Hagel and Company Human Resources Blog - California, Idaho, Washington State HR News

Human resources (employees) represent one of your organization’s most valuable assets. Maximizing your company’s productivity and profitability is largely dependent on making sure everyone in your organization is performing to their full potential. As such, implementing a solid performance review process is critical to the ongoing success of your business. It provides employees with a clear definition of what’s expected in their role and enables them to work toward the goals that contribute most to their personal and professional growth as well as the long-term success of your business.

The emerging popularity of Performance Management Software has introduced companies to new and innovative ways of automating the workflow of performance review tasks, reducing manually-intensive paperwork, improving the quality of feedback and collaboration, and reducing the stress associated with the entire process…which ultimately results in more satisfied and productive employees.

The Problem with “Manual” Performance Reviews

If your company is like most small and mid-sized businesses, your performance review process probably consists of a loose collection of tasks that include manually collecting annual evaluation forms and other labor-intensive, paper-based procedures. This inefficiency can be very time-consuming and often puts a heavy burden on human resource personnel, department managers and anyone else involved in the review. As a result, performance reviews are often delayed or, in an effort to just get through the process, less thorough and less useful to both the employee being reviewed and to your business.

A New Era of Automation

A growing number of companies are discovering the benefit of performance management software that offers a completely automated and totally paperless approach to performance reviews. By automating performance reviews using a software solution, companies discover that it’s easier to route forms to the appropriate personnel, streamline workflow with automated email reminders, provide managers with more complete information to reward individuals based on actual performance, and much more. In fact, here are some of the top benefits that performance management solutions offer:

• The paperless process improves efficiency, reduces duplicate data entry, and provides instant access to reviews from one centralized location (instead of digging for a review buried in a file cabinet!).
• Built-in workflow features provide for electronic routing of forms for review and approval.
• Automated email alerts remind personnel of open items, approvals and next steps.
• Gain powerful insight through reports and analytical dashboards that provide a visual snapshot of review progress as well as identify performance trends across all employees within a company or department.

Collectively, these features save a tremendous amount of time and effort as well as lead to better quality reviews. In addition, automating your performance review process can result in a return on investment in the form of increased productivity, optimized compensation based on actual performance and a reduction in hiring and training costs through better retention rates.

Performance Management Solutions

There are several performance management solutions available, both on-premise and web-based, that offer a range of features and price points to fit your needs. Contact us to learn more about automated performance appraisal software or to discuss your needs.

The Benefits of Electronic Payroll Paycards

In recent years, businesses have enjoyed tremendous savings in payroll costs by offering direct deposit programs and encouraging employees to participate. In fact, the employee adoption rate of direct deposit is very high. However one challenge remains – extending the convenience and cost savings of electronic payroll to employees who do not have a bank account (“unbanked”) and thus cannot accept direct deposits. In this article, we’ll discuss the value of Electronic Payroll Cards as an alternative to issuing paper paychecks to your “unbanked” employees.

What is a Payroll Card?

A payroll card holds a stored value and functions just like a debit card. An employee who receives payroll on a paycard is able to access cash at an ATM, pay bills, buy groceries, make online purchases, and use the card just about anywhere a debit card is accepted. In fact, they’re often branded with Visa or Mastercard and are widely accepted by merchants, banks, and other institutions.

For employers, payroll paycards work in exactly the same way that direct deposit does. A paycard program blends into your existing payroll process without additional hardware or software required.

The Benefit to Employers

The primary benefit of offering paycards is to eliminate the processing costs of issuing paper paychecks to unbanked employees. According to research, there are about 28 million people that are unbanked in the US with another 44 million that have very little access to financial services. The cost of issuing paper paychecks to these employees is estimated to be about $1 to $2 per employee per pay period including the cost of paper stock, security features, envelopes, check handling, and printing supplies. There is also a replacement cost and potential bank fees for lost or stolen paychecks.

The Benefit to Employees

Unbanked employees often use a check cashing service that charges a fee in the neighborhood of 5%. With a payroll paycard program, those fees are eliminated putting more money in your employees’ pockets. Plus, they’ll gain the convenience of using a debit card while eliminating the risk of carrying cash. In fact, the convenience of paycards also extends to employees currently using direct deposit who sometimes opt to receive a portion of their pay on a paycard as a means of providing funds to relatives or to track and budget spending on nonessential items.

Introducing Sage Payroll Paycards

Sage offers a Payroll Paycard program that will save you money while offering your employees the convenience of a safe and secure method of payment. It works the same way as direct deposit and requires no additional systems, hardware, or software.

Contact us if you’d like to learn more about the Sage Payroll Paycard program.