HR and performance management can be a real problem for organisations. At last count, there were over 30,000 cases in Fair Work Australia and over $150 million paid out.
Christopher Smith, founder and CEO of Melbourne-based tech start-up Happy HR, has set out to make HR super easy by taking care of the whole employee life cycle.
“We are really proud of the impact our software is making to our subscribers,” he said. “Happy HR is reducing risk with HR compliance, helping client’s performance manage staff in a happy and engaging way, reducing staff turnover, ensuring position descriptions are truly aligned to business strategic goals and providing real HR support with HR qualified professionals, and because of this support we are doubling our subscribers every single month.”
What exactly does HappyHR do?
Designed specifically for Australian businesses, Happy HR enables clients to be a best practice organisation by always having up to date, legally compliant human resource policies that are aligned to your individual company’s culture, goals and values.
Happy HR’s performance management process aims to foster maximum employee engagement by enabling business managers to effectively and fairly measure staff performance. Clients can view their organisational chart, which allows them to track how each individual and department is doing.
“We work with clients to create their own position descriptions that clearly outline the performance indicators, core competencies, experience and education required for each role that is fully aligned to the clients strategic goals,” Chris pointed out.
Staff induction is now easy. Clients can send a letter of offer, allow new recruits to read and review workplace policies and then finally accept the role all in the cloud.
Via an easy to use individual dashboard in a list or grid view, management and employees can see their own information, what performance indicators have been or need to be achieved, historical information, goals and development plans. Individuals will also see all updates to company information and allow them to accept or discuss changes.
Happy HR has also integrated with Xero and will be looking to integrate with other SaaS accounting systems as the year progresses.
What is the story behind Happy HR?
Chris, who was previously working in consultancy, told Anthill that he decided to build Happy HR after doing a HR consultation for a large superannuation company.
“Everything was in Word documents, in filing cabinets and frankly the software out there that did provide a solution were expensive. Not even the executive boards of these companies wanted to invest in HR software because of price,” he said.
“I watched Xero and their growth, the explosion of apps and SaaS and thought, ‘You know what? I could develop a program that was easy to use that provided compliance it would be a good thing as many businesses just don’t put the effort into staff and it’s not that they don’t care it’s just that it costs way too much’.
“I decided that a low fee subscription model that provides clients with 24/7 up to date legally compliant customised contracts, a full suite of over 50 HR polices, performance management guidelines and a 24/7 HR advice line is what the market needed.
“Essentially it’s HR consultation in the cloud.”
