Many organizations seek the strategic guidance of Independent Consultants to ensure a successful implementation of a Human Resource Information System (HRIS). As an Independent Consultant, I’ve witnessed silos, interdepartmental conflict, poor project management, and the tension and division that may occur between teams and departments. Trust me, these weren’t fun events for myself or the organizations.
However, through my experiences as an Independent Consultant, I’ve identified five (5) strategies to ensure a successful HRIS implementation:
Silos will Always Undermine the Power of One
Silos occur when employees and departments within an organization aren’t willing to collaborate with others or lack the adequate resources to share vital information with their peers. As a result, teams and individuals become isolated from the rest of the organization, leading to delays, bottlenecks, and misinformation. Silos can also directly reduce efficiencies and productivity, causing decreased employee satisfaction and morale.
Hiring the right resources can mitigate silos from impacting the HRIS implementation process by identifying where silos exist and working with stakeholders to develop holistic business processes.
Your organization can eradicate the silo mentality with these five (5) steps:
Create a unified vision
Establish achievements toward a common goal
Execute tasks tied to objectives and goals
Measure performance
Motivate, incentivize, and collaborate with employees
Companies Must Adapt to Adopt
Don’t expect to have everyone’s buy-in for the new HRIS system. Lead by example. Successful HRIS implementations require stakeholders to embrace change and adapt to the new changes to ensure the rest of the organization adopts the changes.
Migrating to a new HRIS is a significant organizational change that must be managed accordingly. Many clients have regretted not making change management a priority at project initiation. Despite what some may believe, change management is not established just by sending emails and delivering training. Also, change management efforts often fail when leaders don’t understand varying organizational dynamics. Hence, effective change management requires significant effort and time to ensure it’s effective.
Although companies struggle with change management for many reasons, partnering with an Independent Consultant can empower companies to make change management more acceptable and attainable. Change Management resources can also assist leaders with identifying and understanding the various organizational dynamics within their departments.
Your HRIS Support Model is Key
Support models are beneficial in HRIS implementations because they define each departments’:
Roles
Expertise
Functions
Designing, implementing, and maintaining a support model can enhance customer service, helping the business achieve desired outcomes. Support models depend on the organizational need and may include functional, application, and infrastructure models.
For example, when identifying a support model for cloud-based systems, the support models may include:
Functional support models, which focus on:
Restricted access
Data classifications
Protecting data accuracy
Application support models consider:
Security
Privileges
User reliability
Infrastructure support models provide application systems, such as:
Servers
Storage
Networks
Your Independent Consultant can provide customizable solutions, allowing you to make informed decisions when selecting the most relevant support model.
Partner with an Independent Consultant Early
Optimize the functionality and usability of your new HRIS by hiring an Independent Consultant early in the implementation process.
Independent Consultants are necessary to your HRIS implementation because they:
Offer unbiased perspectives regarding:
Employees
Systems
Procedures
How work is performed
Are critical in decision-making processes:
Defining team and department roles
Identifying a support model
Provide expertise with HRIS system regarding:
Selection
Implementation
Required updates
System Optimization is an Inside Job
Once the HRIS system is implemented, your organization is responsible for system optimization. Although an Independent Consultant provides guidance and support during HRIS implementation, the organization must learn how to enhance the system for full user functionality consistently.
Don’t forget, as the system ages and technology advances, upgrades will be necessary. Therefore, it’s critical that you develop a plan to address these concerns before, during, and after go-live. It wouldn’t hurt to also include the Independent Consultant in this process.
Many organizations struggle with successful HRIS implementation. Partnering with an HRIS Independent Consultant can ensure a successful and stress-free go live. Visit www.abnormallogic.com today to learn more.