In 2018, two friends – Emmanuel Okeleji and Deji Lana – came together to launch SeamlessHR, a company that would leverage technology to optimise the workforce of businesses in Africa. Despite the huge human resource potential in Africa, many businesses struggle to attract and retain quality human capital, yet paradoxically, the majority of the population, particularly the youth, are unemployed.
“Africa is blessed with an abundant and dynamic workforce that has the potential to expedite its growth, but this potential has not been maximised because the human resources have not been efficiently managed,” said MK Balaji, Chief Revenue Officer at SeamlessHR, in an interview with Powering SMEs.
Despite advances in technology, many HR professionals are still doing basic processes the old-fashioned way, leaving them unable to focus on the things that really matter, such as finding the talent that is key to their organisation's vision.
“A lot of HR is still very operational and not strategic. Practitioners are spending so much time on the mundane and rudimentary stuff and not enough time on the people and culture,” Balaji said.
This, he said, has made it difficult for leaders to not only find the right talent but also to measure performance and thus incentivise the right people, or remove unproductive people from the system.
“A lot of organisations are spending resources to train staff who leave shortly after. How to manage this continues to be a major headache for many organisations, particularly the startups,” said Balaji.
Businesses that have attempted to optimise their operations through technology have had to incur additional costs on different platforms for different HR functions, as most of the solutions on the market are not holistic.
“Most of the solutions that are in the market do not speak to each other, which is making it difficult for companies to make sense of the data they collect. It’s almost like a symphony that is playing the music sheets of different songs,” Balaji added.
On the other hand, most of these solutions are on-premises, meaning people have to be in the office to use them, making them less effective in an era where hybrid and remote working has become the new normal.
“Due to improved internet connectivity and the Covid-19 pandemic, people have become used to work-from-home experiences where they can play with their kids and still be able to work, so getting people to be in the office full-time can be difficult for organisations,” said Balaji.
Leveraging cloud-based technology, SeamlessHR enables businesses to remotely manage various processes including recruitment, onboarding, information and performance management, attendance leave and payroll.
“It is almost impossible to think of hybrid and remote work without having a good system for managing things like time and performance. It is not the same as when everyone is in the office, where you can walk around and get a sense of who is working or not,” said Balaji.
Because it works on an end-to-end basis, the platform collects data that can help companies gain insights into how best to manage their talent, or how decisions made by senior managers affect their workforce.
Despite the obvious benefits, Balaji says the product still faces some scepticism, particularly when it comes to whether it could lead to job losses.
Balaji adds that automation does not mean taking people out of the equation, but shifting their focus and work to something much more useful and aligned with what cannot be automated.
Often, organisations tend to focus more on policies and processes, with little attention paid to people. As a result, operational costs are high, even if productivity is low.
"Very basic things like leave approvals are still a major headache for many organisations. Imagine how much time automated leave approvals could free up for people," says Balaji.
People need to start thinking about digital transformation as a tool to transform their organisations so that they have people who can punch above their weight, because they will be spending time on things that matter, he said.
Just like a knife, what one chooses to cut with the blade of digital transformation is up to them. The key is to know what they want and be willing to make the sacrifices that will help them achieve it.
“We all know that change is the only constant. We read so many quotations about it, we do reels about it, we speak about it, but when it comes to embracing it, there is a limitation,” Balaji said.
If an organisation can approach digital transformation with the belief that it can work for them, Balaji believes that such an organisation is bound to taste success.
“Sometimes we have a bias where we tend to imagine that the old-timers will be slow to embrace new things, but they are the ones who actually get used to new things very quickly,” he said.
It is this attitude, says the tech enthusiast, that has enabled the organisation to grow from a staff of just two at its inception to more than 200 people spread across the countries in which it operates, including Kenya and Nigeria, among other East and West African countries.
“Historically, Africa has exported raw materials to the world. The continent has the potential to export technology. We have plans of expanding out of the continent, though not immediately,” said Balaji.
The organisation also plans to introduce other products targeting employees, to help them optimise their income.
