Pastel has announced that it plans to launch in Zimbabwe in November a Pastel payroll and human resources package capable of allowing employees to view and print past pay slips and apply for loans and leave electronically.

The announcement was made at a Pastel Software Zimbabwe road show in Harare this week, which was held at the Celebration Centre on Monday and Tuesday. Another road show is being held in Bulawayo today (Wednesday).

Demonstrating the Pastel Payroll and HR software, which is already in use in South Africa, at one of the road show sessions on Tuesday, Pastel Payroll Division in South Africa technology director Philip Meyer said the package would help make the day-to-day running of a company easier from a human resources perspective.

The Pastel Payroll programme enables employee details, including personal details, contact details, pay details, service details, loans and savings details and performance management records, such as key performance indicators, reviews and ratings, to be easily captured, stored and retrieved.

The Employee Self-Service component of the programme, Mr Meyer said, makes it possible, among other things, for employees to update their personal details, view and print historical payslips, submit travel claims and apply for loans and leave.

The Human Resources component makes it easy to consolidate employee details, record company assets issued to employees, keep track of training and conduct performance reviews.

All performance reviews are kept on record and can be viewed at later dates to check on employee progress. When a review is being done, the system also makes it possible to attach any supporting documents that may be available to substantiate the review conclusions.

Mr Meyer said Payroll enables incidents that occur and any disciplinary action taken to be kept on record. Such incidents might include abuse of the telephone or other company assets.

The programme can be used to issue warning letters, which are then kept on file. When a warning letter is issued, it will be clear from the system whether it is a first, second or final warning.

When  filing a disciplinary action against an employee, the employee’s superior is required to enter comprehensive details of the incident. These include the incident date and time, location, names of any witnesses, the explanation from the employee and the proposed action to take.

If there were any supporting documents, such as images of the incident caught on camera or recorded elsewhere, these can be attached to the file..