Focus Now on HRIS: It's Never Too Late to Get Ahead in HR Digital Transformation

HR systems are generally one of the final strategic efficiencies adopted by organizations. Our recent Clarity Survey reveals that roughly 40% of firms are using outdated or inappropriate HR solutions.  Also generally speaking, companies are still looking for hard ROI propositions that support the value in converting to an HRIS. The issue is that these numbers are really difficult to prove out. Sure, we can calculate time savings on how much quicker a few button clicks is vs. processing something manually. These can obviously be huge time savings; however, calculating more advanced functions can be difficult, especially due to user proficiencies.  So where does this leave us…the project-based business, managing a rapidly changing workforce? Let’s take a look at a typical use case.

The Project-Based Business w/ No Real HR Platform

“It’s 2019 and we are looking for a new HRIS. We have needed to do this for a while, but let’s be honest, it seems like a real undertaking. On top of that, we are a 500 employee company with only 3 people in HR, and one of them is pretty much spending 100% of their time on payroll. Also, to be brutally honest, it’s not a new HRIS, it’s an HRIS. We still have a lot of paper-based and manual processes in HR. We are frequently onboarding and offboarding employees, rotating people on and off various projects, and we could desperately use efficiencies. That said we don’t simply want to catch up, we would like some efficiencies to be strategic. Believe it or not, although we are behind a bit technically, we do have visions of the bigger things, such as a more robust automated onboarding program, a modern approach to performance management, and a focused learning and development program for engaging and retaining our staff.”

Staying Focused on Short and Long-Term Objectives

It can be incredibly difficult to walk with your head up when you feel like the path in front of you is full of uneven ground. We tend to look down at what is right in front of us and lose focus on the long-term objectives. In the use case we are working through, we have an organization like many others who wants to focus on strategy long-term; however, they are understaffed and need to start by getting on solid footing. Although the focus is simply on finding a comprehensive HRIS, there are other factors to consider. What about those visions of robust onboarding, modern performance management and a focused learning and development program? Engagement? Retention? What about ease of integration with our ERP and partnering with a provider that truly understands what our project-based business challenges and business model are? The vetting and purchasing process can be taxing, but with the right focus, it becomes quite manageable.

Points of Consideration When Implementing

Once we have chosen that project-focused solution that provides the right balance between the “here and now” and the future, it’s time to implement. This is a process, and it really starts with conversion and accuracy. Our first goal in converting is simply ensuring that all our significant points of data get input into our chosen HRIS, and that they are complete and accurate. Our HR team must fully trust the integrity of the data that has been entered, and they must be able to utilize, augment and manipulate the data as needed. We need to implement our ideal practices and processes into our platform, and not be stuck using outdated practices and workarounds that our paper-based or outdated solutions forced us into. This first step is “by HR, for HR”…meaning things like manager/employee self-service, advanced analytics, integrations and other HR processes (robust onboarding, performance management, etc.) are future items. For now, let’s get our HR team comfortable with the platform and get used to processing daily employee transactions, and build out some ideal workflows and new time saving efficiencies.

As we gain comfort with our HRIS, it will soon be time to roll this out to managers and employees. It will be important to note that employees and managers may not spend a lot of time in the system, so our training material should be thorough and easy to refer to. Click-through guides, brief video demos and 1-2 page reference cards are great assets to provide to managers and employees alike.

No matter how well we plan, prepare, and train our organization on our new solution, keep in mind that we will answer the same questions…again, and again, and again. With that said, our developed training assets become our best friend as they can provide a perfect redirect for answering questions, and will assist in quick training for new managers and employees. This can substantially mitigate the time we spend post-rollout on basics. We simply must invest up front to save time later.

Strategic Efficiencies

Over the course of several months, our organization will adopt our new HRIS. They will provide valuable usability feedback, and we will undoubtedly make tweaks to workflows, design and permissions. As the adoption process is ending, now is the time to really move the organization forward. We can now focus on those additional practices and work with our provider on the right order and structure. Is it time to implement onboarding, performance management and development, or learning? Our timeline and order of process should be based on a balance of organizational need and what makes most sense next from a technical perspective. Paramount in this process is working with the consulting/implementation team of our new provider, and leaning on their expertise in assisting with guiding us on the right path/timeline.

The use case above is a brief overview of a typical experience of a new HRIS customer. At Deltek, we lead the industry with our intimate understanding of project-based businesses, and are ready to assist our customers by building an excellent human capital management solution. We are confident that our solutions provide the expertise, efficiencies, and positive user experience that our customers demand and deserve. We are dedicated to collaborating with you on your journey toward strategic workforce optimization.