Introducing PeopleMotive HR: less admin, more focus on people

Most growing businesses we know do not have an HR problem. They have an admin problem that lands on the wrong people.

In a company of 40 or 80 people, the owner is often the HR department. Leave requests arrive on WhatsApp, between supplier messages and family photos. Someone keeps a register at the gate, and someone else copies it into Excel before salary. When an employee says "I still have six days left" and the spreadsheet says four, nobody can show how either number was reached. A bank asks for a salary certificate and the person who knows the format is on leave. A passport or trade document expires and nobody noticed until it mattered.

None of this is anyone's fault. It is what happens when good people run HR with tools that were never meant for it. We wanted something that takes that admin off their desks, keeps a clear record of every decision, and lets staff help themselves from their phones.

Everything below is live now in the web app, and most of it is in the Android app too.

People. An employee directory with filters and a profile for each person, covering personal details, job, contact and emergency details, and documents. You can add people one at a time or import a CSV or Excel file. Before anything is saved, the import shows a validation report with problems and duplicates, and you decide what to do with each one. Employee IDs are numbered per company, and sensitive fields such as national ID and passport numbers are encrypted. Employees can request changes to their own profile, and HR approves them.

Attendance. Staff check in and out from the web or their phone. Phone check-in confirms the location against your work places, and can ask for a selfie if you turn that on (selfies are kept for 30 days, then deleted). The time comes from our server, not the phone. You set shifts, grace time, half days and the working week; late arrivals and early leaving are flagged. If something is wrong, an employee sends a correction request with a reason and evidence, and it goes through approval.

Leave. You create your own leave types and rules: how balances build up, carry-over, half days, notice, and whether documents are needed for sick leave. Every balance has a full ledger, so you can see the opening balance, what was carried over, used and pending. Employees see their balance before they submit. Managers see the team calendar for those dates before they decide. You can set a holiday calendar and blackout periods.

HR requests. Twelve ready-made request types, from salary and employment certificates to bank letters, travel NOCs, ID cards, salary advances and IT help. Each request goes to the right HR person, has its own conversation thread with attachments, and shows a status timeline so nobody has to ask "any update?".

Approvals. One approval path for leave, attendance corrections, HR requests and profile changes. By default it goes to the manager, then HR, and you can change the chain. Approvers can hand their approvals to someone else while they are away. Rejections need a reason, and every decision is recorded.

Announcements and policies. Send announcements and see who has read and acknowledged them. Keep a policy library with versions and track who has acknowledged each one.

Documents and expiry (optional module). Store employee documents privately, add expiry dates and get reminders before they lapse.

Security. Two-factor sign-in and passkeys, required for admins. Role-based access, so people see only what their role allows. An audit log of who changed what and when. Daily encrypted backups. Our staff can only look inside your account through a time-limited support session that you approve and can end. Your data is never used to train AI, and you can export it any time.