What Is Human Capital Management?

By putting an emphasis on the human aspect of your business operations, you can establish a more dynamic work environment that fosters innovation and collaboration, elevates employee engagement, and ultimately improves organizational performance. Through effective HCM strategies, businesses can develop a competitive edge by building strong, capable teams and empowering their people to achieve their full potential.

Human capital management involves a series of administrative and strategic functions that include:

• Recruiting, hiring, and onboarding
• Payroll
• Time and attendance
• Benefits and retirement services
• Talent management
• Training
• Reporting and analytics
• Compliance

Building human capital requires quite an investment. But, when done properly, it is an investment with tremendous ROI. The key goals are to:

• Hire talented people for open positions
• Monitor attendance and performance regularly
• Enhance their skills with ongoing training and education
• Retain them with competitive pay, benefits, and other incentives
• Build a winning culture

HCM software is a collection of HR systems that utilize mobile and cloud-based technology to manage data, generate reports, and provide a seamless user experience. These systems usually fall into one of two service models: best-of-breed or unified.

When adopting a best-of-breed approach, you can buy specific applications from various vendors, providing you with increased functionality. However, this can also lead to more complexity as you’ll be dealing with multiple vendors, contracts, and user experiences. On the other hand, a unified solution entails working with just one vendor for all your HCM needs. While this approach may be easier to manage, the features may not be as comprehensive as those found in best-of-breed systems.

The right HCM software, whether an HRMS or HRIS, will automate many of those tasks, reducing redundancy, and paperwork while improving accuracy in reporting. Cloud-based HCM software supports business agility with online tools such as payroll, time and attendance, online training, and more.

HCM, or Human Capital Management, focuses on managing and developing employees as valuable assets within an organization. It encompasses practices such as workforce planning, recruitment, performance management, talent management, and learning and development.

HRMS, or Human Resource Management System, is a software tool that helps automate and streamline HR processes and data management. It typically includes features for managing employee records, payroll and benefits, time and attendance, and compliance tracking.

While both HCM and HRMS involve managing human resources, HCM emphasizes the strategic and development aspects of HR, while HRMS is more focused on the administrative and operational tasks. Organizations often use both HCM and HRMS together to ensure a holistic approach to managing their human capital.

An HRMS is a comprehensive system used to manage employee information, while an HRIS is a database or collection of databases that track employee data. Generally, HRMS is more detailed than HRIS.

HRMS and HRIS software both streamline HCM tasks, reducing redundancy in data entry. Also, they reduce human error in critical business aspects like payroll and benefits management, resulting in fewer mistakes and cost savings. 

Integrated HCM solutions can automate payroll, saving time and reducing the risk of errors from manual data entry. These solutions may also offer flexible pay options, such as early access to wages, pay cards, and the ability to choose pay frequency.

• Analyze your needs: Identify your organization’s HR and payroll requirements and prioritize them.
• Assess vendor credibility: Analyze vendors’ reputations, experience in the market, and customer reviews.
• Check for user-friendliness: Ensure that the system’s interface is user-friendly and easy to navigate.
• Integration capabilities: Verify if the system integrates with other essential business systems like accounting software, payroll, benefits, etc.
• Cost: Compare the costs of different software options and determine which best fits your budget.
• Security and compliance: Ensure that the system you choose complies with data security standards like GDPR, HIPAA, etc.
• Scalability: Consider if the system caters to your organization’s future growth and any possible changes in the business structure.