HR Organisations need help to change their stance towards HR solutions and technology.(e-HR) Often they lack experience, knowledge and project delivery exposure to ensure that high expectations are met and benefits realised in the short, medium and long term. Clear benefits from implementing technology can be gained for the HR organisation in terms of improved service delivery, cost management and providing strategic benefit to the organisation.

HR Organisations have never had more choice of  technology. Portals based HR solutions to meet the needs of recruitment, appraisal and development, career and succession planning, time management, e-learning/Training and a multitude of other modules, tools and functionality. HR will have to decide to integrate, or not to integrate, choose how quickly to proceed with  overall project or programme priorities. As well as coming up with a concrete business case, HR will have to make the right project and programme choices over scope priorities, timescales and resource commitment. These can be difficult decisions for HR organisations with their current levels of knowledge and experience.

So as the introduction suggests HR Directors and HR organisations can quite rightly  be   confused about what are the right and wrong decisions to make. These decisions are crucially important because they not only have reputation implications for HR with the employee and management communities in the business, but also  the cost implications and overall  timescales for such projects are not insubstantial. 

Nightmare stories of failed implementations persist, but not necessarily justifiably. And the HR community itself could become in danger of developing a cynical attitude towards technologies that could ultimately help them in many ways. The right technology choices now have very strong business cases, work wonders for HR reputation and make the realisation of  benefits a very real possibility.

Its not just about technology

A common problem for HR solution delivery whether it be for HR, Portal or Payroll technologies is that the implications for the business are not taken into account. Technology is a tool to facilitate progress in the organisation through greater effectiveness and efficiency. Merely implementing technology without looking at how the organisation is operating and the effectiveness of associated business process will result in a poor implementation with few of the original benefits realised. Many organisation fail to take the time and investment in the re-engineering of business process to ensure that the  technology is implemented and operated in the best possible circumstances. The real fact of the matter here being that the technology really doesn't even get the chance to shine the way it should.

This is especially true when looking at the new technology areas of HR such as the Portal or perhaps technologies that facilitate an HR Shared Service environment.  For example : The Portal when used for the purpose of Employee Self Service or Managers Self Service has a much greater impact and effect on communities in the business that may not have previously been touched. Why is this the case? Primarily because portal technologies allow the HR organisation to move away from a centralised function, primarily dealing with administration and transactional activity to ultimately help forge a strategic focus and perhaps a business partner philosophy. (Ulrich). As a result the effect of what HR does and wants is felt across a much wider cross section of the organisation, and business process and ways of doing things are bound to alter. (we will explore the shared service environment later in the blog series). Implementing therefore  a solution for HR becomes an exercise of change & you are making a transformation in the organisation that involves actively engaging HR, employees and managers to a much greater level in  HR process. Therefore managing the key factors in that change becomes critical for successful outcomes. Some of those changes factor will be around :

Gaining sponsorship across the organisation: perhaps on a wider basis than previously experienced with a centralised solution and HR function

Engaging key stakeholders to the projects: In many cases this will now be both employee and manager communities in the business

Measuring the impact of change: How is the project going to effect the HR organisation and the wider business

Training and Education: Projects fail because of a lack of timely training and ongoing education

Communication:  Telling the business what you are doing. Telling them again. And ensuring an understanding of roles and levels of engagement.

The  Business Benefits Case becomes clearer

Traditionally the benefits case for implementing HR solutions has not been strong. However the linking and aligning of  the new HR technology agenda with clear business issues and strategic benefits to the organisation has changed this. New technologies allow the HR function to move away from the traditional focus; centralised, engaged in transactional activity and administrative sludge.  HR organisations are transforming themselves by initially taking advantage of integrated technologies and beginning their journey of change by ensuring business processes are optimised and re-engineered appropriately 'maybe not perfect but starting the change and continuing an evolutionary path. Transforming HR organisations are looking at taking advantage of the basics, having a single, cleansed and accurate source of data for employees. This in itself will enable accurate reporting and the building up of key people based reports that are of strategic value to the business.  Additionally reducing the duplication of effort around the organisation, whether this be using different systems, spreadsheets, process or organisations is  also significant.

A critical philosophy to adapt is to :

'Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast. Rome was not built in a day as we all know.'

Talent management has become a key buzzword in the HR organisation and to some degree the wider business. Transformed HR organisations are looking at gaining a strategic advantage from the function and at the same time enhancing the reputation of HR. To not only be able to do the basics well and cost effectively but also to be strategic i.e contribute to the bottom line. Talent Management provides a great example because its about reducing recruitment costs and lowering your turnover of key people in the organisation. It does this through motivational employee development initiatives and encouragement of career long learning and development. (Talent Management will also be explored further in this series of HR Blogs)

Whilst traditional HR organisations are transforming through technology and acknowledging the importance of business change, and perhaps ultimately becoming transformed to provide strategic benefit. One thing is very clear, they still have to do the basics well and be as cost effective as possible. The nature of the more strategic role for HR is perhaps more expensive in terms of skills and roles and therefore cost effective management of the basics is as critical as the strategic contribution. (Putting together a business case will be explored further in this series of blogs)

If the basic HR processes such as administrative activities are not in good order, especially on sensitive issues such as executive pay, no strategic contribution is likely to be considered of value until the administrative problem has been fixed.
Perversely, HR teams, which concentrate on administration tend to be criticised as 'reactive' and are regarded as a cost .. 

One way of resolving the paradox is by taking good care of routine HR responsibilities through information technology, so HR departments can concentrate on high value-add activities.

Linda Holbeche Aligning Human Resources and Business Strategy (2001)

An HR Project & Process Mind Set for HR (Reddington et al)

As described HR Organisations can lack the experience, knowledge and expertise to deliver HR solutions and portal technology to the business, with the appropriate level of change management required. This situation is not really surprising as the multitude of technology choices, as pointed out in the introduction, can be extremely confusing. Also the technology that requires such skills is only relatively recent. A critical point to make is that the training of the HR profession is perhaps not keeping up as much as it should in this area. HR Organisations often fail in project delivery because they  can be difficult to hold to deadlines, have a poor understanding of the business case, lack a project methodology to deliver and have resource commitment issues (especially at certain times of the year).

In what can be termed the Project Mindset and Process Mindset (Reddington) HR have to become experts if not knowledge leaders in an organisation. The project mind set is essentially the ability to deliver projects to the HR organisation as well as the rest of the business, recognising the need to address project management issues such as time, cost, scope, resource and change etc. Whilst the business may have the assistance of an outside consulting organisation it is critical that the requirement for project management skills is not underestimated and the level of commitment that the organisation has to make to a project recognised, particularly in terms of resources. Outside consulting services cannot implement without the engagement of the client in the project process and hope to achieve a successful outcome.

The process mindset really comes from recognition that if HR decides to implement e-HR technology it will have a greater effect on the rest of the business. Therefore the ability to achieve sponsorship for the vision, management of project stakeholders, recognising that there are many levers in an organisation and mechanisms to bring about change, is required.  A practical and pragmatic approach to implementation often brings about the most successful outcome. Methods of project implementation can become wrapped up in 'management speak'  but are often really recommendations of applying common sense philosophies of delivery, such as ensuring great project communication, through understanding and sign off of scope, excellent ongoing training and education.

The HR organisation has much to benefit from in terms of organisational reputation, cost effectiveness and service delivery by understanding better the technology available to them. And the project and process mechanisms for delivery and long term benefits.

What next? SAP?  That's where we, Bluefin Solutions, can help

Bluefin Solutions is an SAP Partner, we therefore advocate strongly  the use of the worlds leading HR and Payroll product, SAP. SAP has to date  been implemented in over 8000 organisations across the world. So as a partner whilst we will  not look to influence your product choice, we  will however be very able to provide advisory and programme/project delivery  consulting services. To engage with you  early on, to assist with your vision for HR, the  business case for the chosen solutions, help establish programme and project priorities, define your intended projects (timescale, scope, resources, change) and in overall  terms endeavour  to keep the technical and business aspects of the programme and project in balance. This will ensure project expectations are met, benefits are achieved and long term value is added to the HR organisation and the organisation as a whole.