The bad news about starting or running a small business today is that there is hot competition in almost every industry. The good news is that finding the tools to take your business to the next level is easier than ever. The list of potentially useful tools is endless, but here are ten HR tools that all small, medium, and micro-enterprise businesses (SMMEs) should have on their radars.
Namely: Namely is an all-in-one human resources platform that can singlehandedly streamline your business. It includes HR tools for hiring, onboarding, employee social media, time tracking, payroll, benefits, and talent management. As your business starts to grow and you begin building a workforce, having an app like Namely in your arsenal will make it much easier for you to operate just like the big players do.
WorkStyle: It’s an agreed-upon fact that company culture matters in every business. WorkStyle is an app designed to help you build yours. It allows you to conduct personality tests on your team members to gain some insight into how each person works and what his or her strengths and weaknesses are. Harnessing this program can help you to understand how best to work with each employee and equip you with the knowledge you need to build a team that works well together.
iappreciate: Also crucial to company culture is employee morale. This free app, iappreciate, gives you a range of HR tools that you can use to drive morale by way of employee appreciation. Employees love to be recognized for their work. This app is an easy, no-frills way to honor exemplary workers for going above and beyond (with certificates, e-cards, and other rewards) with built-in tools for inspiring your employees (with videos, quotes, and tips). If you’re looking for a way to implement an awards or recognition program at your business, iappreciate is a good place to start.
Likeable Local: Social media management is a pain point for many companies, especially SMMEs. Deciding how often to post, what to post, and when to post it is a difficult puzzle, as is using social media to monitor trends and communicate with customers. On top of everything, social media management for a business sucks up resources, and many small business owners have neither the time to commit to it nor the money to hire a full-time or part-time social media manager. Likeable Local is an app that makes it easy both to farm out your company’s social media accounts and monitor those accounts from one central dashboard. It can help your business to unlock the power of social media.
Slack: How do you keep your entire business team on the same page all the time—while avoiding a million different email threads? Slack is the answer. It’s a robust chat-based app that your team can use to communicate and collaborate. Set up threads for group chats on different topics and projects or communicate one-on-one via direct messages. The app allows for seamless file sharing, intuitive message searching, and even over-the-internet phone calls. It’s the perfect tool for adopting remote work or work-from-home arrangements in your workplace—an increasingly important focus as millennials and Gen-Zers take over more of the workforce.
WeWork: Are you looking for office space for your business? WeWork helps businesses find a workspace that suits their needs. In particular, the company focuses on coworking space and shared offices, which might be especially attractive to small businesses and solo entrepreneurs looking to save money or build a business network. WeWork can also help you find private offices, office suites, and headquarters space in your area.
i-Sight: Ideally, your business won’t ever need to deal with employment lawsuits or workplace misconduct allegations. Having a smart hiring process complete with background checks can help you avoid these complications, but in the era of #MeToo, it’s vital for every business to be prepared for these critical concerns. This app, i-Sight, is an extremely valuable HR tool to have in case a misconduct complaint does come through. The app makes it easy to track complaints and manage internal investigations. With i-Sight, it’s easier to give every incident or issue the attention it deserves, which can help defend your business reputation, protect employee morale, and shield your company from potential legal fallout.
Jobvite Hire: One of the more popular apps in a business’s arsenal these days is an applicant tracking system or ATS. Jobvite Hire is among the most well-known programs in this category. Featuring tools for everything from building a career website to collecting employee referrals to ushering candidates through the interview process, an ATS is designed to make hiring new talent easier and faster. Jobvite says its users see an average 27 percent decrease in the time it takes employers to fill positions when they use the app.
Spark Hire: One component of reducing time-to-hire is streamlining the interview process. By replacing phone interviews with video interviews using the Spark Hire app, your business can save a lot of time on screening new candidates. Instead of spending 20 to 30 minutes on the phone with every applicant, set up video interview prompts and let candidates record their responses on their own time. Watching and re-watching the interviews gives you more insight into your candidates with a smaller overall time commitment. You can (and should) keep other parts of the hiring process in place, including in-person interviews and full background checks. However, video screening is a time-saving first step, and Spark Hire is an easy way to handle it.
Tipalti: Accounts payable (AP) is a hassle to manage even for small businesses with just a few suppliers. As your company grows and your payables grow with it, it’s important to find a way to cut down on the manual, menial work of AP management. Tipalti is an app designed to solve this pain point. It automates much of the process behind paying suppliers, fostering better relationships with those suppliers, and limiting the work on your end. Tipalti also makes it easy to fulfill tax and compliance obligations—even for tricky overseas payments.
For virtually every business function and challenge you can think of, someone has designed an app or software program to make your working life easier. Unlock stronger HR with a few tech-integrated HR tools for SMMEs.
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About Michael Klazema The author
Michael Klazema is the lead author and editor for Dallas-based backgroundchecks.com with a focus on human resource and employment screening developments
