Running your small business just got a little easier. Zoho, which already offers a host of free software-as-a-service applications, has launched a beta of Zoho People, a human-resources management tool.
Aimed at small and midsize businesses, Zoho People offers a range of HR functions that include everything from defining organizational structure to recruiting new workers. It’s designed for companies with more than 30 employees — the size at which keeping tabs on employees in ad hoc ways (such as Excel spreadsheets) becomes unmanageable, according to a blog on the Zoho site.
Zoho already offers a suite of free Web 2.0 tools that compete with big-name Web applications, such as Google Apps. At the Zoho Web site, small-business owners can find integrated word processing, presentation, meeting and project-management tools. Most are free, though the company does offer some fee-based versions (for example, the Zoho CRM solution is free only for the first three users; after that, it costs $12 per month).
Made for Non-Geeks
Like the other Zoho applications, Zoho People is user friendly rather than tech-centric. For example, there are 28 premade forms (such as expense reports), but if you need to add or change some of a form’s fields, you don’t have to call in a programmer; instead, you can open another tool, Zoho Creator, and customize the form simply by dragging and dropping.
HR managers can restrict access to forms and customization tools. So employees can find the forms they need and update personal information, but not gain access to compensation or other private data. In addition to forms, Zoho People has modules for recruitment, checklists, organization, self-service, and roles and permissions. Some of them are available only to an administrator, who can set access parameters for different modules.
Safeguarding Your Data
Though convenient, Web applications such as Zoho raise the…