What is HCM software and when do organizations need it?

For most organizations, managing their people, their money, and their time has never been more difficult.

Our workforce is larger than ever. It encompasses five different generations. All with distinct needs and expectations of work and the workplace. And there’s more types of employee than ever before, from full time to part time, salaried to hourly, contingent to contract to permanent.

What’s more, in a skills-based economy, the value of scarce skills is rapidly rising, and people have increasingly broad expectations. People want more than just money from work – they increasingly want an entirely new social contract between themselves and their employer.

In this environment, Human Resources (HR) is rapidly evolving.

What is HCM in HR – how human resources is evolving

Although traditionally associated with administrative functionality (gathering and filing information and establishing and arbitrating on regulations), HR is more than it has ever been before. The effective HR leader today isn’t just a supervisor of a back-office process. They are a strategic partner to the business who contributes to a successful plan for the future, they’re an expert in identifying and acquiring talent, in benchmarking benefits and compensation, an advocate of lifelong learning, a leader of digital and cultural transformation, and an advocate both for employees and their needs and the organization and its needs – across every domain from performance to compliance.

All of this requires companies to embrace entirely new ways of managing human capital.

What is HCM (Human Capital Management?

Human Capital Management is the practice of managing, recruiting, retaining, and developing a workforce in the long time. It's generally overseen by an organization's HR department, but also involves input from people managers across all teams who provide information and decision making on workforce planning, training and learning opportunities, and building a culture the company can be proud of. 

HCM is - and should be - viewed as a highly strategic practice. A happy, engaged workforce is the bedrock of success in any organization. It helps attract more talent and has measurable effects on productivity and profitability (in fact, engaged workers are many times more productive than worse who aren't.)

Despite its name, HCM is no longer simply about managing employees, but about enabling people to do their best – bringing their “whole selves” to work with them, wherever they might be working from, to provide the best possible result for the organization and themselves.

Human capital management and organizational success

Human capital management is critical to success because – especially in people-centric sectors  – your people are the lifeblood of your success. An effective HCM strategy allows you to hire better talent, make the most of their contributions, and encourage their development for greater success.

What is HCM software and how does it fit into your HCM strategy

HCM technology supports your people in executing all aspects of a successful HCM approach – helping streamline the function and eliminate many of the more onerous manual processes that would otherwise be involved. It brings together people management, analytics, talent planning, and resource management together into a single system that allows a fully view of people performance across the whole organization.

The very best HCM software makes it possible for your organization to help your people reach their full potential – now and in the future – and support them in every aspect of their roles and development in a smart, simple, and agile fashion.

What’s more, HCM can help organizations to make more durable plans for their future – sharing information across departments and enterprise applications (such as payroll and financial planning and analysis software) to create a more coherent picture of the organization now, where it needs to be, and how to get there.

The key priorities of the successful HCM function

The priorities of a successful HCM approach will vary along with the needs of the organization. But in people centric industries, it’s fair to say that the following are likely to take center stage for at least the foreseeable future:

• Acquiring and managing talent. HCM plays a huge role in your recruitment process, helping HR professionals to work with hiring managers and teams to find and secure the best person for the job.
• Finding and developing scarce skills. With many companies in the midst of digital transformation – and with many skillsets rapidly becoming obsolete only to quickly be replaced by entirely new ones – many organizations have found that they’re even shorter of skills than usual, and many of their employees are keen to reskill or upskill quickly. Good HCM software empowers your people, your HR teams, and your managers to identify employees with specific skills, help train those looking to develop them, and match these skills and development paths to the needs of real projects.
• Proactively identifying skill gaps. AI and machine learning assisted software can keep tabs on your entire organization’s skillsets and likely people trajectories, alerting you both to currently missing skills and experiences but also proactively identifying areas where up- or re-skilling are likely to be necessary. Which ultimately helps the entire organization make better long-term strategic decisions. 

How can Unit4 help you?

Unit4 creates HCM technology specifically designed for the unique needs of people-centric organizations. Helping you to manage and develop your people, attract world-class talent, and ensure and foster engagement. Together with our next-generation ERP and FP&A tools, our software can do everything from suggest avenues for development to proactively identify flight risks, allowing you to help your employee get the most out of what you can offer them so they can in turn contribute effectively to your organization’s goals.

To discover more, you can check out our dedicated HCM product pages here. Or click here to book a demo and see what our solution can do for your organization yourself.