How to Build an Employee Management Software like Lattice?

Planning to launch an employee management software? The market for such software products is lucrative, and you have a wonderful amount of room to innovate.

The global workforce management software market size is expected to reach a value of USD 12.5 billion by 2030, with the largest market in North America.

The prominent market segments include performance management, workforce scheduling, workforce analytics, time management, attendance management, etc.

We discuss in this article how to build employee management software for the growing market.

Building an Employee Management Software

Take the following steps to build employee management software like Lattice:

1. Initiate the project to build a workforce management software

Onboard a small team and initiate the project. A project manager (PM) should lead this team. You need a software architect on this team. Furthermore, you need a few experienced business analysts (BAs).

At this stage, this team should do the following:

• The PM needs to define the scope and oversee the requirements management process. The PM needs to create a project plan.

• You need the BAs to gather, analyze, and document the functional requirements. These requirements describe what the proposed employee management software should do. 

• The architect should play a key part in defining the non-functional requirements (NFRs). These requirements describe how well the proposed employee management software solution should work.

• The architect should create technical solutions too.

You need a team with experience in working on similar projects. The PM should know the key project management best practices.

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2. Review a few leading employee management software to get ideas

Organizations have clearly seen the limitations of employee management using spreadsheets. Naturally, the global market for employee management software continues to grow.

Several prominent players made a big impact in this growing and lucrative market by nailing what their users wanted.

Review the following employee management tools to get relevant ideas:

A. Lattice

Lattice is a well-known online employee management platform. It helps organizations with the following key tasks:

• Setting goals for employees;

• Performance management;

• Managing employee engagement;

• Managing professional development of employees.

Lattice offers comprehensive analytics. As a part of this, it provides the following:

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• Sentiment analysis powered by AI (Artificial Intelligence);

• Unified dashboards;

• Insights;

• Reports.

A key advantage of Lattice is its integration with popular tools. E.g., you can integrate it with the following:

• Slack, Gmail, Microsoft Teams, and Outlook email for managing communications;

• ADP for payroll management;

• Workday, BambooHR, and other popular HRIS products.

You can use Lattice on the web, Android, and iOS. Lattice offers extensive documentation.

B. Connecteam

Connecteam is one of the leading employee management tools. You can use the Connecteam mobile app. Alternatively, you can use this employee management tool on the web and desktop.

Connecteam offers the following features:

• Time tracking and managing timesheets;

• Task management;

• Managing employee training, including courses;

• In-app chat;

• Surveys, suggestion boxes, polls;

• Employee directory;

• Managing employee records;

• Managing employee scheduling;

• Daily checklists;

• The ability to read and sign forms online;

• Real-time reporting and analytics;

• Knowledge Library.

Connecteam makes onboarding of new employees easy. It’s user-friendly. The task management features of this platform help with project management.

C. Workday HCM

Workday HCM is a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) human capital management platform. It’s suitable for enterprises and medium-sized businesses. However, small businesses can use it too.

You can use it on the web, Android, and iOS. Workday HCM offers the following functionalities:

• Workforce management;

• Financial management;

• Human capital management;

• Payroll management;

• Employee data management;

• Compensation management;

• Benefits administration;

• Worker and skills profile management;

• Talent management;

• Support for complex organizational models and global organizations.

Workday provides a comprehensive dashboard. You will find it easy to use, and Workday provides comprehensive tutorials.

D. Zoho People

Zoho People is one of the leading cloud-based HR solutions. It’s available on the web, Android, and iOS. Zoho People offers the following advantages:

• It streamlines your HR processes;

• Zoho People helps to retain talent;

• You can streamline your core HR operations.

• Zoho People offers a scalable employee database.

• Organizations can improve employee case management.

• Zoho People provides smart HR workflows.

• You can get robust analytics.

• This platform manages clock-in, clock-out, timesheets, attendance, etc.

• Zoho People offers employee performance management, including performance reviews and analytics.

• It offers integrations with popular tools like Google Workspace.

• This HR management platform helps organizations to manage training programs for their employees.

• Zoho People offers robust security.

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3. Identify your target audience, e.g., small businesses, enterprises, etc.

Have a thorough conversation with your business stakeholders to identify your target audience. You might identify enterprise companies as your target audience.

Alternatively, you might consider medium or small businesses as your target audience.

Remember that companies of different sizes have different requirements. Create a buyer persona to understand your customer better. Use the HubSpot guide to buyer persona and templates.

4. Determine your pricing strategy

Choose between the traditional software licensing model and the SaaS model for your proposed product. You might want to consider the SaaS model since it’s getting increasingly popular due to cost-efficiency, rapid deployment, easy scalability, etc.

Review the popular SaaS pricing models before choosing one. These are as follows:

• Freemium;

• Flat-rate pricing;

• “Pay-as-you-go” or usage-based pricing;

• Tiered pricing;

• Per-user pricing;

• Per-active use pricing;

• Per-feature pricing.

Weigh different pricing strategies before choosing one. These are as follows:

• Cost-plus pricing;

• Competitor-based pricing;

• Value-based pricing.

5. Identify the functionalities to offer

Do you plan to offer a one-stop employee management solution, or do you want to focus on specific HR functions? Deliberate this with your business stakeholders.

A one-stop employee management software should cover the following functionalities:

• Job design and job analysis;

• Hiring, which includes application tracking, interviewing, etc.;

• Employee onboarding;

• Employee information management;

• Training new hires;

• Professional development, including training;

• Compensation and benefits administration;

• PTO (Personal Time Off) and leave management;

• Employee performance management;

• Employee expense management, including approvals;

• Managerial and labor relations management;

• Employee engagement;

• HR Communications;

• Health and safety regulations management;

• Supporting employees in need;

• Succession planning;

• Managing employee separation and offboarding;

• Managing industrial relations;

• Managing government relations;

• Regulatory compliance management;

• Reporting and analytics.

6. Gather and document the requirements for your proposed employee management software

BAs should interview the business stakeholders in your organization to gather the functional requirements.

The business requirements will depend on whether you plan to offer a one-stop employee management solution or you focus on a niche.

Take the example of the hiring function. Your proposed employee management platform should offer the following in this area:

• The ability to create job posts and advertisements;

• The capability to receive job applications;

• A job applicant tracking system;

• Tools to manage the interview process;

• Capabilities to complete the hiring process per business needs.

To take another example, consider the case of the employee engagement management function for HR managers. HR systems supporting this functionality need to monitor many subjective indicators, e.g.:

• How excited are the employees about the roll-out of the new compensation and benefits policy?

• Do the employees feel energized by the career development opportunities in the company?

You need a customizable sentiment analysis capability here. You will want to automate it with the help of AI.

Gather detailed business requirements for all functionalities you plan to offer. Remember, human resource software systems should offer self-service capabilities. They need to focus on the right metrics too.

In parallel, your architect should study industry benchmarks to decide on the non-functional requirements. The architect should document NFRs like scalability, performance, security, maintainability, usability, etc.

The PM needs to ensure thorough documentation and review of the requirements. The PM needs to implement a requirements management process.

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7. Prioritize the features for your MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

Do your customers like the features you offer? How well does your employee management software perform? Does it meet the business needs of your target audience?

You need answers to these questions early, which will help you to validate your business ideas and assumptions. Direct feedback from the market is what you need.

Launch an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) to get early feedback from the market. An MVP is a functional product with fewer features. Customers use it and provide feedback.

You plan your next course of action based on the feedback. Therefore, we recommend you use the Agile development methodology.

Prioritize the features for the MVP by analyzing their importance. Read our MVP guide for more information.

8. Choose a cloud computing platform to use when building employee management software

Using a cloud computing platform eliminates the IT infrastructure management tasks for you.

MCSPs (Managed Cloud Services Providers) like AWS (Amazon Web Services), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform manage your software infrastructure. You can now focus on software development.

Depending on your business needs, you can choose any of the following types of cloud platforms:

• IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service): An MCSP manages the cloud infrastructure, and you do the rest. AWS EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is an example.

• PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service): MCSPs manage the cloud infrastructure, operating system, middleware, and runtime environment. PaaS platforms also provide services like databases, DevOps tools, etc. You bring your code and data. AWS Elastic Beanstalk is an example.

• MBaaS (Mobile-Backend-as-a-Service): MBaaS platforms reduce your mobile back-end development and management efforts. MCSPs offering MBaaS platforms manage the cloud infrastructure and persistent storage. They help you to integrate APIs, and they provide services like databases. You can focus on the mobile front end. AWS Amplify is an example.

Evaluate your business needs and project requirements to choose the right cloud platform and MCSP.

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9. Identify the technology stack to build an employee management app

While recommending the technology stack, I make the following assumptions:

• You will offer a web app, an Android app, and an iOS app.

• You will build native Android and iOS apps instead of a cross-platform mobile app. Native mobile apps offer superior user experience, performance, and security than cross-platform apps. They make better use of the platform-specific hardware features. Furthermore, they utilize the operating-system-specific features better.

• Your employee management app will include AI-powered “intelligent automation”.

• While you might use a few 3rd party APIs for non-core features like push notifications, you should develop APIs for core features. You can utilize your business capabilities better with your APIs. Building your APIs also helps you to scale your software development process.

I recommend the following technology stack:

A. Front-end web development

Use JavaScript, a popular open-source language. You can take advantage of the rich ecosystem of JavaScript.

You can develop the web front-end with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Alternatively, you can use Angular or React.js for developing the front end. These are popular open-source JavaScript web frameworks.

B. Back-end web development

I recommend you use Node.js. It’s a popular open-source runtime environment for JavaScript. You can create scalable and performant web apps using Node.js.

Programmers can also take advantage of the useful Node.js development tools.

C. Native Android development

You can use either Java or Kotlin for native Android development. I recommend you use Java. It has been the mainstay of native Android development for a long time.

Java offers excellent security features, and software engineers can create performant Android apps using it.   

D. Native iOS development

Use Swift for native iOS development. This modern language has gained popularity in recent years. Apple recommends developers use Swift to develop apps for its key platforms.

Swift offers powerful features, and programmers can avoid common coding errors using Swift.

E. Databases for API development

You will need databases for the back end. Use MySQL or PostgreSQL if you need a relational database. Both MySQL and PostgreSQL are popular open-source SQL databases, and many developers know them.

You can use MongoDB or Apache Cassandra if you need a NoSQL database. Both of these open-source databases offer scalability.

F. API development standards and tools

I recommend you develop RESTful APIs. REST (Representational State Transfer) is the de-facto standard for API development. Use a tool like Swagger for designing and documenting RESTful APIs.

G. AI (Artificial Intelligence)/ML (Machine Learning) development

Use Python for developing the AI/ML modules for “intelligent automation”. Python, a popular open-source language, is an excellent choice for AI/ML programming.

You can take advantage of excellent Python packages like TensorFlow, NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, etc.

10. Create a project plan to build HR software

The PM should now develop a detailed project plan. The plan should contain an outline of the project tasks, dependencies, and schedule.

You need timelines for the MVP. I recommend you use the Scrum framework for this project. You need to plan “sprints,” i.e., iterations. You aim to develop a functional product in each sprint. Therefore, you slot features into sprints.

Additionally, the PM should plan the other aspects of the project, e.g.:

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• Human resource management;

• Stakeholder management;

• Risk management;

• Communication management;

• Financial management;

• Quality management.

11. Hire a software development team

You now need to hire the rest of the team. Hire competent people for the following roles:

• UI (user interface) designers;

• Web developers;

• Native Android developers;

• Native iOS developers;

• AI/ML developers with Python skills;

• Testers;

• DevOps engineers.

While you might weigh the option of hiring freelancers, I don’t recommend it.

Developing the right employee management software is a complex project. You need full-time developers, and you should hire them from a trusted software development company.

Such companies provide management support. They can provide replacements in the case of turnover.

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12. Organize the team

You need an empowered team that focuses on delivering business value. I recommend you build a Scrum team. A scrum team is a cross-functional team where the PM can perform the role of the “Scrum Master”.

The team estimates features and plans sprints. It follows the “sprint planning” process for this. A Scrum team conducts “daily stand-up meetings” to track and resolve project issues.

Scrum teams conduct “sprint review meetings” where they demonstrate the functional product to business users. Business users approve a sprint if the product works as specified.

13. Design and develop the user interface for the proposed app to manage human resources

Your UI design team should consult appropriate guidelines to design the UI of the web and mobile apps. These guidelines are as follows:

• UI design rules of thumb for the web app;

• “Material Design” guidelines for the Android app;

• “Human Interface Guidelines” for the iOS app.

14. Develop APIs

Take the following steps to develop your RESTful APIs:

• Prepare to use a cloud platform to host your APIs.

• Use databases of your choice.

• Use tools like Swagger for documenting the API.

• Design the API endpoints smartly.

• Create effective rules for API requests and responses.

• Secure the APIs with robust authentication, encryption, secure API gateways, etc.

15. Implement your planned information security solution

Your proposed employee management software will process sensitive data. Design and implement an effective information security solution. The solution should include the following:

• MFA (multi-factor authentication) so that you don’t rely on passwords alone;

• Data encryption at rest and in transit;

• Modern technology solutions like antivirus, next-generation firewalls, etc.

• Proactive mitigation of top application security vulnerabilities;

• Proactive security and compliance testing.

16. Code, review, test, and deploy the web app

Take the following steps for web app development:

• Use a popular IDE (Integrated Development Environment) like Eclipse.

• Code your app and integrate APIs.

• Review and test the code.

• Deploy the web app using the guidelines provided by the cloud platform.

17. Develop, review, test, and deploy the Android app

Native Android app development involves the following steps:

• Code the app using Android Studio, the popular IDE for Android development.

• Integrate your own APIs, and integrate 3^rd party APIs if applicable.

• Review the code.

• Test the app using Espresso, the popular testing framework for Android.

• Publish your app to Google Play.

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18. Code, review, test, and deploy the iOS app

Take the following steps to develop the proposed native iOS app:

• Use Xcode, the popular IDE, to develop apps for Apple’s platforms.

• Integrate APIs into your code.

• After a thorough review of the code, test it. Use XCTest. It is a popular framework for testing Xcode projects.

• Submit your app for publishing to the Apple App Store. Follow the Apple App Store review guidelines.

19. Monitor the relevant KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to assess the success of your employee management software project

Keep track of the important product development KPIs to manage your software development project. These are as follows:

• Story points retired;

• Team velocity points;

• Sprint burndown;

• Errors per 1,000 lines of code.

Track the following important product management KPIs to manage the product lifecycle:

• Customer satisfaction (CSAT);

• Customer retention rate;

• Customer churn rate;

• Customer lifetime value;

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC);

• The number of customer support tickets created;

• Daily active users (DAUs) and monthly active users (MAUs);

• Session duration;

• Bounce rate;

• Number of user actions per session;

• Monthly recurring revenue (MRR).

Planning to Develop Employee Management Software?

We talked about a few popular employee management software products, and we described how you can build one to increase employee productivity and enterprise efficiency.

Any such project is a complex one, so you need to have all the right expertise and experience.

Looking for help with your project? No matter whether you need developers or dev teams, or to outsource your entire development project, simply contact DevTeam.Space with your project requirements.

A dedicated account manager will get back to you to answer your questions and explain how we can help.

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FAQs on Employee Management Software

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