2019: A Year of Success for Sprout

In just a span of 4 years, Sprout has evolved from a humble startup into a company that provides class-leading HR and payroll software for the Philippines. We’ve done so many things this year, and we couldn’t have made it without your support. Here’s a recap of everything we did in 2019 – our hardships, achievements, and new stuff – and what to expect from our award-winning HR and payroll suite in 2020.

Sprout HR

Our class-leading HRIS platform, Sprout HR, saw some major feature releases this year. In addition to new features, we’ve also launched its companion mobile app for iOS and Android devices. Here’s what we’ve introduced to Sprout HR in 2019.

Timesheet locking – This feature allows HR teams to lock filed timesheets for payroll processing, which avoids issues such as last-minute attendance application filing and pay inconsistencies.

Compensatory time off (CTO) – Sprout HR introduced a cool new feature called compensatory time off, which effectively converts overtime hours into employee leave credits. This solves a lot of problems for manager-level employees who are manually adding leave credits in the past.

Multiple location geofencing – Geofencing refers to the technology that creates a virtual boundary or “fence” within an area or location where the employee is allowed to clock in or clock out. We’ve introduced the ability to set multiple locations for employees who are frequently on the go, so they can clock in and clock out with ease.

Sprout Payroll

Sprout Payroll continues to be the easiest payroll processing platform in the Philippines. It allows payroll teams to generate digital pay slips, automate government forms, and stay fully compliant to the Philippine labor regulations – all with just a few clicks. New and exciting features have been introduced for Sprout Payroll in 2019, which brought incredible value to this powerful payroll tool.

Pre-annualization – Annualization is among the toughest and most time-consuming payroll tasks, which is why we’ve made it easier with the pre-annualization feature in Sprout Payroll! Perform annualization before the end of the year and get accurate tax computations and results.

Date-specific adjustments – Some companies adjust their employees’ pay based on tenure or events such as birthdays, so we’ve introduced date-specific adjustments in Sprout Payroll to make it easier for payroll teams to process payroll for such employees.

Rest day per employee – This feature allows Sprout Payroll users to assign different rest days per employee, rather than having a single rest day scheme for the entire organization.

Simultaneous payroll run – Sprout Payroll has made payroll runs much easier for companies who need to run simultaneous payroll runs for different pay cycles.

Sprout Insight

Insight is Sprout’s powerful data analytics platform, driven by artificial intelligence to help businesses make more informed decisions. We’ve introduced a refreshed look and feel to various dashboards, such as Absenteeism, Payroll Expense, Overtime, and Attendance Report dashboards, to provide a more intuitive user experience.

Sprout Loans

Our newest product, Sprout Loans, redefines employee salary loans in the Philippines. Sprout Loans makes getting a cash loan easy and hassle-free in just a few clicks within the Sprout HR employee dashboard. Eligible regular employees can avail up to Php 10,000 that’s credited to their payroll account in minutes and can be paid in their next two pay checks. The application process has been made very easy – there’s no need for paperwork or collateral – plus, we don’t charge any interest so employees get more out of their cash loan.

Series A

We’ve also successfully closed our Series A funding worth US$ 6 million! U.S.-based Point27 Ventures and Next Billion Ventures (NBV) led the funding round, with the participation of Kickstart Ventures, Beenext, Wavemaker Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, and Dymon Asia. We’re proud of this achievement, and we thank our investors for putting their trust in us and in the future of our leading HR and payroll software.

ISO 27001:2013 Certification

They say that data is the new gold – it’s also why we want to keep our clients’ data safe and secure at all times. We’re proud of our recent ISO 27001:2013 certification given by TÜV Rheinland. It’s the global standard for information security management systems – having this certification means that we do everything to protect the information of our valued clients.

What comes next for Sprout in 2020?

Expect new features and refinements to our current products, because we want to make HR and payroll tasks easier for you! We’re always ahead of the competition in terms of government compliance – we’re updating Sprout HR and Sprout Payroll to be fully compliant with the new contribution rates for PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG in 2020. We’re also expanding the reach of our benefits platform to help more Filipinos improve their lives within and beyond their workspaces. After all, we’re extremely motivated to make an impact to every Filipino by improving businesses in the country.

Thank you for being part of the Sprout family in 2019! Cheers to an awesome 2020!

The post 2019: A Year of Success for Sprout appeared first on Sprout.

source https://sprout.ph/blog/2019-sprout-success-year/

Letting Someone Go from Work? Here’s What You Should Ask Them

Finding the right answers on why an employee leaves a company requires open and honest communication. It’s particularly difficult to hear these answers when your outward-bound employees don’t feel like giving out the information you want to hear. How do you get around this? Read this blog to find out the best questions to ask your employees before they leave.

Here are five questions you should ask your employees before letting them go.

“In which ways do you think you’ve contributed toward the success of the company?”

This question may seem to be pointed towards high-performing employees, but there’s more to it than just that. Knowing what motivated your employees to do the right thing at the right time is key in discovering what produces great results and what doesn’t. By asking this, you’ll also get more context on which things distract people from doing their best work, and what factors increase their productivity.

“How do you see yourself in your next career choice, and how would your decision today affect it?”

A major part of doing an employee exit interview is by knowing what comes next for the employee. You would want to get a deeper sense of what lies ahead for them, since whatever they’re trying to achieve outside of your company may only become possible once they depart. If your opinion on career growth contradicts theirs, you may have uncovered things that need to be improved within your organization.

“What was the best thing that’s happened to you during your stay at this company?”

This one is fairly easy. Ask this question and you’ll get a broader sense of their accomplishments during their stay. You’ll also be able to gauge the amount of autonomy and responsibility you gave to them to do their job. If they said that they wish they had more freedom to do things, it could be a signal for you to reevaluate your organization’s structure and hierarchy.

“What was the worst thing that’s happened to you here, and in what ways do you think it could’ve been avoided?”

On the contrary from the previous question, this one is a bit tricky and could lead to bad arguments if asked in the wrong way. Carefully ask this by not asking follow-up questions, and avoid being defensive. Let your employees answer this question in the most natural way, because it allows them to vent out their sentiments, give suggestions to improve things, and show you the little things that your current employees are too shy to raise red flags about.

“What things would you tell the person who would take over your role?”

Ask this question and you’ll hear some valuable insights about the role itself, such as its demands and the necessary skills required to do the job well. Your employees will tell you a brief outline of what you should expect from the person taking over. It also guides you on the way you should reallocate company resources to help the next person succeed better than the one who left.

Letting an employee go is hard, especially if you’ve already built a working relationship with them and they’ve done an incredible job. But you need to ask them the right questions so you can easily connect the dots.

The post Letting Someone Go from Work? Here’s What You Should Ask Them appeared first on Sprout.

source https://sprout.ph/blog/exit-interview-best-questions/

How to Compute Your SSS Contribution (Updated for 2019)

You may be wondering how you can check if your mandatory contributions are accurately deducted from your monthly pay. If your company’s HR team still computes for these contributions manually, you may see disputes or errors in computation – it pays to check your deductions every time you get paid.

In this article we’ll take a closer look at the Social Security System’s mandatory contribution schedule for employed individuals, which was recently updated this year. SSS released the new contribution rates in April 2019 and these new rates reflect increases across the board.

To compute for your monthly SSS contribution, check out this comprehensive infographic from SSS.

A simple illustration would be someone who’s earning Php 15,750 a month. Based from the new contribution schedule, the employee would be deducted Php 640 and the employer (your company) would pay Php 1,280 which is twice the employee’s contribution. Before the new contribution schedule was implemented, employees who were earning at least Php 15,750 a month were deducted Php 581.30 for their SSS contributions. The new rates represent a 10 percent increase in contributions for all affected employees.

Payroll software such as Sprout Payroll automates these mandatory deductions, so there’s less room for human error and less stress for both HR teams and employees. Learn more about Sprout Payroll by booking a demo today.

The post How to Compute Your SSS Contribution (Updated for 2019) appeared first on Sprout.

source https://sprout.ph/blog/compute-sss-contribution-updated-2019/

Updated PhilHealth Contribution Schedule for 2020

In response to the recently enacted Universal Health Care Act of 2019, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has released a new contribution schedule that will take effect on 07 December 2019.

More information about this announcement can be found by clicking this link.

According to PhilHealth, the new contribution schedule aims to ensure the sustainability of the National Health Insurance Fund, which will be the main source of funding for the Universal Health Care program of the government.

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Sprout remains fully compliant with Philippine regulations. Our payroll software, Sprout Payroll, is currently being updated with the new premium rates set by PhilHealth. Clients using Sprout Payroll may refer to this Help Center article for more information on how to set up these adjustments.

The post Updated PhilHealth Contribution Schedule for 2020 appeared first on Sprout.

source https://sprout.ph/blog/updated-philhealth-contribution-schedule-2020/