Employee Wellness: Why Employers Need HCM Systems

Human capital, or intangible assets and qualities that make up the value of a worker, is a form of skill development that should be fostered by employers. Certain qualities such as education, hard skills, intelligence and punctuality are things that employers can search for in candidates before hiring them. Other qualities, however, can be honed by employers—nurturing employees to become loyal assets. You cannot teach loyalty, but you can attain it by providing a foundation for your employees to thrive.

Employee wellness may be the most important quality of any healthy business. The benefits of utilizing human capital software for your employees’ well-being are numerous. By providing an all-in-one platform for access to employee benefits, requesting time off, and access to their records, employees don't have to learn how to navigate multiple platforms. This will save your employees time and the stress of not knowing where to go for specific resources.

Ease of Use for Human Resources

Your human resources staff should be busy finding amazing employees for your business, not learning how to use ten different platforms. By using an all inclusive HCM system, you won’t need one platform for onboarding, one for training, one for holiday requests, another for timesheets, and one for payroll. Save your human resources staff the headache of having to use a different platform for every task. By improving the functionality of your HCM system, you will free up your HR staff to spend more time hiring and recruiting quality talent, which will make your business more profitable and workplace more enjoyable.

Talent Management

According to The American Institute of Stress, “80% of workers feel stress on the job.” These stressors range from a heavy workload to a lack of job security, and “job stress is more strongly associated with health complaints than financial or family problems.” It could be inferred that a lack of effective management, goal management, and career development are major factors in the stress that employees feel.

By using an effective human capital management platform, managers can more effectively evaluate talent reviews, career development and performance management, based on inferences made by AI and much easier access to performance reporting for management. The implementation of HCM platforms in the workplace will reduce worker stress and make employees happier and healthier by keeping them on track for goals, knowing where they stand in the company, and clear paths to achieve those goals.

Employee Engagement From Anywhere

As more and more workplaces move to the virtual office, flexible working hours, and remote capabilities, an HCM system is necessary to give access to critical information, no matter where the employee is located. Over the last ten years there has been a growth of 91% in remote workers. That number is sure to grow as U.S. workers are increasingly only willing to accept jobs that offer flexible work hours. With this increase in employees working remotely, onboarding and training should also be made virtual, so that companies can hire and retain quality talent no matter where they are located. Flexjobs.com cites that “90% of employees say more flexible arrangements would increase morale.” By keeping morale high, employers are sure to keep quality talent, and more importantly, have healthier and happier employees in general.

According to flexjobs.com, “80% of remote workers experience less job stress,” as well. One of the worst things for one’s health is stress. Stress can cause many negative effects in the human body including a weakened immune system, insomnia, increased depression, headaches, and more. By utilizing an HCM system, employers can make remote work easy and accessible, reducing stress for their employees. No matter where an employee is located, an HCM system allows workers to access their personal data, such as payroll, benefits, the ability to request time off, and other important information and resources.

Another great benefit of an HCM system in the cloud is the fact that there is never a situation in which employees can’t access their information. Employees never have to worry about not being able to access their sick day requests or payroll information because of downtime for updates, or even worse, a security breach. This is another benefit in itself - employees will have peace-of-mind knowing their information is secure. With an HCM system the chances of a security breach are slim to none, since there are continuous updates.

Integrated Employee Wellness and Fitness

An employee fitness program is essential to maintaining a healthy and happy workforce. Not to mention, a healthier workforce often means much lower costs for health coverage. With an HCM platform, employers can easily provide their employees with access to fitness programs anywhere. Employees can set fitness goals and join friendly wellness competitions, which can help to encourage fitness activities among employees and foster bonds between colleagues. With inside fitness groups, employees can reach their aspirations faster alongside other employees who have similar fitness goals and activity interests.

Companies such as Lark Health offer employee wellness programs and chronic disease management as a health benefit through their employer. Lark is a 24/7 health coach and AI-powered platform that helps employees live healthier lives through weight loss coaching, stress management, hypertension care, and diabetes prevention or management that integrates with your phone. A wellness program integrated into your HCM platform makes tracking fitness easy, too. With employee profiles, workers can easily upload fitness activity from a fitness tracking device or enter their data manually. This makes it simple for employees to easily monitor fitness goals from their employee dashboard. By utilizing an HCM platform, employees will be motivated to meet their wellness goals and in turn meet a better work-life balance and overall happiness.

Increasing Recruitment and Retention

Employees have a lot of options to weigh when deciding where to work these days. One has to consider the city they want to live in, the transportation options available in their neighborhood, the benefits offered, the pay, the company culture, and so much more. According to benefitspro, a staggering “73% of workers said a company’s health and wellness offerings influence their decision to work there.” Retaining quality talent is a significant challenge for businesses and if employers want to recruit and retain top candidates and employees, they need to be offering a great wellness package. Employees want to see companies offer incentives for healthy living, which 20% of businesses aren’t doing, and an HCM platform will help businesses do just that.