HR staff struggle with more pressure due to the need to be efficient while working within limited budgets. Activities like record keeping, conducting performance evaluations, administering attendance, and processing payroll take a lot of time, effort and money, and they may not necessarily produce accurate results or be effective.
The introduction of HRMS programs is transforming the way companies manage their businesses. By automating typical HR procedures and consolidating all employee data in one location, HRMS programs enable organisations to save on HR expenses, reduce mistakes and eliminate the repetitive manual work performed by their HR teams.
What Is HRMS Software?
HRMS (Human Resource Management System) is a digital system to automate, manage and simplify all aspects of HR operations from start to finish. An HRMS replaces spreadsheets, paper documents, and disconnected applications with one complete and integrated solution.
An HRMS software generally includes:
- Employee data management
- Payroll software
- Attendance management software
- Leave management software
- Performance management software
- Compliance and reporting tools
The important components of HRMS include:
- Employee Database: A warehouse for complete or partially complete records.
- Payroll Processing: Automating the processing of employees’ wages and tax calculations
- Attendance Management: An automated means of tracking employees’ hours worked.
- Leave Management: Tracking employees’ leave requests, remaining leave allowance, and managing employees’ leave balances.
- Performance Management: Tracking employee performance through performance goals, performance reviews and feedback.
- HR Analytics: This helps HR make better-influenced HR analytical decisions using data rather than guesswork.
What Is the Hidden Cost of Manual HR Processes?
Are manual HR processes really costing you more than you think?
What if your HR team is spending most of its time on tasks that software can do better?
Manual HR work may look inexpensive on the surface, but the hidden costs quietly collect over time.
Understanding the Real Impact
Manual HR operations are performed primarily through paperwork, spreadsheets, emails, procedural documents, and manual intervention by someone else. In a small team, managing these processes may appear to be relatively easy; however, as your company grows in size, these same processes can become inefficient, costly and pose additional risk.
Costs of Manual HR Processes
- Repetitive data entry and approval lead to unnecessary waste of time.
- Payroll errors may cause employees to be unsatisfied.
- Violations of statutory deadlines could result in compliance liability.
- Significantly increased administrative burden.
- HR productivity is at an all-time low.
- Poor employee experience.
Time and resources exhausted by manual HR activities such as tracking attendance, processing payroll, approving leave requests, and updating employee information can be put to better use, developing talent and developing a strategic plan.
The potential for error is much greater in manual payroll processing and compliance. An incorrect calculation or a delay in payroll could lead to consequences such as financial penalties and a loss of employee trust.
Are these risks worth it? Even small errors can have devastating effects.
A manual HR system does not provide real-time access to workforce data.
Where is the clarity? Often, decisions are based upon outdated or incomplete data.
Hidden costs. Silent losses. Lost opportunities. Value is lost as a result of inefficient manual HR processes without organizations realizing it.
How HRMS Software Reduce HR Cost?
HRMS Software lowers the cost of doing HR functions by automating repetitive processes, decreasing errors, and improving how an organisation controls its workforce.
Using HRMS software allows an organisation to grow and manage larger volumes without having to hire additional human resource staff.
How HRMS Software Cuts Down HR Time & Effort
| HR Activity | Time Spent Manually (Per Month) | Time with HRMS Software | Efficiency Improvement |
| Payroll & Salary Processing | 20+ hours | 5 hours | ~75% time reduction |
| Leave & Holiday Management | 30+ hours | 10 hours | ~65% faster processing |
| Attendance & Shift Tracking | 28 hours | 4 hours | ~85% automation |
| Employee Onboarding Tasks | 22 hours | 7 hours | ~68% workload reduction |
| Employee Requests & Queries | 55 hours | 18 hours | ~67% fewer HR touchpoints |
| Statutory Compliance & Reports | 15 hours | 3 hours | ~80% time saved |
| Overall HR Operations | 170+ hours | 47 hours | 70%+ productivity gain |
1. Less Paperwork for HR
HRMS Software removes manual tracking of employee records, reducing operational costs by providing HR departments with fewer files to maintain.
2. Reduced Payroll Costs
Payroll software automates salary calculations, deducts taxes from employees’ paychecks & creates statutory reports, which saves time and helps prevent expensive errors.
3. Better Manpower Planning
The use of HRMS analytics helps HR departments use people more effectively in order to avoid overstaffing and control labour costs.
4. Access More Resources
HR professionals can now focus their time on strategic initiatives as opposed to day-to-day tasks, which leads to an increase in employee productivity.
Key HRMS Features That Reduce HR Workload
1. Centralised Employee Database
Store all employee data in a big, secure single database, so everyone has the same data, there are no duplicates, less paper to manage and HR can always locate up-to-date data.
2. Automated Payroll Software
The payroll system automates salary calculations, statutory deductions, tax compliance, payslip generation, etc., so the payroll process takes much less time, has fewer errors and is less dependent on manual spreadsheets.
3. Attendance Management Software
The attendance management software automatically records worked hours (i.e. punch-ins/outs, sick days), shifts, overtime and late marks, so there will never be inaccuracies and eliminate punch cards, register or manual records.
4. Leave Management Software
Leave management software enables employees to apply for leave, have their balance tracked automatically, have company policies enforced and get their leave approved without having to send emails or manually follow up with HR.
5. Performance Management Software
All goal setting, performance appraisals and ongoing feedback will be digital (e.g. digital appraisals, performance metrics will be available online) so that the entire process is quicker, contains timely reviews, and has less significant administrative burden for both HR and employees.
6. Employee Self-Service Portals
Employees can manage their accounts by changing their personal information, downloading a copy of their payslip, applying for leave and making other requests, all from a self-service portal. This greatly reduces the number of routine requests HR has to handle.
Steps to Implement HRMS for Maximum Workload Reduction
Step 1: Identify HR Pain Points
- Review all current manual HR processes.
- Identify which HR processes are wasting too much time.
- Highlight any errors with payroll, attendance or leave-related issues.
- Assess compliance and statutory issues.
- Understand the dependency of both employees and managers on HR.
- Create specific goals for the reduction of workload.
Step 2: Define Clear Objectives for the HRMS
- Identify the necessary HRMS modules and features.
- Prioritise automation of processes.
- Align the goals of the HRMS with the business strategy.
- Estimate the savings you can achieve in terms of time and money.
- Define the key performance indicators (KPIs) and success measures.
- Plan for future scalability.
Step 3: Choose HRMS Software
- Review the accuracy and compliance of your payroll software.
- Review the attendance and leave management module of your software.
- Review the performance management software module of your software.
- Review the readiness of your software with respect to statutory compliance.
- Review the user-friendliness of the software, both for HR and employees.
- Consider the reliability and support offered by the software vendor.
Step 4: Prepare for Data Migration
- Clean and organise your existing HR data.
- Remove any duplicate or outdated records from your data.
- Standardise the formats used for employee information.
- Verify any payroll or statutory-related data.
- Ensure privacy and security of all data.
- Plan for a smooth transition of your data.
Step 5: HRMS Modules Configuration
- Create payroll policy, pay structure and payroll rules.
- Define attendance rules and shift schedules.
- Create a leave policy and leave request process.
- Customise the performance review cycle and appraisal form.
- Create employee self-service features.
- Thoroughly test HRMS configuration.
Step 6: HR Team & Employee Training
- Conduct HR admin training for all.
- Provide employees with HRMS self-service training.
- Provide SOPs, user guides and FAQs.
- Answer any HRMS-related questions ASAP.
- Promote successful system usage.
- Appoint internal HRMS champions.
Step 7: Monitoring, Optimisation & Growth
- Monitor improvements in HR productivity and efficiency.
- Measure savings in HR cost.
- Collect employee and manager feedback.
- Use analytics to improve processes.
- Upgrade and expand HRMS as required.
- Increase the number of HRMS users as the company grows.
Why Savvy HRMS Is the Best Choice?
Savvy HRMS is focused on automating and simplifying HR workflows, while simultaneously greatly reducing the amount of manual labour needed to administer those HR activities and decreasing the overall cost associated with in-house HR.
Savvy HRMS offers an all-in-one solution for payroll processing, attendance tracking, leave tracking, performance management, and performance tracking.
If you are concerned about the amount of effort required to implement Savvy HRMS, or whether you will be able to jump right into using it, don’t worry. Savvy HRMS is a very user-friendly, quickly implementable solution supported by experienced onboarding specialists. Both your HR team and your employees will be able to comfortably begin using it on the first day it is implemented.
The most significant advantage of Savvy HRMS is that it can adapt to the size and operational needs of your business as it grows. Whether you are a small, medium, or large organization, it will allow HR teams to focus on what matters most, people and performance, while helping to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.
Conclusion
Increased costs when HR processes are done manually, lower HR effectiveness and limited Strategic value of HR. By investing in the right HRMS system, reducing time and errors spent on everyday tasks, plus a reduction of HR costs, the burdens associated with manual labour are lifted off of HR teams, allowing them to be more proactive, efficient and future-proof.
Do you want to reduce the cost of HR and get rid of your manual HR processes? Book a demo with Savvy HRMS today and see the difference.
