With the weekly HR software solutions buying tips webinars I perform, I am frequently asked questions which provide me additional article ideas. That occurred from a discussion I had in a webinar in Feb. 2010. The prospect was looking for a HRIS system and a performance management system for a 100 employee accounting firm with only one HR person. Because she was not able to find an integrated HR software solution for both needs within her budget she was planning to go with separate systems and integrate the two products at the same time; should she?
If you are going to purchase multiple types of HR software solutions, should you implement everything at once or stage the process?
Like everything the answer to that question depends. In the case listed above where there is one HR person, I would recommend determining which HR software solution is the most important. Once that has been determined, I would setup the one HR software solution that is deemed the highest priority and make sure you are comfortable with that product before setting up another type of system. In the prospect’s case, performance management was the more important HR software solution. It takes longer than most people originally think to understand how to fully utilize a new HR solution. When I was performing HR software solution implementations, we usually held off on even the report writer training for at least a few months. We wanted to make sure the client had a comfort level with the basic system before adding to that knowledge.
If your company has multiple HR professionals, I think you may be able to setup both systems at once as long as there is a person assigned to each product. Even if that is the case, it still may be a tremendous task to implement two HR software solutions at once. It‘s important to consider others in the organization affected and not just the person implementing the system. Many times with HRIS/HRMS employee self service & management self service, you are going to involve more than just your department in the process of utilizing the system. This same thing can be said for a performance management system or a recruiting system. Is it realistic to expect not only your department but others as well to fully understand how to utilize two new HR solutions at once?
I think you see the direction I am leaning. I would recommend putting the more important HR software solution in place first, make sure your internal and external staffs are utilizing the system and have a comfort level with it. At that point, start working on the next project. In the end by doing this, I believe your staff and the company will receive more benefit from each system by setting up things separately than by setting up everything at once.