Employee engagement remains an ongoing challenge for leaders around the world. 42% of HR leaders say improving employee experience is their top challenge today. And while employee engagement rates are on the rise, a global pandemic has thrown a whole new set of challenges our way when it comes to engaging our workforce.

There is a changing set of expectations from employees about how, where and when they work, with flexibility, remote work and hybrid work models becoming increasingly prevalent. In many cases, these are huge drivers for attracting and retaining the best talent, and enabling them to do their best work.

Josh Bersin calls this “The Big Reset”.

“There are hundreds of reinventions going on. Companies are dramatically changing how they hire and move people internally. They’re radically upskilling and reskilling leaders. They’re pouring money into learning and development. And they’re totally rethinking their diversity, inclusion, and citizenship programs,” Bersin says in his latest report.

Amid these changes, it’s clear that delivering an exceptional employee experience, underpinned by reliable and intuitive technology, is more important than ever. And it’s not just about employee well-being; it's about productivity as well. According to Gallup, employees in highly engaged business units realise a 17% increase in productivity, 24% less turnover, and a 41% reduction in absenteeism.

Employee engagement is an area that is on top of HR leaders’ agendas, with 48% of HR and IT Leaders planning on investing in technology to help improve the employee experience. And for many firms, making the switch to SaaS-based platforms is the ideal way to gain efficiencies while enhancing employee engagement.

4 ways effective SaaS integration influences employee engagement

As challenging as this pandemic has been, it’s presented HR leaders with a valuable opportunity to re-evaluate ways of working. Many are looking at new ways to use SaaS and cloud-based systems to redesign the employee experience.

Here are 4 key areas in which a well-designed SaaS environment can create a strong positive impact on employee engagement.

1. Supporting employee wellbeing

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a huge toll on people’s financial, physical and emotional wellbeing.

Research among 1,160 workers shows wellbeing is a key priority for workers, with 83% saying it is up to the employer to facilitate wellbeing in the workplace.

SaaS-based systems can give managers a holistic view of their team’s performance, along with historical data to benchmark it against. What’s more, the data points are live, enabling a real-time view into team resourcing, workloads and availability. With new tools and strategies to identify signs of struggle, managers can identify and step in to address any wellbeing issues before they grow into something more serious.

Broadly speaking, wellbeing is about creating conditions that inspire and enable people to invest their talent and ideas in your company’s future success. It is also about transparency that empowers managers to make objective, well-informed decisions about employee wellbeing, based on facts and data.

What makes people go above and beyond in their work? It starts with great leadership equipped with the right tools, and is influenced daily by how well you reward, recognise and develop your team members.

2. Enabling remote access to work

The modern workforce is operating in a time of uncertainty. Right now, many organisations are preparing for a return back to work or implementing hybrid working models to support a mix of in-person and remote working arrangements.

Employees need secure remote access to critical software applications and data, and they need to be able to access the systems they need, across any device, at a time that suits them. SaaS-based systems, when properly integrated with company workflows and systems, offer tremendous flexibility in how, where and when your people work, while removing bottlenecks related to syncing or manual processes.

And it’s not just employees. Modern organisations rely on a variety of freelancers, contractors, consultants and temporary workers who may work between various sites, even across various time zones. Having a system that can support this new age of remote work while providing a consistent, reliable and intuitive employee experience can make a world of difference to their productivity.

For example, choosing a modern HR solution that is built with easy-to-use collaboration and communication features will help you equip your managers with the tools they need to stay connected, wherever your team may be.

3. Providing personalised learning and development opportunities

Faced with more free time due to lockdown rules, many people have thrown themselves into learning about digital tools, professional topics, and new languages. According to data from LinkedIn Learning, users watched over 1.7 million hours of courses in April 2020, double the amount watched in March and three-times the amount watched in February.

Many organisations have noted this growing enthusiasm and are taking advantage of the increase in virtual learning technologies to reskill and up-skill their workforce.

A SaaS-based HR platform that integrates training with performance management allows you to use key data insights to align training programs with employees’ goals, giving them a personalised and engaging employee experience.

4. Giving employees the tools to make work easier

As if working from home while juggling home school responsibilities and sticky-handed toddlers weren’t hard enough, many of us also battle with slow, onerous and unreliable legacy systems.

Not having access to the right tools and technology adds to the frustration and inertia many employees already feel. It makes it harder to get tasks done, which detracts from an employee’s sense of progress and achievement.

More than a third of employees feel their job is harder than it should be because of outdated processes and legacy technology, based on a worldwide survey by human capital think-tank The Workforce Institute.

A unified SaaS environment that enables employee self-service makes more flexible and efficient workflows possible. Your team can see and manage their own tasks, leaves, training, and career development information, and easily find important documents, forms or pay details.

Giving your employees access to cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions also enhances employee experience through user-friendly interfaces, mobility, and seamless integrations with essentials like Office 365. Employees can work from anywhere with an internet connection and maintain a sense of belonging and enthusiasm.

Creating a unified approach to employee experience

If there’s been any positive to come out of the pandemic, it’s the sense of unity that has been created. Unity not just among our workforce, but also among customers and across all corporate functions.

As Josh Bersin puts it, “In many ways, the pandemic forced us to tear down our functional silos and work more closely together than ever before. People are inspired and energised by the sense of purpose, togetherness, and urgency in this time of change.”

Leaders can build on this sense of unity through an integrated technology solution that provides an exceptional employee experience across the entire employee lifecycle. Backed by modern technology, you can build a great culture that supports your people to deliver their best, wherever they are located.

Cyber attacks against businesses and government entities of all sizes have grown in intensity and frequency worldwide, driven by disruptive technologies and geopolitical competition.

This is causing governments to re-evaluate the protections in place for their infrastructure and services critical to their country.

Towards the end of 2021, the Australian government made a big statement when it passed The Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill 2021. The new Act, which reviews and revises the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 (SOCI Act), significantly expands both the number and type of businesses subject to the provisions of the law and increases the Federal Government’s powers.

The Federal Government powers include information-gathering directions, action directions and an intervention request, where the Minister for Home Affairs can access, alter, remove or disconnect parts of the asset in various ways.

These powers can be invoked where serious cyber security incidents occur in relation to critical infrastructure sector assets. The Act represents a new high watermark in the way governments are willing to impose obligations on private businesses to protect national interests. With no slowdown in the threat of cyber attacks on the horizon, these obligations are only likely to continue to increase for organisations and the people who lead them.

Cyber obligations are set to increase for company leaders

The government outlined in Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy 2020 that it will work with businesses to consider legislative changes that set a minimum cyber security baseline across the economy. As part of this, the government aims to clarify the duties for company directors and other business entities.

Considering the current risk environment, and the Federal Government making cyber security a priority, it is highly likely that the obligations and responsibilities for directors when it comes to cyber security will increase in the future.

Already directors around the world are paying a personal price for cyber security breaches.

In the US, Target’s CEO stepped down shortly after it was disclosed that the company had suffered a significant data breach, as did Sony Pictures Entertainment’s co-chair, and the Director of the US Office of Personnel Management, when similar incidents occurred.

In Australia, the obligations for directors vary depending on the industry. According to section 180 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), directors need to guard against key business risks.

Cyber incidents fall into this category, so directors are already exposed to damages claims and regulatory investigations if they don’t ensure their companies have sufficient systems and processes in place to protect against cyber security threats.

For companies with an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL), the onus on directors is even greater. AFS licensees must have systems and controls in place to manage business risks. Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) have both made it clear that cyber risks are a key systems and control issue.

IT costs and skill shortages are making cyber security difficult

As the threat of cyber crimes continue to escalate, businesses are in a challenging position. Firstly, the cost of cyber security is expensive. According to new research from IBRS and Insight Economics, large organisations already dedicate an average of 7.5% of their ICT budget to protecting against cyber threats.

But the skills challenge is even greater than the increasing call on budgets.

Many companies do not have the time, or skillset to effectively protect against cyber threats. This is especially difficult for smaller government agencies and companies, who are just as susceptible to cyber attacks, but lack the large IT budgets and resources.

Australia is facing a skills shortage for cyber security professionals. Data from AustCyber illustrates that Australia needs an additional 7,000 skilled cyber security specialists over the next two years.

How SaaS can relieve regulatory pressure from companies

This might seem like a hopeless situation. However, one technology has emerged that addresses the key issues facing Australian organisations – Software as a Service (SaaS), a cloud-based technology.

SaaS delivers applications over the internet on a consumption basis. The SaaS provider, takes on the responsibility of ensuring its platform is the most up-to-date, secure and efficient. By its nature, SaaS is scalable, and a security patch applied to the system is immediately delivered to all customers.  

By moving to SaaS, organisations effectively transition from a model where they own and therefore must maintain the compliance and currency of their software, including against new cyber security vulnerabilities, to one where they are paying an expert to attest to those tasks being delivered as a service.

This is supported by research from IBRS and Insight Economics, which explores the economic impacts of SaaS. According to several case studies, governments and businesses that have migrated to SaaS found both an improvement in their cyber security, as well as a reduction in costs.

In fact, the report found that if all major Australian industries transitioned from their on-premise software to SaaS, Australia could stand to gain $252 billion in savings over the next 10 years.

Looking at the cyber security landscape in Australia, directors need to ask themselves if their systems are adequately prepared for a cyber security incident and consider the multiple benefits outsourcing the risk to a SaaS platform could bring.

For more information on the economic benefits of SaaS, download the research from IBRS and Insight Economics, commissioned by TechnologyOne.

Australian organisations reported a cyber attack every 8 minutes in the 2021 financial year, according to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), an increase of 13 per cent from the previous year. At the same time, the country faces a severe shortage in cyber security specialists, creating a risk environment where businesses and governments can no longer independently protect themselves effectively.

The threat of cyber crime has significantly increased over the past decade. As a result, cyber security has emerged as one of the most important issues for senior management and company boards, both in terms of cost and resources, as IT teams struggle to keep pace.

According to the ACSC, self-reported losses from cybercrime for the year totaled more than $33 billion. The OECD also estimates the costs of cyber crimes for governments range from 0.02 per cent of GDP in Japan to 1.6 per cent in Germany, 0.64 per cent in the United States and 0.63 per cent in China.

At the same time, data from AustCyber highlighted that Australia’s job market is currently facing a severe skill shortage. Australia needs an additional 7,000 skilled cyber security specialists over the next two years according to an article from the Australian Financial Review (AFR). Globally, there is a shortage of 1.5 million cyber professionals, with this figure growing by around 250,000 per year.

Government and organisations are only as strong as their weakest link

Not only is the aftermath of cyber attacks costly, but prevention is equally as taxing on organisations. This is especially true for companies and governments that are still using legacy on-premise software. According to new research from IBRS and Insight Economics, large organisations dedicate an average of 7.5% of their ICT budget to protecting against cyber threats.

Many companies do not have the time, or skillset to effectively protect against cyber threats. This is especially difficult for smaller government agencies and companies, who face the same threats and risks as larger organisations, but without the large budgets, internal skills, and resources. When it comes to cyber security – you’re only as strong as your weakest link.

With demand outweighing supply, organisations are looking to cloud technologies to address key business challenges specifically, Software as a Service (SaaS).

SaaS can relieve the cost and burden of cyber security

Behind every SaaS provider, is a large pool of dedicated resources, skills and knowledge, working together to make sure their platform is the most up-to-date, secure and efficient. By outsourcing to a SaaS platform, companies can remove the risk, strain and cost of cyber security.

According to the research from IBRS and Insight Economics, governments and businesses have seen a substantial improvement in security as a result of migration to SaaS. In other words, the report found that organisations were paying less for better security outcomes by moving to SaaS and availing themselves of the specialist skills of scale providers.

Daniel Sultana, Executive Vice President of SaaS Platform at TechnologyOne noted a trend of companies – both big and small, struggling under the weight of cyber security.

“At TechnologyOne, we have seen a lot of smaller agencies and companies struggling under the threat of cyber security. They’re realising that no internal team could ever be resourced enough to respond to the ever-changing threats of cyber security.

“As a SaaS provider, we can relieve that burden for them. Many also tell us that it means their IT teams can return their focus to areas that are within their control, which is considerably more beneficial for them. We can provide them with a quality service, with the weight of our extensive resources and knowledge-base to protect their data from cyber threats.”

Why modern cyber security is a team sport

In its Anatomy of a Cloud Assessment and Authorisation report, the ACSC advised government agencies to consider outsourcing their requirements to cloud-based technologies, raising a pertinent question – can they really afford not to? The same question should be asked by all management and boards.

Sultana highlights that cyber security is a team sport and migrating to SaaS is beneficial on two levels: “First, there’s the enterprise level, you want to move to SaaS because it’s good for business. But there’s also the national imperative. If everyone acts more quickly in their own interest, it will benefit all of us in terms of stronger national cyber security.”

For more information on the economic benefits of SaaS, download the research from IBRS and Insight Economics, commissioned by TechnologyOne.

New research has revealed that Software as a Service (SaaS) is profoundly changing the relationship between business units and technology, giving ownership to the actual users, which is powering transformative productivity gains.

Software underpins how people across organisations perform their everyday roles. Historically, the in-house IT team selected and managed the hardware and software on behalf of the whole business.

This was unavoidably a function of the complicated world of ICT that required specialised skills. But it meant the voice of the user was not at the centre of decisions about software choices and development. Unfortunately, this has often meant business processes were designed around the application, rather than the application supporting more efficient business processes.

Giving ownership to software users boosts productivity

New research conducted by IBRS and Insight Economics into the economic impact of SaaS gathered several case studies to understand the real-world experiences of organisations that had transitioned from on-premise legacy software to SaaS.

It revealed fundamental changes taking place inside businesses once they had moved from a model of buying and owning ICT and software, to the modern model where ICT is consumed as a service and the complication associated with simply “making it work” is outsourced.

One case study focused on a mid-sized university, who migrated its on-premises finance solution to a SaaS-based version. The university made the move to SaaS to rein-in costs from multiple, disparate, and siloed information systems, to focus new ICT investments solely on solutions that saved money.

As part of its migration to SaaS, the university took a unique approach by heavily involving its finance staff during this transition process. While the migration was aided by the software vendor’s consultants, much of the preparation and configuration was done together with the university’s finance staff.

The result was that the bigger savings were realised, not from reduced total cost of ownership of the system, but from productivity gains achieved through faster uptake of new or changed business processes.

With admin now controlled by non-IT team members, the university admissions staff configured the system to automate and change how they engaged with students who were late with paying their fees. This not only reduced late payments being made from an average of one week to three days, but it also reduced student stress and improved satisfaction with the university administration.

SaaS is breaking down technology barriers

This was achievable due to the fundamentally transformative nature of SaaS technology. Businesses are liberated from technical work such as patching and upgrading, freeing IT resources to focus on internal projects. Therefore, customers don’t need to be experts in technology to understand SaaS solutions. They need only focus on issues such as testing and configuration to align to specific business processes.

This is driving big productivity improvements as changes in the software are driven more directly by business needs, and as a result, downstream opportunities for innovation and changes in business processes are more likely to be identified.

“According to the university, one of the benefits of the approach taken during the move from on-premises to SaaS is that there is a stronger working relationship between the university’s ICT group and other departments. The new SaaS environment is administered, maintained, and re-configured when needed by a new role within the finance group, rather than having ICT manage all aspects of the software,” the report from IBRS and Insight Economics states.

“This has resulted in approving upgrades with usability testing taking a matter of days, not the several months required by ICT. It also means the finance team has control over new digital workflows and processes. In turn, ICT focuses its efforts on integrations (where needed) and developing new innovations for the university.

This phenomenon is not restricted to one university

“Our team at TechnologyOne have noticed this increasing trend, and have experienced the change first-hand, with an increasing number of CFOs, Head of HR and other department leaders taking the lead in finding a solution that works for both their specific needs, but also the organisation as a whole,” said David Forman, Industry General Manager for Government at TechnologyOne.

The research from IBRS and Insight Economics bears this out. According to Dr Joseph Sweeney, one of the report’s authors who holds a PhD in Education Technology, when measured across all industries, organisations reported that total cost of ownership (TCO) savings accounted for 32% of the total savings reported, while productivity savings represented a much greater share at 54%.

“Critically, having staff with more time, means more can be achieved, and we hear this time and time again from CFOs and other customers. As organisations grow or teams take on more work, more targeted solutions, more powerful self-help tools and greater automation is allowing capacity growth without the need to find more staff in a tight labour market. It is also creating a better experience for customers, as described in the changes in university enrolment processes,” Forman continued.

For the full findings and more information on the economic benefits of SaaS, download the research from IBRS and Insight Economics, commissioned by TechnologyOne.

The potential benefits for higher education providers of switching from current IT software capability and embracing cloud technologies, and in particular Software as a Service (SaaS), are significant.

A new report published by TechnologyOne in conjunction with Insight Economics and IBRS reveals a sector-wide benefit of switching to SaaS of $252bn over the next 10 years.

At an institutional level other advantages include increased compliance with cybersecurity obligations, and productivity gains from non-IT staff being better able to manage the technology they use every day.

To discuss the key points of the report and the benefits of SaaS in more detail, the Campus Review podcast is joined by Peter Nikoletatos, Industry General Manager – Education at TechnologyOne, and Melanie Kelly, General Manager at Insight Economics.