In the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the vast majority of us had little choice but to adopt remote working. As countless businesses throughout the world have had to learn to work remotely, many are taking their next step by embracing flexible work-from-home structures. A whopping 89% of staff across New Zealand are interested in continuing to have the option to work from home after COVID-19, reports Work Future Otago.
Further, with the shadow of COVID-19 far from gone, teams must be able to adapt to remote working quickly to minimise the impact of snap lockdowns. Alert shifts in 2021 across Australia and New Zealand in the wake of the delta variant have made a strong case for robust work-from-home systems & procedures.
That’s where the support of a fully integrated HR and payroll system comes into the picture. In this article, we break down six powerful features that make Jemini the ultimate tool for managing a remote workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
1. Flexible timesheets for a flexible workplace
For employees, timesheets are a drag at the best of times. With remote working, pandemic or no pandemic, they become even more of a mission. Timesheets, like many payroll systems, are often far more manual than they should be.
The danger of these manual processes is that they open your business up to errors (intentional or honest) that can then create compliance issues, billing and payroll discrepancies and missed revenue. Manual attendance tracking might be manageable in an office environment, but it can be much harder with communication barriers of remote work.
With that in mind, automated and flexible time-sheeting is crucial when your staff are working from home. A flexible work arrangement requires flexible systems and processes.
Jemini has integrated payroll, planning and attendance into one simple platform and utilises smart AIs to prompt and encourage your staff to complete their timesheets. Being fully flexible, you have the freedom to establish attendance and timesheet rules based on how your staff operate.
2. Dispersed workforce compliance
The adoption of remote working is fantastic, as it allows us to retain business-critical talent even when life beckons them away from us.
As more businesses welcome remote workers, so too do they welcome potential complications with different timezones and regional compliance laws. Even if your staff was all based in one city at the start of the pandemic, it’s possible key members have returned home to be with their families during a lockdown or otherwise moved to another city, state or country.
A dispersed workforce can be harder to manage in terms of payroll. Particularly during lockdown where stress is already high, staff need to be paid correctly and on time, every time, no matter where in the world they are. Sometimes this can mean paying through alternative systems, wrapping our heads around different timezones, or having to account for different payment structures and laws.
Having a centralised payroll process means that all your data is streamlined for system reporting across all operating regions. With Jemini, you’ll gain a holistic view of payroll despite having a dispersed workforce.
3. Remote employee onboarding
Even through lockdown your business must keep going. Often that means bringing on new staff to meet new challenges or fill recent vacancies. But welcoming new staff members is all the more difficult when you can’t meet in person. That face-to-face interaction can be crucial for ease of communication and making your new team member feel included and welcome.
When in-person onboarding is off the table, your HR system can help. Jemini is built with personalised onboarding systems in place. Customise the process for each new employee and invite them to check off their onboarding goals, easily find and read important documents, meet & greet their new coworkers and complete continuous training, all with easy oversight from management.
4. Remote professional development management
It’s long been documented that learning and development opportunities are positive correlated with employee satisfaction and performance. Research from Middlesex University for Work Based Learning found a huge 74% of employees feel they don’t achieve their full potential at work due to a lack of development opportunities.
Furthermore, the majority of learning & development professional agree that internal mobility is a greater priority now than before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to LinkedIn's 2021 Workplace Learning Report .
If your organisation has not previously bothered with professional development, now is the time to do so to ensure retention, satisfaction and performance. Jemini can help you with that, with cloud-based training modules that can be completed by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Managers can gain a centralised view of their team’s development, easily seeing how everyone is progressing to help them overcome obstacles and meet their goals with ease.
5. Remote workplace culture & staff engagement
Lastly, what’s a workplace without its culture? Staying connected is more important than ever when our movements are limited and we don’t have regular face-to-face contact with our coworkers. Mental health advocacy organisation BeyondBlue has reported on the increasing importance of staying connected through COVID-19, and the difference it can make to mental wellbeing.
Jemini makes remote human connection easier. It’s not just a platform for your management team to track staff, but for all employees to engage with one another and the business.
Much like a social network, Jemini invites employees to highlight their hobbies and interests, create individual profiles and represent themselves to one another. This can help to remove engagement barriers and break the ice between employees both remotely and in the office.
On top of this, digital events, polls and conversations make it easier to connect with staff, while our wellbeing features enable staff to communicate back to you if they’re struggling with mood, work/life balance, general health and sleep. All of this is to say that Jemini sees your employees as human beings and empowers both staff and management to practice empathy for healthy workplace culture.
Shake up your remote workplace for the better
COVID-19 has already shaken up your business. The disruption has happened. But now it’s your chance to claim that disruption, make it work for you, and empower your staff (both remote and in-office) to engage with one another, the company and critical processes like time-sheeting.
Move your company into a more empathetic, automated and human-centred company culture with Jemini. Get in touch today for a free no-obligation demo.