Creating an HR System Weaved into the User Experience

Disconnected, departmental applications have always created barriers for front line employees, but there is perhaps none more frustrating than the HR system.

While a sales rep may occasionally need to get into the transactional system to check on a customer’s outstanding balance or a senior executive may be drilling into sales figures, that’s not where they spend most of their time. And, with few exceptions, no one spends most of their time in the HR system. The end result has been HR systems that are rarely accessed and when they are its wholly disconnected from the user’s workflow. Need to get approval for a purchase order but the approver is on PTO and you need to know their manager? Better log out, move over to the Employee Org. Chart, find the person’s name, title and email, then back into the PO system. Need to request time off? Better check the deliverables schedule in the project system. What’s needed is a system that lets people perform their employee-related tasks without going out of context or disrupting their train of thought.

With SuitePeople, NetSuite has built a system on the NetSuite platform from the ground up, that works the way work is actually done and creates HR functions and processes that are “weaved into their everyday user experiences.”

Available now with the 17.2 release, SuitePeople includes a number of features designed for people, not the HR department. It features:

Employee Center that minimizes the steps it takes for an employee to conduct an action, with an intuitive and user friendly interface and behaves the way other applications in the suite operate, making work quicker and easier.

Employee Directory that minimizes the time and effort it takes to find key information about employees. Often, employees need to contact co-workers outside of their usual context, or other employees with whom they would not normally interact. Connecting with the right person can be very difficult, especially in large or extremely geographically-distributed organizations. The Employee Directory provides a quick and easy way for employees to find the needed information to contact the right person at the right time.

Org Browser, an interactive way for employees and human resources to browse the organization. More than an org chart, which are traditionally updated manually and can very quickly become out of date, the Org Browser updates automatically whenever related information is changed. Employees, jobs, and positions are connected graphically through formal reporting relationships. Users can easily navigate the organization to understand how individuals or teams fit within its structure. This helps users to find the right person to reach out to, especially in mid to large organizations where people don’t all know each other, and it is hard to find the right person to help solve a problem.

Payroll, a complete, full-service solution for managing U.S. payroll. It is tightly integrated with NetSuite accounting features so employees’ time entry, attendance, and commission data translates directly to their payroll with no manual data re-entry. It handles compliance issues, with all federal, state, and local jurisdictions supported and includes a “No Penalties Guarantee” that promises that deposits and filings will be accurate and on time.

Time-Off Management that automates tracking employee time off with easy-to-customize time-off plans, removing what has traditionally been a manual burden for the HR department. The user-friendly, self-service process gives employees, managers and HR the power and flexibility to easily request, approve, track, and report on time off activities through a centralized system, without the need for manual entry. The Time-Off Management integration with NetSuite Payroll and Services Resource Planning (SRP) also accurately tracks and reports employee time-off activities for the organization. It automatically accrues time off based on rules for eligibility, entitlement, accrual frequency and carryover. Rules can also be configured to update with an employee's tenure.

Job Management to help organize and streamline Jobs within the organization. It includes functionality to manage jobs within the org with tie-ins with Job Requisitions, Job Classifications and Levels, competencies and job requirements etc.

Job Requisition to help organize and streamline jobs within the organization. It manages jobs within the org with tie-ins with Job Requisitions, Job Classifications and Levels, competencies and job requirements.

Workforce Analysis which lets HR personnel easily visualize the headcount, growth and turnover trends of the organization, segmented by departments, locations, employee class, and subsidiaries. HR can also apply filters to view specific groups of employees. When business leaders ask for headcount trends, the tool can automatically aggregate the information most relevant to headcount changes (hires, turnovers, trends). HR can now spend more time in understanding the headcount trends, and performing analysis by drilling down to specific employee segments.

Compensation Tracking that allows organizations to track compensation details from the Employee Offer Letter such as earnings (wage/salary), pay frequency, overtime rate, start and hire date. Variable compensation such as bonuses, Restricted Stock Units awarded, Stock options, are also tracked.