What Google Apps can do for Human Resources

Companies acquire considerable added value when innovating in the management of their resources; human resources being the most important of them all. Having tools capable of meeting the demands of organisations and facilitating management and daily tasks leads to benefits such as those experienced by the multinational human resources company Randstad.

The Dutch company has over 29,000 employees working in 4,500 offices throughout 40 countries. Until they implemented Google Apps to bring everything together, Randstad used to use different systems for each task (email and collaboration).

Martijn Nykerk, Senior Consultant in the Randstad IT Department, explained that the decision was reached because of certain integration problems with other tools. Employees were using Microsoft Outlook for email and Lotus Notes for collaboration, so Randstad migrated everything to the Google solution by integrating the entire company structure into it. This process began with the offices in France – some 7,000 of them – in 2013.

What were the benefits?

• Increased integration with other tools in the system
• Increased productivity and collaboration between employees
• As Internet users, employees were familiar with the Google tools and this generated a saving in terms of training
• Unification of the system at every office worldwide
• A secure connection from any device

How can Human Resources harness Google Apps?

It is not by chance that Randstad and other expert personnel recruitment companies have opted for Google Apps. This suite offers major advantages in terms of human resource management. Here are just a few of them:

Centralised information for the entire team. Google Sites enables the creation of an intranet without the need to know programming and one single place for including all the information of interest to employees: memos, benefits, useful links, latest news about the company and even all the information on processes for those new to the company.

For courses and training, Google Drive allows you to store all the material and provide access to the team.

More up-to-date documents. Documents are of the utmost importance in Human Resources. Hence, it is essential to ensure the most up-to-date versions are being used rather than older versions that could give rise to certain confusion. Recommendation letters are one example of this: with Google Docs, only permitted personnel can access them and do so with the certainty that they are using the most up-to-date template that exists.

New talent. The possibilities vis-à-vis the recruitment of new personnel are highly extensive:

• Creation of shared documents for narrowing down the profile of the desired candidate. It is often complicated to precisely understand what is required of a new employee. The HR Director and those requesting a new employee can make themselves understood by editing the same document in order to avoid any doubts regarding the desired characteristics in potential candidates.
• An interview via Google Hangouts allows you to meet candidates based anywhere in the world or keep holding interviews even when you are out of the office or in a different country.
• Adding notes about candidates while you are interviewing them and sharing them with someone else. The candidate selection process can be made somewhat easier when examining the numerous skills, requirements and characteristics of each candidate.
• When all the information is centralised, it is much easier to welcome new staff and facilitate the process for their integration into the company.
• Once a candidate has been chosen, it is likely that you will want to keep all the other CVs for future occasions. There is no need to delete them or print them, just store them on Google Drive.

Feedback. Conducting surveys on employees can be very easy. From the solution to a logistical problem (transport or services, for example) to the perception of certain general aspects of the company, all this can be done through Google Forms.

Do not hesitate to contact Intelligence Partner, the premier Google for Work partner in Spain, to request more information on the assessment and implementation of this solution. We can also help you install this solution and provide technical support, administration and training on Google Apps.