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With an affordable HR and payroll software, Peter Muchemi Muriithi is helping small and medium enterprises transition from tedious manual processes

Tell us about your company’s innovation?

Crew is a modern end-to-end cloud human resource and payroll software for small and medium businesses in Kenya that seeks to address the needs of the future of work, by automating all HR and payroll services from the tap of a finger. It makes it easy to manage your employees both remotely and even at the office. 

What inspired Megashift to come up with this software?

We developed Crew HR and payroll because we had made an observation that a majority of small and medium businesses in Kenya processes their payroll manually on paper and on excel sheets. Again the solutions available were offered as one-off software where they would be installed on their laptops or their company servers. This is a big risk because the laptop could be stolen or the physical servers be compromised leading to loss of data. Our vision was to develop cloud software that could be affordable to these businesses because we would then adopt the software as a service model that allows businesses to pay on a monthly subscription basis.

What other problems is the innovation coming to solve?

The key problem we are solving is manual processing of payroll and other HR processing, which is time consuming and tedious. We want to help businesses focus more on their employees and their core businesses thus increasing their revenues and employee retention and productivity. Another key focus is affordability. Traditional software is expensive and hard to maintain. Because of this, many of these businesses opt to use and stick to the manual processes to save that extra coin. With Crew, the HR can remotely monitor and execute all its required functions such as employee management, leave management, appraisals, payroll management, and applicant tracking systems, training, employee self-service and HR analytics and dashboard. In other words, it’s an enabler of working from home because there is zero paper work and 100 per cent management of everything that could be done in the office.

How many people are using your software?

Currently, the software has hundreds of businesses subscribed, with thousands of employees on-boarded. We are growing at a rate of 10 per cent a month and we expect to reach 1,000 businesses by the end of this year. One of the key benefits for using this software is that one is able to work remotely, process payroll, and generate net pay report. It also enables the employer to manage employees’ leave and time off since the software allows employees to login and apply for such. Employees are also able to login and download their pay slips and request for working tools from the HR. In short, the software covers the whole employee lifecycle from shortlisting to on-boarding, management of employees and off-boarding.

What challenges have you encountered when trying to sell this solution?

The biggest challenge we have faced so far is that business people don’t understand the benefits of storing their data on cloud because of data security concerns. However, we have been able to address these concerns on a case-by-case basis. We have taken the necessary measures to mitigate security risks, thus giving our customers comfort and trust.

Who is your target market?

Our target market is small and medium businesses in Kenya who have 1-100 employees. The Kenya Association of Manufacturers indicate that Kenya’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) contribute approximately 40 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product with the majority falling in the informal sector. While there are about 7.41 million MSMEs in Kenya, only 1.56 million are licensed. This is a huge market that we want to tap into.

What are the pros and cons of automated HR system?

The main advantage is that the systems reduce the cost of operations and increase productivity. This is largely because the repetitive tasks are automated and the HR has more time to focus on strategic tasks that can add revenue to the business. The disadvantage with the automation is that it requires training, so that all stakeholders can buy in and adopt the new change. 

Is the technology coming to make some people lose their jobs?

No, technology in the HR ecosystem will never replace the physical HR’s jobs due to the fact that HR processes are innately people-centric. Software as of now cannot understand the employee feelings, why is their performance poor, or why did they get to work late. The software is only there to support the HR personnel to carry out their tasks efficiently.

Why should companies bother to switch?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) makes employees work more efficiently; for instance analyse and shortlist thousands of resumes in half the time. AI will also help increase retention of employees by predicting turnover. The solutions can tell which employee is likely to resign in a given period given some specific parameters. Automating your business HR department comes with so many benefits yet most people are still stuck to the manual process.

What do you think needs to be done to change this?

The biggest barrier to adoption of technology is lack of awareness that there are tools that meet their needs to solve their specific problems. Businesses also have this stereotype that it’s only large enterprises that can afford these tools, so cost is a big consideration for SMEs to adopt any software in Kenya. Finally, if the founders or owners are not able to buy into technological digital transformation agenda, then the businesses get stuck in their manual processes.