Every year around this time over at my USA TODAY column I do an annual roundup of the top trends in small business. By far the biggest trend over the past five years has been – and this should come as no surprise – the growth and use of cloud-based apps as a tool for running one’s business.
There are all sorts of reasons for adopting web apps. Here are the top 5 I have developed over the past few years:
5. It’s the future, err, the present: Whether you like it or not, and whether you want to or not, your business is moving to the cloud. Of course, you already do email in the cloud, but it is just as easy to move your other business applications there as well, whether for document storage, security, or, importantly, HR (see below.)
4. It’s safer: Cloud services are housed in remote servers that have the best security systems available, and which are always being updated with the latest updates.
3. It’s easy: Being able to access all of your employee data anywhere, anytime, from any device, by anyone on your team really is a revolution.
2. It’s scalable: Resources, information, employees, and data can be added or removed to and from a network quickly.
1. It is affordable and always up to date: Maybe the best thing about apps generally, and HR apps specifically, is that they are intuitive, always updated, always the latest version, and affordable.
Let me give you an example:
Consider the HRdirect Job Applications Smart App. It is a fantastic tool that streamlines and makes the job application process much easier, more efficient, faster and better. It does this in a few ways:
- It’s app-tastic: These days, you have to be able to post and accept job applications online, and with everyone working mobile-ly, having that process refined to a simple app not only makes a lot of sense, it makes the process intuitive for everyone.
- It’s customizable: The app not only creates a perfect template job application, but it also allows you to add questions prewritten by the legal and HR experts at ComplyRight. You can include questions about skills, qualifications, educational background, references, etc.
- It’s easy: The app allows you to distribute your online employment application by, for instance, instantly creating a link to your job application to share, or being able to email your application to a candidate right from within the app.
- It’s fast. You can gather the vital job-related information you need about the best candidates in seconds. The tracking and summary view in the app allows you to see and sort all submitted.
So yes, it makes a lot of sense to streamline your HR efforts into an app-based solution. Some of the things that apps can do now include 1099 filings, keeping employee records, scheduling, time-off tracking, and much more.
You can learn more and figure out what the right solutions are for your business by downloading Comply Right’s free guide, “Choose the right HR software for your company.”
