Calculating the ROI and benefits of HR software

Man working on laptop in office

3 mins, 55 secs read time

HR professionals have a lot to manage each day, from filing paperwork for the new guy who starts tomorrow to checking the PTO balance for that employee who booked last-minute plane tickets. Administrative and operational tasks like these take up so much time, in fact, that it can be hard for HR to focus on much else.

However, with software your HR department can streamline these everyday processes while freeing up time and money to invest in more strategic efforts, like boosting engagement and improving retention.

To demonstrate the real value and benefits of HR software, we’ve compiled data from a variety of sources to calculate it in terms your organization can embrace: time and money. We’ve also included a handful of other positive outcomes that organizations have experienced after implementing an HRIS. Take a look at the infographic to see what human resources technology could do for your company.


Automated onboarding

Research shows that automating the onboarding process can reduce the time investment by 50%. If the average HR professional (represented by Caroline in our infographic) spends about 11 hours on onboarding every time there’s a new hire, that time really adds up.

If your organization hires 30 new employees in a year, automated onboarding could save you over $5,000 annually.

Traditional onboarding vs. automated onboarding infographic


Additional benefits of technologically operationalized onboarding include:

  • Engagement: When employees believe their organization’s onboarding software is effective, they are five times as likely to report high levels of engagement.
  • Retention: Effective onboarding software boosts new hires’ confidence in their decision to join your organization, reducing turnover by as much as 30%.
  • Performance & Productivity: Effective onboarding software decreases time-to-productivity by 33%.


E-signatures

If your HR department is buried in paperwork and constantly hunting for signatures, then e-signature software could be the solution you need. Tracking down lost paperwork and ensuring the right people sign the right forms can take up a lot of time for everyone in your organization. Plus, between printing and postage costs, physical documents can get expensive.

With an HRIS that offers e-signature technology, organizations can save up to 40 working hours every month and $20 per document. Added up over a year, the ROI can be thousands of dollars for your company.

Dollars saved graphic of implementing e-signature software


Using e-signature software provides a few other benefits as well:

  • Efficiency: E-signature software reduces signed document turnaround times by as much as 90%.
  • Employer Brand: Using e-signatures helps attract top talent, as 92% of young professionals would prefer to work for an environmentally-friendly company.


Time-off management

Without this software, your organization’s time-off management system probably consists of some kind of spreadsheet and a frazzled HR professional who’s trying to keep up with approving requests and answering PTO balance questions. A system like this leaves your organization vulnerable to inaccurate tracking. Research has shown that an average employee takes up to three unreported days of PTO a year when their organization has poor tracking capabilities. Automated time-off tracking can help eliminate the cost of unreported PTO.

Automated time-off tracking graphic of unreported PTO


Effective time-off management also leads to other benefits like:

  • Efficiency: Automated time-off tracking helps you better manage employee absences, which cost businesses about 6% of annual payroll.
  • High Performance: When employees enjoy effective time-off management software, customer satisfaction levels increase up to 10%.


Employee self-service

One of the biggest strains on HR’s time is the deluge of employees questions and requests. Such matters can eat up hours of time each week, to say nothing of the toll on employees when they aren’t able to manage their own information.

An HRIS with employee self-service allows employees to find answers to their own questions and manage their own personal information. This can reduce the time investment on HR’s part by 40-60%, or about two hours per day (and thousands of dollars).

Employee self-service graphic showing time saved on administrative tasks


The added benefits of self-service software include:

  • Efficiency: Employee self-service software allows HR to serve 10% more employees.
  • Competitive Advantage: Self-service can boost your organization’s performance – those with such software are about 50% more likely to achieve best-in-class status.

Performance & Productivity: 72% of HR generalists who use employee self-service in their organizations reported a lighter workload.


Total benefits of HR software

Adding all the time and money savings together, the ROI of human resources tech is clear.

HR software overall annual savings infographic


But it’s not just about time and money. HR software can transform your HR management from operational to strategic. Start tackling turnover, boosting engagement, and more in your organization with the right HR software on your side.