As cloud and big data technologies mature, an increasing number of companies are now adopting digital and artificial intelligence solutions as part of their HR and corporate operations.
Cloud-based HR and payroll software provides enterprises with great flexibility, convenience and efficiency – especially for those with many employees and complex shift patterns such as the retail, logistics, manufacturing, hospitality and catering sectors. These technologies help HR and payroll managers work more accurately and efficiently by automating administrative tasks, while allowing for more time to be spent focusing on recruitment, people and business development.
Hawksford has been providing payroll services as a long-term solution for its clients for some time now. In recent years, we have developed our payroll capabilities through the launch of a cloud-based software, tailored towards business of different types and at different stages. The software has multiple key functions to make HR and administrative processes smarter and faster, allowing HR and payroll teams to place more focus on the employee experience.
This article takes an in-depth look at the key functions within the software, accessible via the mobile application, to introduce new and more efficient ways to manage employee payroll, leave and expense claims.
24/7 mobile access
A great advantage of the software is that staff can clock in via their mobile phones from any place at any time; they no longer need to physically sign in on paper upon arrival, or when leaving the workplace. HR and payroll managers can quickly obtain the attendance record of the entire company through cloud technology without worrying about data loss or damage.
This is particularly beneficial for multinational corporations with employees based in different countries and time zones, or with a lot of remote workers. Managers can easily check the time that different team members checked in and out of work that day and verify the authenticity of staff attendance by asking them to upload check-in screenshots of real-time locations. Having a digital option to manage time cards helps address the challenges around attendance and timekeeping, while supporting more organisations to adopt viable home office and hybrid-working models.
The cloud-based HR and payroll software also makes holiday and other leave applications more straightforward, compared to traditional paperwork models and standalone systems. It allows employees to directly check annual leave calendars on their mobile, submit applications for leave, log out of office, overtime working, business trips and check the status of approvals at any time, as well as enabling managers to approve applications on the go. Employees can also review their personal details in the system, check their leave balance and track the approval flow, while managers can rely on the system to automatically compile attendance reports, without having to involve the wider HR team.
The cloud-based service manages all employees’ salary additions and any statutory deduction calculations to ensure that payment arrangements are correct, keeping employees and statutory authorities happy. In the pay slip module, staff are able to check the breakdown of each item and amount payable or deducted from the final salary amount.
Ensuring privacy through secure storage of staff data
It is critical that personal information and employee data is kept in accordance with regional and global data security regulations, both locally and internationally. This is why our integrated HR and payroll system stores data on Alibaba Cloud, which is protected by a multi-layer firewall that can resist various malicious attacks, keeping up with the high demands for data privacy in today’s digital world.
Two step-verification processes are enabled for sensitive processes where it’s critical to ensure the authenticity of a user’s identity, such as when accessing a recent pay slip.
To review a recent pay slip and have it sent to their personal email address, the employee would need to enter an exclusive password.
The employee self-service experience
Thanks to its cloud-based and big data technology, our application supports employees through a variety of self-service functions, such as issuing a certificate of incumbency. Typically, sourcing this kind of document would require HR managers to look up the employee in the database and find the applicant's personal information, including the on-boarding date, position and salary, before issuing the certificate.
The cloud-based HR and payroll system saves all employee information from the date they were first on-boarded with the business. So, when requesting a certificate of incumbency, or other self-service documents, staff only need to submit their request online and the system will automatically generate the document by collating their personal information and inputting them into a template.
After the employee reviews the information, they can apply for company approval and obtain the formal version. This saves time for HR managers in searching databases and manually preparing documents, as well as speeding up the process for the employee requesting the document.
Efficient office administration
With the one-stop integrated HR and payroll system, administrators can upload the latest company news and announcements, such as team building activities, new joiners, annual conferences and other important news, straight to the mobile application so employees remain informed.
In addition to sharing important company information, it can be used as an internal share folder for saving documents surrounding company policies and procedures, such as expenses reimbursement procedures and sick leave policies, so that all employees (including new joiners) can quickly access the latest version of these documents. This ultimately streamlines the office administration process and saves time for managers, allowing them to focus on their own work and business growth.
Great flexibility and customisation
When choosing a new HR and payroll management software, companies often consider whether it supports or allows for customised functions. Great flexibility is another highlight of our cloud-based solution. A company can choose to use English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese or Japanese for the interface. We can also tailor the interface with the language based on individual needs.
Companies can equally customise the different types of HR and payroll reports according to business needs. The system provides several templates for the commonly used reports, such as attendance reports and payroll reports, and supports users to develop their own report templates by tabulating the data from the system.
We understand that organisations are looking for a modern and smart solution to manage employees and HR requirements, while enhancing efficiency and reducing costs. Our cloud-based integrated HR and payroll management app makes this happen. Fully customisable and with bespoke functionality, it has the capability to cater for different kinds of business needs, ensuring that you can spend more time doing what you do best, no matter the business or industry.
How can we help you?
Hawksford is an international provider of Corporate, Private Client and Fund services. We provide a wide range of corporate services to a global client base, including HR and payroll management services. Our comprehensive payroll management solution offers a new and more efficient world of employee payroll, annual leave and expense claims management.
Our teams of dedicated payroll professionals and carefully selected software options can help handle all your process-driven activities, allowing your human resources and payroll personnel to focus on the employee experience. Our certified, experienced, local and international experts will provide you with quality managed payroll administration services on a global scale, while ensuring you remain compliant with local regulations. We help you solve the critical business challenges often faced in foreign markets, keeping people costs down and saving time.
