Welcome to the latest edition of our Ask The Expert series. We sat down with our HR Advisor and in-house Breathe HR expert, Chloe, to go over what Breathe HR is, the latest features and why you should consider using it.
A brief overview of Breathe HR
Breathe HR is a people-management system designed to help SMEs streamline HR administration and save time. This intuitive platform consolidates all employee data in one place, allowing you to log sickness, manage holiday books, handle training management, schedule rotas, monitor performance, store personal information, and upload both personnel and company documents. By simplifying these tasks, Breathe allows you to focus on your business.
The centralisation of all HR admin processes and various HR tasks ensures for a smooth and simple process when managing employee and company records. Let’s take a more in – depth look at the key features of Breathe HR.
You can easily track and record employee sickness records. This will entail information such as how long the employee is off sick, the reason they are off sick, and any other relevant information during their absence.
Employees can manage their booked holiday and holiday allowance with Breathe’s own integrated calendar. This enables employees to request leave and, subsequently, management can also approve and / or decline such requests. Employees can also view when their colleagues have time booked off and therefore can pre – determine the likelihood of their holiday request being approved. Your organisation can also avoid scheduling conflicts and maintain suitable staffing levels throughout the whole year.
Employee training is vital to safeguarding the future success of your organisation. Through Breathe, you are able to schedule training session, monitor participation, and making sure there is a two – way commitment to developing your employees’ skill set.
If your organisation works on a rota system then Breathe have you covered too. Rota scheduling is an important part of your process, and Breathe offer a smooth, simple and visual way of creating these rotas. You can view what shifts are covered, when they are being covered and who they are being covered by. This is particularly important if your business operates with complex scheduling needs.
You can stay on top of employee performance through regular reviews and assessments. You will be able to see which employees are performing to the best of their ability, and subsequently award them – it’s always nice to recognise the hard work of your employees! On the other hand, you will also be able to view which employees are struggling, and therefore you can alter their training plan accordingly to better suit their needs and perhaps also see an upturn in performance.
Store personal information on Breathe HR securely. You can upload information for each employee, including contact details, emergency contacts and any other information that is essential. Information must be kept up – to – date on the system, and it is important that your workplace allocate this task on a regular basis to someone.
Not only can you store personal information, but you can also upload company documents such as employee handbooks and employee contracts. Here at The HR Booth, our employee handbook is visible to all employees, and they can access this at any time. The same applies to their employee contract as well. It is important to note that these contracts are safe and secure once uploaded.
How can I customise Breathe HR to fit the specific needs of the organisation?
Breathe HR have vigorous features that allow for maximum flexibility and security when managing all your team’s data. One of the flagship features of this is flexible permission – which allows Breathe HR administrators within your team, grant specific levels of absence dependant on the role and / or need of that employee.
For example, it is likely that all of your senior management team may need access to a higher level of customised settings than the other members of your team. Senior management will be able to view data such as training record, rotas and team performance data. On the other hand, employees will only be able to view information that is personal to them such as their contract, holiday allowance and personal information.
Different organisation may work under different holiday calendars. Breathe lets you alter your operational calendar depending on the dates that you work under. Furthermore, the holiday allowances are also customisable. If you have a mix of full – time staff and part – time staff, then you can change their holiday allowance based on the hours that they work. This also works for different levels of seniority. Holiday policies should always be tailored to suit your business needs and Breathe provides you with the ability to customise them. Another feature relevant to this is the workplace holiday calendar which allows you to see which employees are off and at what times they are off.
As we touched on previously, your workforce may consist of different working patterns, such as part – time, full – time or shift – based, you have the authority to set these patterns within your Breathe system. This helps provide a simple process for the accurate recording of working hours, whilst also making the attendance management and payroll management process as smooth as possible.
Tailored picklists include the ability to record relevant training needs that your employees need to complete. For instance, we recently completed various training courses ( set by senior management ), on topics such as GDPR and Health & Safety in the Workplace. Once the training has been successfully completed, your score will be uploaded to Breathe and attached to your profile, so that senior management can see that you have completed the relevant training courses.
Secure data handling is imperative to the safeguarding of company documents. Breathe actively prioritise data security and have advanced encryption methods in place to protect your information. Not only that but Breathe also have a Chief Technology Officer ( CTO ) in place, further highlighting their commitment to secure data. You can find out more about the security measures Breathe have in place here.
Breathe operates with an interactive and user – friendly system, especially for software such as payroll and accounting, which can often be complicated. This system means that you don’t have to be particularly ‘tech-savvy’. It is extremely easy to access all the systems and information that you need.
What are the latest updates/features of Breathe HR that you should be aware of?
Flexible Working Requests – Earlier this year, the government updated flexible working legislation. With the new flexible working request module, you can create, manage, and report on your team’s flexible working requests.
New Learn Course – five new courses have been added to the system:
Business Ethics for Managers
This training is vital for creating a culture of responsibility within your organisation. It covers detail that will guide your business towards making the correct ethical decisions. Topics can include Foundations of Business Ethics, Ethical Decision – Making, Corporate Social Responsibility ( CSR ), Code of Conduct and Ethical leadership.
Conflict Resolution for Employees
Conflict may arise in the workplace. Therefore, this form of training can ensure that your employees have the skills they need to deal with workplace disputes effectively and correctly, all of which helps create a positive workplace culture. The main aspects of this training will involve Understanding Conflict, Conflict Resolution Strategies, Managing Emotions, Practical Applications and Building a Positive Work Environment.
Sexual Harassment Training for Managers
You can help prevent harassment in the workplace by training your employees on details such as understanding responsibility and how to create a safe and welcoming work environment. The key topics within this will be Understanding Sexual Harassment, Creating a Safe Work Environment, Responding to Complaints, Preventive Measures and Reviewing Case Studies.
Stress Management
It is important that you are aware of your employee’s stress levels and how you can support them through busy and stressful periods at work. Training on this can help develop your managers understanding on this topic. Relevant parts of this training are Understanding Stress, Stress Reduction Techniques, Coping Strategies, Creating a Work – Life Balance & Creating a Supportive Working Environment.
Workplace Mental Health for Managers
You can help equip your management team by promoting mental wellbeing throughout your employees. This training helps do just that. Notable topics within here include Understanding Mental Health, Recognising Signs and Symptoms, Supporting Employees, Creating a Mentally Healthy Workplace & Crisis Management.
Sickness Triggers
You can now set sickness trigger rules based on your employees’ Bradford Factor or number of sickness instances. The Braford Factor is a formula generated to further understand the impact of employee absence on the organisation, at any given time.
The Bradford Factor works off the basis that a lot of short – term absence is a lot more disruptive to the business than the odd long – term absence. The Bradford Factor also helps to identify in absence patterns in specific employees. If there is a regular pattern of absence, then you should seek to engage your HR department / provider to help resolve this.
This is something we help our clients with on a regular basis. If you need support on this matter ( or any other relevant workplace / HR matter ) then please feel free to get in touch with us via the contact form at the bottom of this page.
Breathe will notify you automatically if someone reaches these limits. This feature is available on Regular, Pro, Premium, and Plus plans.
Holiday Approval Automation
You can now create departmental rules and set limits for how many people can be off at any one time, reducing human error. This feature is available on Regular, Pro, Premium, and Plus plans.
To find out more about Breathe HR, click here.
