Yes and no. This question depends on various factors. Every company has to have (at least) a basic number of Human resources processes. However, that doesn't automatically mean, there has to be a separate HR department. In smaller organizations, it is common that employees to have more than one role in the company.

Essential is the Core HR activities without which no company can function. These include personnel administration, payroll as well as recruitment. These necessary HR processes must also be established in every consulting company. To meet the business needs and streamline the processes, a reliable HR strategy is absolutely necessary.

Without suitable applicants, there will be a lack of talent, which is essential for the success of the company. In startups or other small businesses, managers are usually responsible for the recruitment process of new employees. Personnel administration is often done in a chaotic way - a little by everyone.

In practice, payroll and accounting are often outsourced to external HR professionals. This relieves the staff of other departments and HR experts with industry know-how can take care of the issue. For whom this is not an option in terms of price (or for other reasons), they quickly end up thinking about an in-house software solution.

Human resource management is first and foremost about the people of the company. An HR software solution only supports HR processes, and never completely replaces the employees. Especially when it comes to creative and value-adding HR processes, even the best HR management software stops short.

Nevertheless, a suitable Human Resources Management System (HRMS) has been widespread on the market for several years now. Of course, HR departments are not supported by software on a 1:1 basis either. However, the use of effective Human resources information systems (HRIS) benefits the overall employee experience and enhances employee engagement.

To return to the initial question: Consultancies do not necessarily need a separated HR department as long as they have an HR technology software that meets their individual requirements and workflows. In addition, of course, they need employees who can operate this HR software properly.

There are countless uses for HR software that covers just as many HR processes companywide. For a few years now, there is a boom in the field of HR systems. Despite many great offers, the view always has to be directed inwards first. What challenges do you face in your consulting company? In which areas can HR software support you?

If you have the answers to these questions, you will quickly come to the conclusion that the implementation of HR software is worthwhile. The introduction of a software solution contributes sustainably to process optimization in human resources management. A suitable software solution can cover the following areas of application in HR management:

Digital Personnel File

In many companies, there is pure chaos around personnel files. With a management system, data and documents of employees can be managed easily and transparently. This saves you a lot of time and mistakes in your consultancy. Under consideration of data protection settings, it is possible for the person in charge to grant different access rights to the data.

Payroll

Old-fashioned accounting was yesterday. Software solutions like flair help you to reduce routine tasks to a minimum, leaving more time for consulting your customers. To automate your accounting, payroll software manages your overall finances in HR. Outsourcing or the use of external service providers becomes obsolete if you can rely on your internal HR solution.

Absences and Shift Plans

For your HR consulting services, you need to know which employees are available and when. HR software is very well suited for workforce management. Hourly and daily absences can be easily managed and adjusted as desired. This way you can keep track of all your employees. Staffing has never been so easy - if you overview all their absences and shifts in just one board.

Time Tracking

Time is money. This is more true in consulting than in other industries. That's why time tracking of employees is indispensable. Time management can be done anywhere and in just a matter of seconds. Start, pause, stop - when and how it suits you. This leaves you more time for your customers.

Applicant and Talent Management

The range of services does not stop in this area. The consulting industry is a fast-changing environment. And so is employee turnover. To stay up to date and secure the best talent for the long term, HR software can be the solution. With an applicant tracking system, you can easily manage endless lists of applicants, so that in the end only the best of the best jumps out for you. Furthermore, the use of the HRMS continues with the ongoing employee lifecycle. From Onboarding until the retention of the talent - solutions like flair help you to streamline overall HR processes.

You can find some of the areas of usage of HR software above. But now let's take a deeper look at the most important functions for HR consulting firms. In HR, there are extensive process chains that are more or less relevant for companies, depending on the spectrum of operations. In consulting firms, these are mainly the following features:

As a consultant, you work with many customers in numerous projects. It is essential to keep track of the amount of work done. With project-based time tracking you can easily track where you have invested how much time. This not only facilitates collaboration and performance management. It also benefits your wallet.

Absences

Transparency and an overview of responsibilities are the cornerstone of every successful project. To manage the availability of your human capital, absences help you to keep an overview. No matter what time it is, who- or where you are - the insight and management of absences are efficiently implemented by software-based solutions. Human Capital Management (HCM) made easy - with flair.

Integration with Salesforce Accounting and Billing Apps

An essential function of HR software for consultancies is accounting and billing. Using Salesforce, you can automatically invoice customers directly based on the hours worked. This feature not only saves you a lot of time but also prevents you from possible mistakes. Therefore the performance reviews in your company benefit from HR software as well.

Payroll

Likewise, no mistakes should be made in the course of payroll for your own employees. Your workforce is the most valuable resource in your consulting firm. So why not use an automated payroll and benefits administration in HR-Consulting? This way the employees get what they deserve - transparent and comprehensible remuneration.

Database for Employees and Contractors

Anyone who works in the consulting industry will most likely have come into contact with customer databases. But a database is not only useful for external stakeholders. Software solutions are suitable for managing personal data. Adding new records, managing them, and distributing responsibilities in different modules - all this should be covered by a suitable solution.

Document Management

An often neglected and not necessarily popular topic at consultancies is document management. Without a suitable solution, tons of unsorted documents can arise with the growth of the company. To prevent this, it is worthwhile to implement HR software at an early stage that keeps all information in one place. Invoices and other relevant documents are accessible in just a few clicks.

Do consultancies need HR software or not? If so, to what extent does a suitable solution make sense? Managing directors of consultancies have to ask themselves these questions. In the end, an answer can only be given on an individual basis. When asking about the benefits, the company's goals and strategy must be clear.

This much can be said, however: With the implementation and use of a professional software solution, companies are more open and positive towards digital transformation. Which HR processes a software ultimately covers in your company, and how efficiently, will depend in each individual case on whether you decide to use an HR software or not.

The cost-benefit calculation comes up at this point. An HR solution should bring advantages not only for the management and the executive level but also for the employees in your consulting company. In practice, there is often one (or more) responsible person(s) who compare a few software solutions and weigh their fit for their own company.

The lack of a proper HR department can be compensated with comprehensive HR software. This way, HR processes are presented by the software in a user-friendly and real-time manner. In order to be able to work in a time efficient and resource-saving way, more and more consultancies rely on the support of a SaaS-based HR software like the one from flair.

Many working hours per week and late evenings are the norms in the consulting industry. In order to avoid additional headaches in terms of HR work, it is definitely worthwhile to use HR software as support. Above all, tedious administrative and routine HR tasks are reliably covered with the help of software.

Sales, as well as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, are almost mandatory in successful consulting companies nowadays. So why not have a database for your own employees in addition to prospects, leads and customers as well? Transparency, clarity and flexibility are attributes that are associated with the implementation not only of a CRM, but also an HR Software.

The introduction of a software makes sense not only for reasons of time and efficiency. It is also about the satisfaction and motivation of your own employees. Employee engagement can be kept high by facilitating the daily work of your staff with the help of HR software. And this is done by allowing them to focus on their core activities and let the software support them in tedious routine tasks.

Choosing the right software can be a long and sometimes complicated process. Assuming the decision in favor of anHR softwarehas been made. The time of implementation is set. It is clear who in your company is responsible for the implementation. Now, at the time of implementation, there is already a lot of information and existingHR processesthat have so far taken place without the help of asoftware solution.

How do you integrate the existing data around the personnel file, salary structures, applicant data, and other processes into the newly implemented software? In flair, for example, you can upload existing data into the newly implemented software with a simple integration function. With transfer capabilities, old employee lists, processes and other data can be transferred to the new HR software in just a matter of minutes.

Once all old data is integrated, you'll be surprised how easy it is to manage even large amounts of data. In many consulting firms, employee data and files are scattered everywhere. With flair's "Wizard" assistant you can easily import this loose data into the HR software via .csv and Excel files. You will get help from our implementation team, which will gladly support you in setting up the software and integrating the already existing information into the newly set upsoftware solution.

Subsequently, responsible and trained employees will teach the rest of the staff how to use the software. Gradually, the entire team will become familiar with the newly implementedsoftware solution. There are numerous ways to introduce the safe use of a newHR softwareto your colleagues. The focus is always on the advantages of the software, which should make their everyday work easier.

In order to take full advantage of these benefits, you need to get to grips with the implemented software and learn to understand it. Even if dashboards are easy to understand and user-friendly nowadays, questions may arise on the part of employees. A contact person for these questions enables a common understanding of how to use theHR softwarein the best way.

Basically, there are two ways to integrate new software into your company. A step-by-step introduction, where one HR tool is introduced after the other, or a "big bang" where all uses are integrated at the same time. The decision is company-specific and depends on factors such as resources, know-how and employee availability.

To support HR in your consultancy,HR softwaremakes it easy to keep the implementation as simple as possible. Once implemented and in use, a software like flair is an integral part of your consultancies daily work. The change to use a new tool or software are processes that often meet with opposition. But answering these five questions in this entry, even the loudest critics should be silenced.