We’ve all heard disaster stories about HR system implementations: lost records, incorrect data, employees unable to access basic tools, slow turnaround times, customer frustration and cost and time over-runs. However, there are success stories out there too, and these generally share some common themes. A successful implementation is not just going live on time and on budget; it also means that the new technology has enabled measurable business benefits and significantly better experiences for line managers, employees and HR. The following observations reflect experiences from inside organisations and will help HR leaders avoid major roadblocks during implementation and Go Live.
1. Spend time across the entire organisation understanding the needs and pain points for different stakeholders. You will identify quick wins as well as key concerns and/or sources of resistance to proposed changes. Ensure your executive team, not just members of the People function, are onboard with the system benefits.
2. If possible, take the opportunity to improve your processes and governance, but only if you have the genuine support of line management. Agree the scope of change at the start of the project with key decision makers.
3. Prior to procuring a system be very clear about your highest priority needs. It sounds obvious but it’s easy to become enamoured with funky functionality and a quality sales pitch. Ask yourself ‘what are the top few business benefits for your organisation?’ - strategic insights, increased speed of service (particularly people services), automation of transaction work? External research and benchmarking will help objective decision-making. Continually check back to ensure that the preferred system meets the specific functional requirements of your key needs. Most systems will have the modules you need, but some have only quite basic functionality in some modules.
4. Involve key stakeholders in the procurement process to ensure all fundamental requirements are being met. HR, Payroll and IT, as a minimum, should all evaluate options prior to choosing a preferred system.
5. The quality of the implementation team is as important as the system, particularly if you are re-engineering your processes. Thoroughly vet who will be working with you and understand their expertise and experience with the system, as well as the people processes they are implementing.
6. Remember that most of the value of your changes will reside in the most frequently used processes; so, prioritise high quality configuration of these. Avoid trying to cater for every exceptional circumstance. Sometimes technology cannot solve your more exotic problems (or the extra investment is not worth it).
7. Allow time and resource to get data right. New systems will often make additional data visible more stakeholders so check that all data has been well-maintained and does not use misleading or confusing jargon. This responsibility can only be delivered internally and can be easily underestimated.
8. Change management must involve more than communication and training. Ensure that the project team clearly understands the desired change of behaviour (e.g. managers’ self-service), the benefits and how this change will be managed and supported, beyond skills training. This includes considering cultural differences, varying digital literacy, access to technology and employees’ mindset. Have a clear plan with actions that support all planned changes.
9. Enlist the most vocal critics when defining needs and through the testing process to create champions early in the project, well before Go Live. These critics will both provide valuable feedback during design and be a useful barometer of project progress.
10. Don’t hesitate to demonstrate your system while it’s still in the Testing Phase and be open to feedback about things you have not thought about (even though this may be annoying). The ultimate result will be significantly better.
These principles supplement, rather than replace, good implementation practices that most vendors will apply to your implementation. While they may require additional, early internal consultation and analysis, without this investment excellent systems can result in embarrassing failures that don’t end up delivering the required business benefits and negatively affect the reputation of your function – a situation we all want to avoid!
