HR technology affects more than the human resource department. So making an HR tech decision involves more than just the department’s leaders.
Involvement across departments and up-and-down the organizational hierarchy are essential to unleashing the company-wide value that HR digital transformation offers, from enhancing the employee experience to improving operational efficiency to increasing profitability.
Starting the vendor selection process with a strategic planning session with employees from all levels of the organization, from the c-suite to the front-line workers, will surface your organization’s mission, opportunities, and challenges so that you can determine your desired future state. Subsequent cross-functional meetings will then ensure that all major stakeholders are involved.
Not surprisingly, the most recent Workology HR and Recruiting Buyer Survey showed that most buying decisions are done by committee. One in three purchases involve four to eight decision-makers and most recruiters and HR professionals need approval from someone like an executive.
HR technology strategy and selection are also increasingly important given that 80% of employees say that they do not have the technology they need despite a focus on digital workplace programs. Avoiding HR software buying mistakes depends largely upon including key employees when making an HR tech decision.
HR Leaders
HR leaders may know better than anyone how outdated legacy technology prevents progress. This knowledge makes their involvement a given if your organization is to develop the agility it needs to compete in today’s digital environment.
HR must identify ways to integrate systems within the organization’s broader IT ecosystem so that digital transformation improves the whole company. Making the right HR tech decision begins with HR identifying the problem that the organization needs to solve. Consider how technology would impact your culture as well.
Executives
Securing executive buy-in early is vital for getting the HR technology you need. That begins with making the business case that improving your HR systems will benefit your entire organization, like by bolstering recruitment through a better employee experience or increasing efficiency by optimizing workflows.
An executive sponsor could then make your case across the organization. This would increase your return on investment by enabling you to choose the right solution and to implement your HR technology successfully.
IT Team
Your IT team often knows how people do their jobs with the technology they already have and can improve the adoption of your HR technology by seamlessly incorporating it into your digital workplace. So HR should work closely with IT.
“For the first time in HR, our profession is being told that we need to be a technology proponent. Technology is not just for the IT department anymore. It’s for the HR professionals,” Cara Capretta, vice president of the HCM business transformation practice at Oracle, stated in a whitepaper about the future of HR.
Capretta also cited a survey of 5,000 executives by an HR consulting firm to support her statement. “They said that the most important thing that HR can do to add value to the business is to better understand technology, better push it, and use it to integrate the workforce to the business and get people performing better,” she said, according to the whitepaper, which was published by Accenture.
Cross-departmental Representatives
Marketing. Finance. Operations. Your HR technology will impact most, if not all, aspects of your business in some way. So you should include an employee from each group that will be affected if you want to purchase HR tech wisely.
“It is important to engage the right stakeholders from the start,” HR thought leader Josh Bersin suggested in a blog post on selecting the right HR tech. “Widen your team and lean on stakeholders—people outside of HR whose work will be crucial to building, implementing, and rolling out the new technology—to ease change management.”
End Users
If you do not include employees, the adoption of your new system may suffer. Managers who use HR systems are two times less likely than executives to say that the technology is effective, according to PwC’s 2020 HR Technology Survey.
For example, if you are buying an applicant tracking system, you should include your recruiters and higher managers, Jenny Payne, manager of talent management and engagement at Tops Markets, suggested in a Human Resource Executive article about the role of HR tech in moving companies forward.
“One of the most important strategies when it comes to getting your workforce to actually use new technology is involving key end users in the process right from the beginning, as early as the selection process. Those are the folks who are closest to the processes the new technology is intended to enable or enhance, and they are the ones who will bring to light questions and issues that HR may not even think of,” Payne stated.
Whether you are pursuing an application for talent management, learning and development, or any other function, choosing the right HR technology will benefit your entire organization. Including employees from different levels and departments will help you choose the right HR technology and implement it properly so that you transform your company digitally.
Learn how HCM consultants from Providence Technology Solutions can help you develop precisely the right HR roadmap for your unique needs and ensure maximum value through our Vendor Selection Services.
Contact us today to discuss your vendor selection needs online, by email at info@theptsteam.com, or by calling 904.719.8264.
