What is Staffing Software?

The more a business grows and the more employees it has, the greater its need for employee needs management. One of the most efficient and technologically advanced ways of filling this need is to use staffing software.

Simply put, staffing software is one or a series of applications that automate many clerical and/or bookkeeping tasks formerly completed by the talented and caring hands of people. Such things as time sheets, paychecks, vacation requests, and invoices can be processed using staffing software. Letting a computer perform these tasks not only gets them done more quickly – given a computer's natural ability to multitask to the nth degree – but also frees up the people who formerly did those things for other tasks. This is an important way for companies to get ahead, by letting technology help them create more time for new challenges.

Staffing software of another sort is also available: some applications enable workers to manage their day-to-day activities more efficiently. This staffing software is focused more on individuals and can manage appointments and to-do lists, track customer and contact data, and set alarms and reminders for important activities such as meetings and conference calls. In this instance, staffing software takes the place of a secretary. In effect, the computer is the secretary.

A primary benefit of staffing software is the creation of an electronic record of all of the activities it handles. Rather than relying on a system of papers, files, folders, and filing cabinets, workers can instead depend on virtual equivalents, powered by computers and servers and backup systems that collectively take up much less space and require much less effort to maintain than their physical-world counterparts. As long as workers set up appropriate methods of tracking and storing information, finding an invoice written 20 years ago or so is only a few mouse clicks away — a far cry from sifting through stacks of paper in dusty boxes in the basement or the warehouse.

Very few workplaces are paperless, however, even though they can certainly take advantage of the technological advances that we have today. Many people make paper copies of invoices, bills, appointments, meeting notes, and other digital records of their workaday world. The number of pages, however, can be reduced thanks to staffing software.

One drawback of staffing software is that, in many cases, it is not entirely mobile. Professionals who travel frequently and rely on their mobile phones, laptop computers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs) in order to do business might find themselves handicapped by a lack of staffing software while they are on the road. Smartphones can solve this problem to some degree, since they can run mobile versions of common software applications, including some versions of staffing software. These phones can also provide Web-browsing capabilities, allowing mobile workers to access Web-based staffing software.