk industries, such as construction, maritime, or logging, may want to invest in software solutions with injury-tracking modules or safety and reporting templates to simplify workplace injury management. Namely, for example, includes compliance features such as OSHA case creation, injury logs, and reporting.

Meanwhile, leave management tools can help reconcile employer-paid time off policies with the requirements of WC or FMLA, so employees can receive the necessary time off to recover from their injuries while employers remain in compliance.

However, if none of these suggestions sound quite right, check out our HRIS Software Guide to browse for solutions that meet your particular needs.

The post Navigating Injuries in the Workplace appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Role-based access control (RBAC) and attribute-based access control (ABAC) access right management software tools restrict or limit employees’ access to Information Technology (IT) resources and services. Access right management software helps businesses approve or deny access to IT resources or services based on employee-assigned duties, which also helps prevent potential internal threats. Before comparing RBAC vs. ABAC, it’s important to fully understand the benefits and drawbacks of each.

What is role-based access control?

Role-based access control limits or restricts employees’ access to specific IT resources and services based on the roles and responsibilities of an employee. Roles can be based on job responsibilities, specific tasks, and required job skills. Depending on the user role, an employee can have limited network access or restricted access to sensitive information on a cloud or premises server. 

Using RBAC helps companies manage employee access to IT resources and services based on a subset of tasks assigned to a role.

ALSO READ: Why Role-based Access is Fundamental for Enterprise Project Management

How does a role work in an RBAC?

A database administrator will be authorized to create, modify, and delete tables in a database, so the database administrator will have these permissions enabled. The database administrator can also change a field name from LName to LastName, which a regular user cannot. 

A typical database user will be authorized to view and add or modify the contents of a database table field value within a record. Still, the user cannot modify the structure of a database table because those permissions are restricted. For example, users can change the contents of the LastName value of a record from Smith to Jones, but the user cannot change the field name.

What are the types of roles in an RBAC?

Employees should only be assigned roles that allow them to do their jobs. 

System administrators use four levels of role-based control that provide an employee with a specific subset of permissions defined in a role. For example, a Human Resource (HR) employee will be assigned to a compensation and benefits role but not assigned to the HR compliance role. However, a person in HR compliance can be assigned to the compensation and benefits and workplace safety roles to ensure the HR office is compliant in these two areas; employees can be assigned multiple roles. 

Here are the four levels of roles organizations can use:

• Flat RBAC – Before users can access any IT services or resources, they must be assigned to a role with associated permissions.   
• Hierarchical RBAC – The hierarchical role is set up so management personnel can inherit the same permissions as their employees.
• Constrained RBAC – Purposely creating several roles to complete one task, so no one person can complete a task. 
  • This separation of duties prevents nefarious activities by separating roles so no person can complete a single task. 
• Symmetric RBAC – This occurs when an administrator routinely reviews permission settings for each role with the intent of moving permissions from one user to another user if required.

What is attribute-based access control?

Attribute-based access control focuses on the characteristics of the user, the requested access, the requested resource, and the conditions or environment of the request. The user, the request, the resource, and the environment in which the request is submitted are all attributes.

How does an attribute work in an ABAC?

When using ABAC, decisions are made based on four attributes. The attributes are subjects, resources, actions, and the environment. For example, when a user submits a request to perform an action, the ABAC software tool will approve or deny it based on the user, the activity, the established policies, and the environment or conditions.

What are the types of attributes in an ABAC

There are four attributes: 

• Subjects – Unique employee information. 
• Resources – IT resource being accessed.
• Actions – The action the user will perform on the requested IT resource.
• Environmental – the time, place, or established policies will determine if access is granted or denied. This can be a policy, time window, specific device, or location.

ALSO READ: 3 Steps to Implementing Zero Trust in a Sustainable Way

What are the key differences between RBAC vs ABAC?

Though RBAC and ABAC are effective access rights management tools, they grant access rights differently. Besides the noticeable difference between RBAC using roles to grant access to resources and ABAC using attributes, the most significant difference is that ABAC can dynamically assign permissions based on the four attributes. 

ABAC uses eXtensible Access Markup Language (XACML) to assign access control rules. ABAC can also use conditional IF/THEN statements that decide a user’s access rights based on the value of an attribute. Another difference is ABAC requires an administrator with expert-level knowledge in setting up rules because it provides a more granular level of control that is more specific than just roles that RBAC provides.

What are the pros and cons of RBAC vs ABAC?

IT managers need to understand their organizations when evaluating the pros and cons of these access right management tools. Whatever tool an IT manager selects, the pros must have a decided advantage over the cons.

RBAC vs. ABAC pros and cons

Overall, RBAC is easier to set up and use. 

RBAC pros:

• Out-the-box implementation time is much quicker. 
• Best used in small to midsize business environments that have a simple organizational structure.

RBAC cons:

• Role expansion can quickly get out of control.
• Permissions can be assigned to user roles only and not objects or actions.
• No ability to restrict access to a sensitive data file on a server or in a folder.

ABAC pros:

• Offers more granular restrictions by using attributes such as time of the day, location, and file access rights.
• Policies that establish rules using conditional statements that can dynamically make decisions based on an employee’s permissions. 

ABAC cons:

• Setting up rules to take advantage of the four attributes can be complex and time-consuming.
• Prior experience and expertise are required to set up an ABAC deployment; if not done correctly, it can be difficult to undo and time-consuming.

The five best practices for using access right management tools

To get the most out of using access right management tools, IT managers need to consider implementing best practice concepts. Companies will significantly improve their internal cybersecurity posture when using access right management tools with the best practices. The five best practices when using access right management tools are the following:

• The principle of least privilege – provides the minimum access needed to allow employees to do their job.
• Multi-factor authentication – verifies the employee’s identification twice by having them log in initially with a username and password followed by a six-digit code sent to their work email or a biometric verification like a fingerprint.
• Removing obsolete accounts – having an effective offboarding process that revokes access to IT resources immediately after an employee is no longer employed.
• Identify vulnerable high-risk IT systems – Identifying and removing any IT system that cannot be adequately protected by an access right management tool.
• Zero-Trust security – forces all employees to authenticate their identities whenever they access an IT resource.

IT managers now have additional knowledge on how these access right management tools operate and what they can secure. Role-based access control is for small to midsize businesses that will not constantly add roles in the organization. An RBAC solution is recommended if a company has a limited budget, time, or IT staffing.

The RBAC vs. ABAC debate takes into account many factors. ABAC is the recommended solution for large organizations that grow annually with a diverse workforce and a large IT staff. An IT manager must select an ABAC solution if your business wants to grant or deny access to data files. SolarWinds Access Right Manager and other access right manager software tools for 2023 can be found in our IT Software Buyer’s Guide.

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