Free Human Resources (HR) Software Download Facts

April 22nd, 2009 Gireesh Sharma

Free HR Software

Many visitors on EmpXtrack’s website come to look for Free HR software. Because there are many softwares in different domains that come for FREE, they expect that there can be a Free Human Resources Software too. This post will discuss “Is there any free lunch (software) at all?” for Human Resources Management. I will also try to bust the myths about the softwares that are available for Free.

Why HR Software is NOT free?

Let me begin with why there can’t be free software in HR Domain.

My first argument is that it takes lots of efforts to develop an HR Software, because an HR Software is not merely a plain database of employees information fields (like in an Excel Sheet or MS Access) but a large collection of various types of information which are linked to each other in a logical way so that an output can provide a Common Sense View about the employees.

If I need to define HR Software I will say “HR Software is a process for the collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation of employee’s data. It can provide tools for prediction and forecasting based on data. Thus it can be used for a wide variety of management decisions, financial decisions about manpower, performance of people, succession planning and removal of non-performers.” Such an important software, which provides a total MIS on human resources has to be created with great care. How can you get it for Free. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Employee Appraisals, Goal Setting, HR Technology, HRMS (HRIS), Human Resources, Performance Management | 7 Comments »

Writing SMART Goals (also called KRAs) from Job Descriptions

April 14th, 2009 Gireesh Sharma

Many Managers (Including HR managers responsible for writing others Goals) often ask to help them on creating Goals (Key Responsibility Areas) for different designations, which they can use for setting Goals and/or conducting performance appraisals. While most of these managers are completely aware of their job profile, they find it difficult to shape it in a written form.

Knowing your Goals and writing them effectively is an all-together different game. To describe your Goals (KRAs) you need to have effective writing skills and sound knowledge of terminology. Unfortunately, some executives/ managers may not have a flair for writing and thus unable to write their Goals (KRAs). This is true for HR also. So here are some tips that will help Talent Junction users to write Goals (KRAs) from the Job Descriptions.

SMART: A Smart Goal (KRA) is one which is:

1. Specific : Clearly stated what to do and how to do?
2. Measurable: States how the performance for this goal will be measured.
3. Achievable: It can be achieved by employees if they work really hard (You can draw this conclusion by talking to employee, manager or someone who has done this job successfully).
4. Relevant: The KRA (Goal) is relevant to the job and the performance on this goal will improve productivity of the employee.
5. Time Frame: States a time frame to achieve the goals.

How to WRITE  SMART Goals (KRAs)?

Here are the steps how anyone can write Goals (KRAs) from Job Descriptions: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Goal Setting, HR Best Practices, HR Technology, Human Resources, Performance Management | 11 Comments »

Employee Appraisal Scores can be DECEPTIVE

March 30th, 2009 Gireesh Sharma

Recession has done at least one good thing for organizations. Shifting the FOCUS from Gut-feelings to qualitative and quantitative analysis of business performance and decisions.

“I think Steve is a great guy.” doesn’t work anymore. It has to be “Look at John’s sales performance report. It says he is doing great job.”

The next thing that comes into picture is Employee Performance Appraisals. More than ever organizations are looking to set SMART goals and conduct performance appraisals honestly. But does HONESTY itself gives accurate results?

Consider the case of three managers in the same department of an organization in Year 2007. The performance of the teams of these managers was at par with marginal differences.

Manager A: Ram is one of the youngest managers and hails from Generation Y. He is very optimistic and looks for positive side of the employees. He believes in motivating by carrots.
Manager B: Sonia is in the middle of her career. She has high career prospects in the company and looking for promotion in 1-2 years. She likes to play safe.
Manager C: Johnson is an ex-government employee. For him discipline and loyalty come foremost. He cannot tolerate any deviation from policies and authorities. He believes in the stick.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Employee Appraisals, Human Resources, Performance Management | 6 Comments »

The Ray of Hope in Recession for Human Resources

March 4th, 2009 Gireesh Sharma

While reading Jon’s Carnival of HR titled ”Carnevale delle Risorse Umane: 18 February 2009 ” I realized how much clouds of sorrow surmount the Human Resources domain due to recession.

And why not, after all it is the Human Resource Department that is bearing the burns. HR has to do the most disgraceful job of laying off people, because Businesses can no more afford to pay them. Employees that are chopped off curse HR, even though most HR Managers will be at no fault . HR that used to be hero at the time of a flourishing economy is now suddenly considered a villain making plans and strategies to show door to people. Adding to the sorrow, HR has also been ordered to chip off salary packages, incentives and benefits, making the life tougher for those who are fortunate enough to remain employed,,and to bear their blames and curses.

Sad, but it triggered me to search for the rays of hope that prove that Recession will not last long. Here is my list:

Hope 1: Determination of Leadership

There is a very strong determination amongst the political and business leadership to curb the recession. Never in the last few decades we saw such a global and massive effort to fight economic crisis. This determination is sure to find ways out of the recession and foray into another blooming decade 21st century. I think recession is the birth pang of human society into a new era.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Economy, HR Technology, Human Resources, Performance Management | 2 Comments »

The Future of Human Resources Management

February 5th, 2009 Gireesh Sharma

Prayag Consulting, a leading technology marketing firm, recently interviewed President of Saigun Technologies and the Chief Architect of EmpXtrack, Tushar Bhatia, regarding the trends in HR Technology, the future of HR Management and entrepreneurship. Here are some excerpts from the interview that appeared in their newsletter Focal Point.

What the future holds for HR Technology

With the baby boomer generation retiring, there is a massive talent shortage in the Western countries. Organizations will have to optimize their workforce to deliver at the lowest possible manpower requirements, and any solution that can help them do this effectively will be a sure winner.

The maturing of Internet based technology platforms, acceptance of the SaaS concept by the market at large, good security standards and low cost of bandwidth are further enablers. We are fortunately in a good period at the right time and hope to capitalize on the trend.  Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in HR Technology, Human Resources, Motivation, Performance Management | 3 Comments »

Why employee performance appraisals are ineffective, sometimes?

January 12th, 2009 Gireesh Sharma

One of my HR Community friends,  Basheer wrote to me:

> Dear Mr. Gireesh Sharma,
>
> When most people consider traditional performance appraisals a time consuming and expensive task, I also believe they are ineffective in the present work culture of organizations.
>
> I would like to hear from you the better ways to get the performance appraisals done effectively ,successfully and quickly. Or is there a way out of performance appraisals?
>
> Regards.
> A.A Basheer

Basheer’s concern was to a large extent genuine. I would like to share with you what I replied to him:

Dear Mr. Basheer,

Thanks for writing.

I (to some extent) agree with your thought that “most people consider traditional performance appraisals a time consuming and expensive task“. Is there a better way to do it? Yes it is! Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Employee Appraisals, Human Resources, Performance Management | 3 Comments »

What is a bigger problem: Managing employee appraisals or writing accurate appraisals?

December 24th, 2008 Gireesh Sharma

While, I was organizing a software training workshop for a major Electric Power Distribution Corporation in New Delhi, I asked Vikram Singh, one of the participating Senior Managers, who has a team size of 150 employees for performance review, “What is the bigger problem when conducting employee appraisals: managing appraisals or writing accurate appraisals?“.

[Background: This 2,500 employee big company opted for EmpXtrack Performance Management System. Prior to using a web-based performance management system, they used paper based appraisal forms.]

“I have a team of 150 people to review, for me managing employee appraisals is a bigger problem. With an experience of 10 years, writing accurate appraisal is not so difficult. It may be difficult for younger managers but not for an experienced one.“, said Vikram. He continued, “For senior managers like me who also have to review appraisal of my juniors’ teams (I have 8 juniors managing teams of 15-20 each), managing appraisals is a far bigger problem. There is already a long list of urgent tasks with me and then managing 150 employee appraisals, usually in a span of 1 month. It makes me sweat.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Employee Appraisals, HR Technology, HRMS (HRIS), Human Resources, Performance Management | 2 Comments »

Ten Tips For Downsizing with Grace in Difficult Economic Times

November 26th, 2008 Gireesh Sharma

Difficult economic times call for tough calls, and, downsizing is one of the toughest calls that leadership and HR have to take. Though downsizing is the most hated task and nobody wants to do it; it is a necessary evil for saving a company from an economic collapse.

With little efforts organizations can minimize the effect of downsizing on economy and employees to a some extent.  Here are 10 tips that one can consider while downsizing:

1. Do a manpower analysis before you Downsize!

Think twice, do you really need to vacate those seats and happy faces. Do not make subjective decisions!

Work and re-work on your manpower requirements - for today and for tomorrow. A good manpower planning software can assist you and your mangers to accurately assess your manpower requirements. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in HR Best Practices, HR Technology, Performance Management | 5 Comments »

SaaS gets its due recognition

August 14th, 2008 Gireesh Sharma

It was refreshing to see the perspective of a leading monthly magazine DARE which talked about SaaS as a

way to lower IT costs. Makes me proud since we were covered as one of the top provider in HR. You can read about the article and even view the coverage here.

And to begin with, we faced our set of challenges too. Many companies are skeptical about security of data, continuous availability of Internet, bandwidth limitations, etc. but many have hopped across to try the new business model. Google’s soaring profits are a testimonial to this.

While reviewing my list of clients in India, I was surprised to see that almost 75% of our customers had adopted the SaaS way of doing things. And most of these companies are not really small. The smallest is about 30 employees (who are using us to manage their sales force) and the largest has over 3,500 employees using our system.

Continue to look here for a detailed cost-benefit-analysis of using the SaaS model vs. an outright purchase of software.==============

Posted in Goal Setting, HR Best Practices, HRMS (HRIS), Human Resources, Performance Management | No Comments »