Businesses across every sector are contending with turbulence from multiple sources, including the continuing fallout from Brexit, the pandemic, global supply chain dislocations, the impact of the war in Ukraine and other geopolitical issues. This places resilience at a premium for every business.
“To survive and grow, firms need to demonstrate resilience,” says Eamon Rheinisch, general manager Ireland with MHR, the specialist provider of HR, payroll and finance software and services.
The best way to build resilience is to digitalise. To do so, organisations need to understand their data across their business and in their wider environment.
“One of the problems facing many businesses is that they have disparate siloed systems running different parts of the business, such as HR, finance, and payroll and they don’t talk to each other,” Rheinisch says. “There is no single source of truth in the organisation. The data exists to provide it, but they have no way of bringing it together.”
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Integrated solutions that bring this data together do exist but can be beyond the reach of mid-sized businesses, he explains. “Mid-sized organisations have to deal with complexity, resource constraints and competition on multiple fronts. And they also face the challenges of having to deal with the same organisational complexity as much larger enterprises, but with fewer resources and smaller budgets.”
Flexible, intuitive, integrated technology platforms are an essential ingredient of a resilient business.
“Businesses need a flexible, scalable system that can address all of its HR, payroll and finance needs but without the cost and complexity of many ERP systems. This is what MHR offers. MHR understands the needs of mid-sized businesses. We have an advantage in that respect in that we continue to be an independent, family-owned business. This gives us unique insights into the challenges facing our customers and the solutions they need to address them.”
That innate understanding is augmented by research. “We conducted a survey of 250 mid-sized businesses across the UK and Ireland earlier this year, and this identified the top three challenges facing them,” says Rheinisch. “They need to stay ahead of the competition, address business complexity, and attract and retain people with the right skills for the business to remain competitive.”
MHR’s One Portfolio delivers the software, processes, resources, expertise and data-driven insights needed to address an organisation’s people and planning needs
MHR’s One Portfolio delivers the software, processes, resources, expertise and data-driven insights needed to address an organisation’s people and planning needs through its product, service and platform capabilities. These include HR, talent management and learning, payroll, workforce management, analytics and reporting, enterprise planning, finance and accounting and financial consolidation.
Most importantly, it helps businesses address those key challenges in a number of important ways. “It helps businesses stay ahead of the competition by delivering the real-time data and insights they need to inform your plans and decisions, and the flexible systems and support that help them adapt quickly to change.”
It reduces complexity by improving operational efficiency. “It reduces time, effort and risk by consolidating, integrating and automating disparate systems and processes,” he says. “Organisations gain greater control, compliance and peace-of-mind while achieving their business goals.
“We also give businesses the tools to attract, onboard, develop, engage and empower their employees. Intuitive user-experiences throughout employee life-cycles boost individual and team motivation and productivity while building workforce resilience.”
While seven out of 10 business leaders surveyed by MHR report plans to increase their investment in building resilience, there is still a marked reluctance on the part of many organisations to adopt new integrated solutions.
Rheinisch puts this hesitancy down to a number of reasons. The first is simple inertia.
“Businesses don’t like change, and they only tend to move forward when there is a particular issue to solve. Even then, they tend to use point solutions like time and attendance software for people working from home or remotely. There is a fear of business disruption if they adopt a broader solution. They are afraid that a new solution won’t work exactly the same way as what they had and that they might need to train staff to operate it and so on. There also tends to be push back from people who are accustomed to using the old system.”
Another reason is a lack of appropriate skills within the organisation. “There is a belief that new systems require new skillsets, but that need not be the case. Software now is much more intuitive. It is akin to buying a Ryanair ticket. And you can use it on any device. MHR believes people want to use smartphones more for work applications, so we enable that. Customer can access everything on their smartphone with MHR.”
The other reason is the complexity of existing systems that were customised for the business’s needs 10 years ago and are hardwired into it. But those needs have changed quite profoundly in the interim.
“They say if you change a finance system it’s like open heart surgery on the business; and if you change HR and payroll systems it’s like taking out the lungs. You have to make sure you pay people properly and that they are happy in their work. But new integrated systems can be installed seamlessly and are actually more powerful and easier to use than the legacy systems.”
Data access emerged as a crucial issue in MHR research carried out in 2020, when 50 per cent of organisations said data was at heart of decisions. Yet only 39 per cent of those organisations were able to use it for competitive advantage.
“At MHR we focus on transformation by giving business access to accurate data, analytics, reporting, and insights to support proactive cross-functional planning and inform better strategic decisions,” says Rheinisch.
Our solution increases business resilience, reduces complexity and strengthens workforce motivation and productivity, and improves engagement
Businesses need to embrace change, he adds. “To change is human, to change often is perfection. Our solution increases business resilience, reduces complexity, and strengthens workforce motivation and productivity, and improves engagement. It helps businesses to automate as much as possible and frees up staff to engage in more strategic roles. That in turn helps to improve talent retention.”
That improved retention is particularly important in light of the 26 per cent of businesses surveyed by MHR who said staff shortages are putting the most pressure on their ability to operate at normal levels.
“When you look at trends such as the great resignation and the great check-out and the shift from HR management to human experience [Hx] management, it is clear that organisations need to engage with talent in more meaningful ways,” Rheinisch concludes. “They need to make sure their staff are happy and engaged yet challenged in a positive way.
“The majority of organisations say their workforce is their most important asset. Investing in a HR, payroll and finance platform like MHR’s to keep people engaged and motivated is the number one most important thing organisations in Ireland can do at present, in my opinion.”
