B2B Connection

They say you have to spend money to make money, but if you’re broke or skeptical, that might not be the process for you. Fortunately, I’ve got software that will let you enjoy the cost-saving benefits of workforce management without spending a penny. What is Workforce Management Software? Workforce Management software provides the tools, data, and insights to help you maximize the value of your workforce. This can be done by eliminating or streamlining costly processes, or by improving the workforce itself. The exact nature of these tools varies from package to package. They are most often dependent on the target company’s size, industry, and methods of operation. As an example, consider small businesses in the hospitality industry. Workforce management software here will focus heavily on scheduling, time and attendance, and leave management. This is all about the basics of ensuring you have the right people in the right place. An example of an extra feature in this area is sales forecasting based on POS data to schedule employees more effectively. In contrast, workforce management software for a large manufacturing company will have a different focus. It will still cover the basic scheduling and attendance functionality. However, it will focus […]

You know what workforce management is. It’s when you show up and tell Jim that if he quits screwing around and Jackie ever gets off her phone, the three of you might actually get something done today. And you don’t know why you would need software to do that. But I’m here to tell you that workforce management software can be much more. It helps make sure people are there when they need to be. It ensures you aren’t spending too much or too little on your labor force and helps you gain insight into how your people work and who your best people are. If you want to see how workforce management software can help your business run like a well-oiled machine and save money, then keep reading. What does Workforce Management Software Do? Workforce management software helps to increase the overall value of a company’s labor force. It can also be known as labor management software. Workforce management is often included in Human Capital Management (HCM) suites. Examples include Oracle Cloud HCM and Workday HCM. However, even if a workforce management package is not part of an HCM, it will typically have some human resource management features. Examples […]

Creating a work schedule is far more than tedious; it takes your time away from things that actually grow and improve your business. Scheduling only gets more exponentially complicated as your business grows, becoming a time (and money) sink you can’t escape. When you know you can do something for free, it can feel hard to justify spending on software to ease the process. Fortunately, the right free employee scheduling software lets you see many of the benefits without spending a penny.  What Does Employee Scheduling Software Do? Employee scheduling software streamlines the scheduling process. The core feature is the schedule maker. Schedulers typically come in one of two varieties: drag-and-drop and auto-schedulers. Regardless of scheduler type, you may find a schedule you and your employees like. Many employee scheduling packages will let you create a customizable template from a previous schedule, which can cut out much leg work. Most free employee scheduling apps also with real-time communication tools. This typically happens through a central portal in a mobile app. While not the main focus of the package, communication tools can save just as much, if not more, time than the scheduler itself. On top of these scheduling features, many […]

Centralization has been an overarching trend in HR software for a while now. As disparate systems and processes like applicant tracking, HRIS, and employee engagement consolidate into broad Human Capital Management (HCM) suites, it begs the question: Are we now in the Endgame of HR software? While the impulse to centralize all of your HR software may be persuasive, some industry leaders still make the case for separated and specialized solutions. There are important differences between applicant tracking systems, HRIS databases, and HCM suites, and these differences are worth considering before making your next software purchase.  The Differences between ATS vs. HRIS The core difference between an ATS and an HRIS is timing. Applicant tracking systems keep track of candidates in the pre-hiring phase, while HRIS systems keep track of employees after they’ve been hired.  In an interview with TrustRadius, SmartRecruiters’ Director of Product Marketing Jack Wei framed this distinction around the different functions that each tool provides. ATS tools support recruiting, which faces external candidates and should, therefore, be treated as a “sales and marketing function” according to Wei. This framing leads vendors like SmartRecruiters to emphasize authenticity and candidate experience when engaging talent. In contrast, HRIS products support […]

You can’t have a company without employees, and if you can’t provide your team with what they need then they will disappear into thin air. Your HR department must work smoothly so you can strengthen your company relationships. The right HR software solution can improve your workplace environment tremendously. The biggest issue is the software selection process and how to find one to meet your business needs.  What is HR Software? The HR department encompasses some of the most vital aspects of your entire company. Put simply, it’s designed to manage your employees and their experiences. Human resources management software (HRMS) can be used for almost all your employee management needs.  HR systems can have more functionality to make it more than just management software, but the ‘core HR’ features are the most important ones for company health.  Below are key features of an HR management software: Employee management – including employee engagement, and maintaining old and new employee records  Benefits administration and distribution  Payroll – ensuring team members get their correct pay through convenient options Employee lifecycle management – tools for onboarding, retention, training, and offboarding  Safety training – for both physical in-office threats and cybersecurity threats Compliance training […]

If there’s anything people in the world of small business like, it’s time and money. Bad scheduling processes are costing you both. Over half of employers spend two hours each week creating a work schedule. Some even spend up to twelve. Missed shifts also cost employers $7,500 every year. If those wastes sound unacceptable to you, check out these employee scheduling software packages. What Does Employee Scheduling Software Do? Employee scheduling software streamlines and automates the process of shift scheduling. The right tool typically replaces handwritten schedules or spreadsheets. Such software typically has many features to increase the ease of creating and adjusting schedules. Some of the basic features include Drag-and-Drop Scheduling  The scheduling solution streamlines the process of creating staff schedules. It is conceptually the same as what you would do by hand or with a spreadsheet, only a lot more user-friendly. Simply drag and drop employees into the appropriate hour slots. Then make sure that there are enough employees of the right types for each time period.  Shift Swapping Employees have stuff come up all the time. Illness, family emergencies, or other scheduling conflicts can wreak havoc on your schedule. Employee scheduling software makes it easy to handle […]

Putting a schedule together is nothing more than playing a terribly tedious and tiresome game of Time Tetris, desperately trying to fit all those shifts together. And when the whole finally falls together just perfectly so, two people call out on Wednesday, and the whole thing collapses. Employee scheduling software is the cheat code for this banal game, saving you from having to play it. What Does Employee Scheduling Software Do? Employee scheduling software automates the process of creating a staffing schedule. You first input certain constraints. The constraints can include employee availability, how many of each position you need at a time, hour limits, and even certain skillsets. The software then determines and optimizes a work schedule based on the constraints. Filling in the schedule is only the first part of the battle. Something will inevitably come up in the intervening weeks. Someone will get sick or break their collarbone while mountain biking (real-life story).Now you need somebody else to be there. Employee scheduling software lets employees trade shifts, usually through a centralized system. This prevents the lovely nightmare of calling everybody who isn’t on shift and asking them if they can come in. Basic Features These are features […]

Payroll is the lifeblood of HR. Everything else can go wrong. Employees can repeat training modules, and HR can revise records. But not paying your employees or paying them the wrong amount is how you get a rebellion (or worse, legal trouble). So if you want to maintain the peace and not break the bank doing it, check out these payroll options. What Does Payroll Software Do? Payroll software automates, simplifies, and streamlines the payroll process. The simplification these tools create saves time and prevents mistakes. Many packages either come with time tracking software or integrate with time tracking software. This enables near automatic payroll runs with a minimum time investment while ensuring that your payroll is accurate. An accurate payroll means happy employees and business owners. Tax Filings  Right after paying your employees, helping to file payroll taxes is the second most valuable function for many organizations. Unless you enjoy interacting with the IRS and state tax agencies. Then stay away! Most payroll software packages will file the necessary paperwork and withhold and deposit the appropriate sums for federal, state, and local taxes. Unemployment taxes, such as FUTA, are included in many packages. This means no more figuring out […]

The average small business owner spends nearly five hours per pay-period processing payroll (Try saying that five times fast). 65% of small business owners said they would rather outsource their payroll processing. 45% said that outsourcing payroll was too costly. 82% of small business owners said they checked their payroll manually. If you want to save time and get payroll right every time, check out these payroll software solutions for small businesses. What Does Payroll Software Do? Payroll software’s main selling points are time savings, accuracy, and compliance. A fully automated system can run payroll in five minutes or less. This gives you most of that five hours back to invest elsewhere in your business. The second benefit is accuracy. Software, once correctly configured, is not prone to making errors. There is about zero chance of it pressing a five instead of a three because it’s 6 o’clock on Tuesday and it had had several chaotic meetings today. A lack of errors leads to happier and more productive employees. Finally, payroll software helps to maintain compliance. Federal, state, and local pay regulations and rules can change regularly. As the busy owner of a growing small business, it can be difficult […]

Effective employee training and professional development opportunities are crucial to employee retention. As such, many companies are turning to corporate learning management systems as a one-stop-shop for creating, distributing, and managing their corporate training. A corporate LMS can ensure that companies have quality training programs for employees at all stages of their careers. Understanding common features and benefits of corporate LMS platforms is a necessary step in selecting the right one for your needs. Since these systems come in all shapes and sizes, we’ll break down the essentials to making an informed decision. What does a Corporate Learning Management System do? Corporate learning management systems allow companies to address their needs for knowledge management and employee training within one platform. These systems are designed to provide employees with easy access to resource materials, whenever they need them. The video below gives an overview of common features and use cases of corporate LMS software. Many corporate LMS come with pre-built courses, course templates, and course authoring tools. These allow managers and HR professionals to customize the content as needed. Courses often combine video, PowerPoint slides, webinars resource documents, and more. This variety of formats boosts employee engagement. Gamification is also common […]

As with all other aspects of work, Covid-19 changed the HR industry drastically. Major shifts in remote work and the Great Resignation forced HR professionals to spend more time recruiting, onboarding, and offboarding.

Fleet management software can revolutionize the way your organization does business, but not everyone has the budget to pay for it. Others may simply want to explore cost-saving alternatives to paid options. The best free fleet management software balances limitations and features in a way that is well-suited to your use case. Here are the best free fleet management tools, where they shine, and who they are right for. What is Fleet Management Software? Business software can often be named in vague or confusing terms; this is not the case for fleet management software.  Broadly speaking, this type of tool is designed to help you manage your entire collection of vehicles, drivers, and any incidents that may occur on the road. More basic options are simple logistical tools to help you stay organized. Advanced systems can track real-time location, fuel usage, efficiency, and much more.  If you are looking for a quick recap of how these tools work, check out the video below. How do you choose the right Fleet Management Software? With the host of options available, it’s possible to feel drowned in choices and to not know what you should be looking for. If you are unsure what […]

What will HR look like post-COVID? The good news: Overall, the shift to remote work seems to be agood thing. HR pros are seeing improvements in employee well-being, and the move hasn’t made their jobs significantly harder. COVID-19 changed everything for the HR industry. Now, over a year after the pandemic began, we’re checking in to see how HR professionals are doing. The bad news: The vast majority of HR professionals are feeling challenged and exhausted by the pandemic. And they’re facing even bigger hurdles with the Great Resignation and the need to rapidly improve their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. This report examines these issues from the eyes of HR pros across the United States, from associates up to the C-suite—and ultimately asks how HR technology is helping to make things easier. Want to see the full PDF of the report? Click the button below. The sections in this report are: Top 10 HR Trends Report Statistics The State of HR in 2022 How Do HR Pros Feel About Remote Work? Decoding the Great Resignation Thinking Differently About DEI in 2022 The Impact of HR Technology Methodology and Demographics Top 10 Statistics from the 2022 HR Trends Report […]

2021 brought the Great Resignation, which for most companies meant numerous vacant positions. For organizations and staff everywhere, this means more time and money spent onboarding software. In addition, HR staff and managers alike are facing challenges associated with increased remote onboarding. It’s easy to see why onboarding has changed significantly within the past two years. Companies now recognize the need for standardized onboarding procedures that set their new hires up for success. In the past onboarding was often primarily thought of as an HR task. Now it is shifting to a shared responsibility between HR and management. Hottest Employee Onboarding Statistics for 2022 Given the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and the Great Resignation, onboarding has undergone rapid change. These updated onboarding stats give insight into the current state of onboarding. 20% of turnover occurs within the first 45 days of employment (Talmundo, 2021) 37.4% of companies listed remote onboarding as a challenge they faced because of the Covid-19 pandemic (Workable, 2020). 61% of HR professionals expect new hires to stay at their company for at least two years (The Manifest, 2020) 48% of HR professionals believe onboarding should continue past the first month of employment (Talmundo, […]

Fleet management software allows organizations to help with the daunting tasks like organizing vehicles, drivers, incidents, and so much more. The right software can simplify this logistical quagmire and unlock the potential of your organization. As such, there is a huge array of options available. Fortunately, by breaking down your needs, limits, and scale, you can choose the best fleet management software for your budget. In this piece, we will cover: Pricing Scale and Scalability Features Needed  Mobility Ease of Use and Integration With all of these features in mind, you will have a much better picture of exactly what you are looking for. With that, we can start to look at some of the software out there. Fleet Management Pricing A software could do everything you ever dreamed of and more, but be utterly useless if it is too expensive for your budget. The first and potentially most important part of any software discussion is a rough guide to pricing. As a general rule, fleet management software will cost you about $25-40 per vehicle. The extremes can range from $5-$250 per vehicle, but these tend to be for very specific use cases.  Other costs can include hardware that may […]

Education is a powerful force that grows careers and companies. There are countless study tools and private tutor companies available to help students get to their next stage in life. One new and trending education aid for both students and educators is Course Hero. Course Hero is designed to help students with study resources like notes, shared documents, and textbooks. Anyone could learn from the shared course information on the website. Course Hero Explained  Andrew Gauer is the founder of the e-learning and study resource site. He has a BA from Cornell and is the current CEO of Course Hero. Gauer’s undergrad experience led him to the idea of an education platform to help students by sharing information. He even included extensive tools to help professors as well. Anyone who subscribes to Course Hero will gain access to over 60 million course materials, resources, and have the option for tutoring. More than 60,000 educators are on the site sharing information and helping each other to become better teachers. To create an account you need to select your college or university. The free plan is Basic Membership upon making an account. Any member is able to earn “free unlocks” to courses […]

From small companies with 1-3 employees to mid-to-large companies, payroll is a necessary task. Finding the right software that streamlines this task so it’s less tedious and super accurate, is vital but expensive. While fantastic tools like ADP, UKG, and Gusto are some of the best payroll software on the market, not all can afford them. Some businesses need to find ways to optimize their budgets, and looking for free software can be an effective way to do that. The challenges that come with this are software quality and free plan limits.  Small business owners will find it easy to work within common free software limitations. Medium and growing companies need software that’s unlimited. The bright side is there are multiple free plans from great payroll and HR companies.  Best Free Payroll Software When searching for free payroll software, you may be buried in articles that include software that isn’t completely free. Many of the software may turn out to have hidden fees, offer only a free trial, or have less than transparent plans. The purpose of the list below is to cut through the fat and give you pricing transparency on the best no-to-low-cost options. Some software may include […]

If you’re an HR professional coming up on the end of the year, you’re probably begging for an end to end-of-year performance reviews, engagement surveys, or managing employees’ time off for the holidays. If any of those activities made you cringe to just think about, you probably need to invest in talent management software! These products can help turn HR headaches into clear value-adding processes when it comes to make the most of the talent you’re already paying for. Talent management can be a vague, ill-defined area, and knowing what tools you need to manage your talent isn’t always a simple task. We’ve curated a list of 11 questions you should ask yourself to help clarify your requirements for your future talent management software. These questions touch on what your talent pool looks like, what HR software you currently use, and what talent management features you should prioritize. For a quick refresher on what talent management software is, check out the youtube video below: Know your labor pool 1. Will your personnel benefit from talent management? Not all talent management software is equally suited to all talent pools. There are more granular questions we’ll address later on, but the first […]

The market for Learning Management Systems (LMS) is overflowing with different products. Ranging from monthly subscriptions to individual downloads, the sheer amount of options is staggering.  LMS software provides a central location for instructors to manage and deliver educational materials, including videos, courses, and training documents. LMS software can be used in any training or development environment, from schools to businesses. Many LMS platforms provide performance tracking and analysis. There are two main types of LMS: Corporate LMS and Academic LMS. The first type of LMS used was Academic LMS in K-12 environments and higher education. Academic LMS is for teaching students and providing teachers with professional development.  Beyond academia, most LMS in use today are Corporate LMS. Corporate LMS is used internally to train and develop employees and externally to teach customers how to use products.  Some companies, such as Brightspace, make both an academic version of their LMS and a corporate version.  For those who want a quick refresher of what makes an LMS generally, check out the video below: Corporate LMS Versus Academic LMS   Corporate LMS Academic LMS Primary Focus Providing online materials for training and development, specifically in professional settings. Learning software with a focus […]

If you’re looking to scale up your applicant tracking capabilities on an enterprise-level, you’re likely prioritizing a few key features for your next applicant tracking system (ATS). Robust and customizable resume parsing will be key to helping recruiters automatically filter out as many poor-fit candidates as possible. Functional integrations with the rest of your HR suite will be key to achieving streamlined data flow. And finding a product that supports uncapped candidate pools and user seats will be key to supporting high-volume recruitment while keeping your budget intact.  Out of hundreds of ATS products on the market today, not all will provide the features you need on an enterprise scale. Below you’ll find a shortlist of the most popular ATS software to help you sort through the options, as chosen by real enterprise end-users. By learning from their experience, you’ll be able to shorten the research process and secure your next game-changing ATS tool in record time. The 6 Most Popular ATS Software for Enterprise Users We curated the following list of products based on review feedback from enterprise end-users on TrustRadius. This list includes products on the ATS TrustMap with at least 5 ratings or reviews from enterprise users […]