Venterra Realty

Natassa Zervopoulos

The HR technology space has exploded over the last decade as a result. Implementing an HR technology solution poses significant upsides, including gained efficiencies, an enhanced employee journey, and insights. Whether you implement an integrated HCM, a targeted solution, or a combination of “best in breed” solutions, a successful outcome can be significantly impacted by the diversity of your team, the change management effort, and conducting a thorough pre-implementation.

Who is at your table?

A technology implementation involves data, technology, the business,and people. Involving stakeholders from each of these areas from day one and considering the implications to each group develops a holistic understanding of and plan for the technology.While you and your team bring subject matter expertise, this is only one star of a complex constellation of a system. Your data team will bring in an understanding of your broader data strategy, data governance and privacy considerations and best practices for storing and reporting. The Technology team and product management team will offer expertise and ongoing support related to integrations, process mapping, considerations of the technology itself vetting the ability of the technology to meet your requirements and required sustainment support longer term. People or users of the system can offer operational insights that will help you reconcile how the technology will be used and what practical considerations should be made. They will also be valuable inputs into the case for change, helping you identify the benefits to be realized through your solution, and be part of your user acceptance testing and change management efforts.

Involving each of these stakeholders at inception creates space for the project, ensuring appropriate resourcing is achieved and expanding investment in the project from HR to the entire organization.

Technology is ever-changing, and its use varies by industry, organization size and specific business needs. Leverage external expertiseto enhance your review of the technology to incorporate best practices in software and your industry without the bias and urgency of internal stakeholders or the software provider team. Partnering with an external resource can strengthen your business case through external benchmarking and best practices, support process optimization efforts and vet your project plan.

Is your organization ready for the change?

While it seems, in theory, to make a lot of sense that without people, you cannot achieve a successful solution, change management is rarely done well. A lack of change effort has historically compromised the success of a project. Change management efforts focus on understanding the impact of the technology on people, processes, and technology for each user and developing a plan that considers communications, training, and support. Build a champion network throughout the organization with employees at all levels to promote the solution’s value, act as early adopters and influence adoption.

A change management plan should mirror the effort, planning and resourcing of a project management plan. It should be documented and tracked with ongoing communication with your project team and everyone impacted. This involves a detailed approach to implementing the change, defining the outcomes, and communicating a clear definition of success.

By involving a diverse network of employees both in the project itself and in the change plan, awareness and understanding of the need for the solution are increased and buy-in is secured earlier. This also ensures that you can identify roadblocks sooner and pivot accordingly.

Understanding the change saturation of your organization is another layer to determining whether your organization is ready for the change. This includes an inventory of current and future projects happening/ being considered, any other competing demands for time and confirming the user’s capacity for change. Understanding the context within which this project will be released, and the mindset of end users can have implications for the timing of the project and the overall change plan.

“Understanding the change saturation of your organization is another layer to determining whether your organization is ready for the change.”

Change management does not happen in isolation. Leverage the cross-functional team you have developed and incorporate the employee voice as often as possible. Ensure that your project and change management plans are vetted against each other and live in conjunction with each other.

Do you clearly understand the problem you are trying to solve?

Invest the time and resources upfront to gather requirements, understand your current processes and future needs, and securebuy-in from stakeholders. A demo is not enough. A conversation with a sales rep is even less so.This is where having internal technology support and speaking directly to the software provider’s technology team can help you confirm your understanding and validate the ability of the software to meet your needs. Having a detailed understanding of the software opportunities and limitations up front will also ensure that your project plan, associated timelines, and resource needs are realistic.If a trial or sandbox environment is available, even better. The more functionality you can verify, the stronger your understanding of the tool and your outcome.

Consider whether the opportunities for improvement are process-related or technology, and ensure you have a strong foundation first. Software is meant to enhance and enable, not to solve, all policy and procedural gaps. Couple your understanding of the technology with a detailed evaluation of your current processes and requirements. 

Your benefits realization framework assesses both qualitative and quantitative benefits by the magnitude of impact. This framework is a critical input to determining scope, timing, and your business case. Develop a roadmap, prioritize through the lens of a detailed benefits realization model, spend time discussing challenges and think through every step of every process.

Whether due to change saturation or your pre-implementation findings, it is essential that you are willing to make the tough call. In some cases, that means pivoting and adjusting your plan, in others determining that technology is not the right priority and instead, pausing to strengthen the foundation through process optimization. Whatever the decision, these key considerations can be the difference in adoption and a strongoutcome for the businessversus an implementation that may simply permeate existing inefficiencies.