“We are focused on staying at the forefront of the HCM market and continuing to add value to our solution”.
Today, companies have been presented with various challenges in the ever-evolving corporate world. Security vulnerabilities are a top concern of every organization. Having a secure HCM system is critical, as it is used by both internal (employees) and external (applicants) users. The recent ransomware attack of one HCM vendor highlights the crucial need for concern in this area, more than ever.
PDS is a leading provider of HCM systems offering a core suite of recruiting, onboarding, human resource, benefits, payroll, and time and attendance software throughout the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. PDS Vista® enables organizations to minimize the time invested in administrative HCM and payroll activities by streamlining and automating those processes and facilitating strategic decision-making capabilities. Its innovative, personalized technology is backed by a team of experts who know your name, so you get a truly personal experience your way, on your terms. “We are focused on staying at the forefront of the HCM market and continuing to add value to our solution,” says Pat Palmer, president, and CEO at PDS. “We continue to incorporate new features and functionality requested by our valued customer base.”
PDS’s safe and secure Human Capital Management (HCM) platform — whether cloud-based or on-premise — crushes even the most complex problems. PDS delivers a robust HCM system that helps companies centralize their data, make it accessible, enable real-time reporting and make trend and information analysis much more accessible. Many PDS customers opt for the PDS cloud-based solution, where the PDS cloud operations team works side-by-side with your HCM team to manage their HCM environments. Others prefer the PDS on-premise solution, which offers the same product capabilities and operational tools. PDS helps improve your choice of software solutions and deployment methods to reach operational goals. PDS offers powerful, role-based security permissions that restrict access to only those who need to know. When logistics are an additional challenge, multi-factor authentication integration is an available option.
HCM Challenges in Today’s World
The COVID-19 pandemic introduced several new challenges to each employer, regardless of their size or industry. Staffing challenges have become the ”norm” for many organizations. PDS delivers a recruiting component that allows organizations to define their messaging and attract talent to view and apply for job openings. Recruiters have the tools that they need to clarify the necessary job requirements (e.g., skills, education, licenses, etc.) and rank them to easily search for and view qualified applicants.
Engaging with a corporate team has become more complex with a hybrid workforce of work-from-home and in-office schedules. Many organizations were stretched to the limit and lacked the tools to communicate with their workforce effectively. PDS Vista provides the capability to share corporate information easily with employees and empowers them to access their data and when appropriate, their peers’ information.
From an end-to-end recruiting, human resources, benefits, and payroll management solution, or a full range of other HR services, PDS is building technology for clients to match their specific needs in a personalized manner. The Vista® product, offers configurable setup which allows organizations to define their rules and requirements, automate processes, and implement efficiencies by offering more accessible insight into organizational data.
Company-based rules allow organizations to segment employee populations as needed and define their relevant needs. Company information such as news, calendars, holidays, and useful analytics can easily be configured and shared with employees. This flexibility improves communications and helps employees feel more connected, while also increasing productivity – which in the end, helps reduce turnover.
PDS recognizes that offering simple, secure data access is critical, and it can no longer be complex. PDS provides a multitude of ways to query, report, analyze and deliver the data that HCM users demand. Unlike the majority of the HCM market, PDS offers choices. Instead of forcing customers onto one model, PDS offers deployment flexibility. Whether in the cloud or on-premise – customers choose their preferred method. The PDS Cloud provides a personalized approach to implementation versus the typical “black-box” approach. Customers can configure the system as they need and make it their own. This relationship is PDS’s most significant strength. “Our clients know that we listen to their needs and respond in delivering the solutions that they need to be successful,” says Pat.
PDS continues to broaden its HCM offering and look for ways to expand customers’ return on their investment. E-signatures are changing the way we gather and store information. PDS allows companies to streamline the signature of employee documents using Adobe® Sign or DocuSign® integration. Using their corporate Adobe® Sign or DocuSign® license, customers can configure, capture, deliver and store signatures in Vista’s Recruiting, Onboarding, HR, Benefits, and Payroll modules.
Analytics are critical to uncovering the key performance indicators that make an organization tick; however, many organizations have not yet adopted the necessary tools to analyze data. Vista includes an embedded robust analytics solution and hundreds of samples that allow customers to adopt and adapt them as needed. Learning the value of presenting analytical data through graphical examples is a powerful method in gaining adoption of new tools.
PDS serves various organizations in many different industries, including professional services, finance, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, utilities, transportation, hospitality, education, government, and others. Organizations can take advantage of the benefits of their intelligent, cross-border, single database architecture. Although a single, integrated HCM and payroll solution, Vista’s components can be deployed in phases according to customer’s particular needs and priorities.
Adapting to Government Regulations
In September of 2021, U.S. President Biden announced that the federal government would take steps to mandate COVID-19 vaccination for certain entities under the authority of the federal government or federal agencies. Businesses with 100 or more employees would need to require COVID-19 vaccination or have workers get tested weekly for the virus. The rule was to take effect Jan. 4, 2022, affecting about 84 million workers nationwide, but soon after the rule was issued by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, (OSHA) it faced multiple legal challenges. Currently, it’s on hold indefinitely because of the legal challenges, but many employers across the U.S. had already adopted these measures soon after the announcement and required their employees to get vaccinated.
As organizations adapted their policies and practices to manage COVID-19 vaccine mandate implications, PDS enhanced Vista to offer the means to collect tests and vaccines to more easily monitor compliance. “We are responsive to our customers’ needs and can quickly adapt to deliver solutions. PDS continues to work to simplify our customer’s usage of the product,” says Pat.
During the pandemic, they have had more requests for end-user services (payroll processing management, benefits management expertise, etc.) to answer customer staffing needs. They quickly adapted, and PDS experts were deployed to provide necessary assistance. In addition to other items mentioned, the pandemic also introduced new employee data requirements. For example, PDS expanded their analytic dashboards to include employee contact information to improve staff visibility. For the hybrid workforce environment, with some folks in the office and others working from home, a dashboard view of who is in the office by location helps simplify employee concerns.
PDS also proactively worked to offer ongoing learning events to facilitate customer education that had been impacted by the remote workforce during the pandemic. They have continued to expand and refine their education offering to deliver knowledge when and where the customer needs it. PDS regularly shares educational seminars and detailed product videos to enhance the user’s knowledge of available features on the PDS support website. PDS believes it’s important to make learning simple and free!
