Human Resources Software Buyer’s Guide
As organizations look to become more flexible and agile in the marketplace they’re moving away from the traditional, rigid policies of yesterday’s workplace and evolving to focus more on employees — on their well-being and success. Meeting people’s needs has become priority number one, and organizations that disregard this business imperative are being left behind. Read on for everything you need to know before buying your next HR software.
Why Human Capital Management Matters
Leading businesses are looking to HR technology that’s designed with people at the center, truly serving them and improving their personal and professional lives. These businesses anticipate employees’ needs, beyond just work, and thoughtfully adapt to meet them, leveraging HCM solutions that truly serve people, not processes. By embracing the right solutions now, employers can be confident in their ability to attract and retain the talent they need, and to deliver workforce experiences that reflect the connection between life and work today.
85%
Employees are 85% more likely to stay beyond three years in their jobs if they feel they have the technology that supports them at work.
Identifiy Your Needs
Businesses want a straightforward method for sorting through the confusion of the HCM purchasing process and finding an HCM solution that satisfies the requirements of all the various departments and stakeholders the solution affects. It’s important to recognize three steps when identifying your needs:
1) Recognizing when it’s time to invest in new technology
2) Having a clear technology strategy
3) Determining how the solution will help you take care of your employees’ needs
Additionally, you need to decide on the project’s desired end result, determine the most urgent issues that need to be solved for your employees, and establish your priorities for various HCM-related requirements. Mapping out these needs at the beginning of the buying process will help you stay focused on what’s most essential to you.
Gather the Right Team
A new HCM solution impacts a large number of individuals and numerous functional areas. If you’re leading the drive to assess and buy an HCM solution, you should put together a cross-functional team of important stakeholders who are aware of the requirements of the key organizational departments that could benefit from HCM technology.
Human Resources
You should have someone involved who understands your people’s needs both at work and outside of work. Having an HR team member on board will ensure you have the proper visibility into things like hiring needs, benefits programs, employee engagement initiatives, performance / development targets, and other related processes.
Info Technology (IT)
Looping in a representative from IT at the start of the buying process will ensure you know the security requirements of your organization’s network, other important systems of record, data-related compliance standards, and potential efficiencies to be gained with HCM cloud solutions.
Operations/Finance
Finance and operations team members have a strong understanding of the wider budgetary landscape at your organization, time and accrual rules for different worker types, workload and scheduling parameters, key productivity metrics, and other crucial components.
Payroll
Your new HCM solution needs to deliver perfect paychecks and proper tax payments and filings for your employees — without causing a major disruption when it’s implemented. There’s no one better positioned to understand the impact of payroll than your payroll professionals.
Ensure User Adoption
In addition to forming a team of experts who can advocate for different departmental needs, it’s imperative that you also understand the needs of the different segments of your workforce who will be interacting with the technology to complete tasks. As you begin the process of purchasing an HCM system, you should think about getting in touch with the following workforce categories and roles:
Employees and managers
With the assistance of your buying team, select a few staff members and managers from various departments to interview about your current human capital management (HCM) procedures, identify their typical points of contact with HCM technology, and gain a better understanding of the features of the technology that will encourage them to use it.
Executives
Your choice to purchase an HCM solution will normally require the approval of at least one executive sponsor. It pays to follow up with them and other members of your executive team to make sure the solution you select can convince them of its value and offer them accurate demographic information that will aid in decision-making.
Administrators
Even if the people who will be administering your new HCM solution are already part of your buying team, it doesn’t hurt to sit down with them separately and try to isolate their specific needs. You want to make sure their experience with the new solution is a smooth one and that they can easily navigate and troubleshoot any system you choose.
Set the table stakes
When organizations look to consolidate their processes through a single HCM solution, it can be challenging to list all the different activities and areas that will be affected. Focusing on these primary target areas will help you establish a cross-functional baseline of what a good HCM solution looks like and will provide a solid foundation on which to layer more specific role- or department-based needs.
The traditional approach of separating people systems from work systems doesn’t help you balance what makes your people happy and your business great. And today’s employees want employers to think beyond the traditional work experience — to create great workplaces that anticipate their life and work needs and thoughtfully adapt to meet them. Look for an HCM solution that helps you care for your people professionally and personally, and that helps your organization develop the resilience, agility, and adaptability needed to exceed new workforce expectations around the world. After all, your people are the drivers of your organization’s success, so when they thrive, so will your business.
Beyond just automating processes and managing information, a strong HCM solution should also help you continuously
anticipate your employees’ needs and provide actionable insights to make well-informed decisions that elevate and
champion your people. This means you’ll need strong analytics and reporting tools to make sense of the wealth of
data available in your new solution — tools that are backed by AI that’s personal, thoughtful, adaptable, and ethical.
Employees in today’s modern workforce expect a flexible experience from the different business applications they interact with, so make sure you choose an HCM solution that adjusts to their different technological needs and empowers them with self-service. This will increase productivity, ensure employee adoption, improve employee engagement, and promote lifework synergy by giving access when and where your people need it.
Technology is only as great as the people behind it, so when you choose an HCM solution, be sure it’s backed by experts who are always there to ensure you feel known, supported, and confident while achieving your long-term business goals. The vendor should create meaningful, lasting relationships to enable you to get the most from your solution by proactively supporting you and your people, from day one, with a team of experts and trusted advisors. That’s what a partner for life looks like, delivering exceptional value to help your organization remain successful today and tomorrow.
Workforce Go! HCM
A great place look for the perfect HR software is Workforce Go! HCM. The Workforce Go! suite combines the power of workforce management and human capital management (HCM) in one unified cloud platform to help users manage their entire workforce from pre-hire to retire — whether they’re salaried, hourly, full time, or part time. See everything they have to offer for human resources, time & labor, payroll, and integrations.
