Over the last few years, Human Resources publications, analysts, and even the mainstream press have been talking about how the workplace is changing and, more importantly, how it’s affecting the mental well-being of workers… and that’s a good thing. The more we explore what’s causing the meteoric rise of stress in the workplace, the better equipped we’ll be to reverse the negative engagement and unwanted attrition rates we’ve seen emerge.
But what about the HR teams themselves?
In many (if not most) organizations, the responsibility for resolving personnel-related issues has been placed squarely on the shoulders of HR professionals. From navigating thorny corporate culture challenges (like return-to-work policies) to addressing increasingly stringent compliance issues, HR pros are in the spotlight.
One of HR departments’ greatest responsibilities on the “to-do” list in the coming years is equipping managers with the tools, education, and resources they need to lead their teams effectively. Based on recent research, they have their jobs cut out for them. According to recent research from Gartner:
- 45% of managers are spending more time managing projects than people
- 54% of managers are suffering from work-induced stress and fatigue
- Only 50% of employees are confident in their manager’s ability to lead their teams to success within the next two years.
Developing and delivering more effective leadership training is certainly part of the solution. However, implementing HR technology solutions that simplify the work experience for managers and employees alike should assume much of the heavy lifting.
Our last post discussed the dangers of “tech overload” and how poor implementations and configurations frequently contribute to that challenge. Throwing a new app at every workplace problem that emerges is never the right approach, but sometimes, implementing a new HCM platform is the right move.
A separate study from Gartner revealed that 56% of HR leaders believe their current technology solutions and strategy do not match their current and future business needs. As a result, many HR pros (and their procurement teams) will soon “go shopping” for tech that will set them up for success.
Telltale signs of an Inefficient HCM System
So, how do you tell if your current HCM challenges are rooted in poor design and implementation or if you’ve truly outgrown your system? Here are a few telltale signs:
- Decreased utility – if your HR team is spending more time helping employees resolve issues that could (or should) be readily addressed by your HCM platform, there’s a good chance it’s not as intuitive or user-friendly as it needs to be. Workers expect their work-related systems to be as simple as the consumer apps they use daily; older platforms, in particular, often can’t cross that bar.
- Decreased performance – if your employee base has grown in number or geographic diversity, there’s a good chance your operational demands have also changed. If that’s the case, a system that performed flawlessly a few years ago could be struggling to keep pace with growth today and lack the ability to scale further to meet your needs tomorrow.
- Lack of integration capabilities – business and HCM systems are increasingly intertwined, and with the advent of AI in the workplace, this trend will only continue. If you find that getting data out of your HCM systems and bringing it into other business systems requires manual intervention (such as exporting/importing spreadsheets) vs. programmatic connections, the problem will likely worsen.
Of course, there could be other signs that your HCM challenges go beyond implementation issues. However, these are some of the most common and blatant symptoms of problems that are rooted in the underlying tech.
Getting it Right, Right Out of the gate
Okay… let’s fast-forward a bit and pick up the script after you’ve done your due diligence, found the right vendor, negotiated some great terms, and now you’re ready to implement.
To ensure you get it right the first time and set your organization – and, more importantly, your workforce – up for success, you must begin with a few fundamental concepts rooted in human-centered design principles. Or, more simply stated, you need to ensure the employee’s voice is heard, considered, and addressed at each stage of the process.
Srikant Datar, dean of Harvard Business School, defines this design philosophy in four distinct phases: clarify, ideate, develop, and implement.
It’s a brilliant way to ensure the voice of the customer (or, in our case, the voice of the employee) is infused throughout the process. Here’s a slightly modified version for those of us in the world of HCM:
- Clarify – Ensure you’ve clearly identified and defined the challenges you need to address through your new platform. Ensure you have secured plenty of input from the end users (the employees) and the HR and business teams. This is particularly important when implementing systems – such as time and attendance and scheduling applications – that will be vital to their day-to-day activities.
- Ideate – This is where the rubber hits the road… where you translate your operational challenges into a game plan for success. Again, let’s grab a practical example from the world of workforce management. If one of the key factors impacting employee engagement and satisfaction is lack of schedule flexibility, translating that into processes and workflows that make shift-swapping, shift-trading, and other similar tactics easier should help address the problem. Making workers part of this process before configuring the system ensures you’ll have better buy-in once you go live.
- Configure – The configuration stage is where you put your roadmap into action, and it’s arguably the most critical stage of the process. Whether you implement in-house or leverage a third-party implementation partner like Covalence Consulting, this is where you must harmonize the ideal operational state for employees and employers with more stringent factors – such as union policies, payrules, regulatory demands, and other similar factors – in a way that takes full advantage of the underlying platform.
- Test & Launch – Once your system is configured and you’re ready to begin testing, ensure your workforce is represented and part of this process. Let them “kick the tires” and provide feedback on what works, what doesn’t, and what they want to improve. Of course, not all recommendations can be implemented, but hearing their voices and engaging them in discussion before going live will empower you to avoid potential challenges. Once you go live, this significantly increases your chances for successful (and positive) adoption.
To further tailor this approach to the world of HCM, we’re going to add a fifth step:
- Measure & monitor – As Peter Drucker once famously wrote: “You can’t improve what you can’t measure.” It sounds like a simple, common-sense practice. Still, it’s surprising how many organizations invest a tremendous amount of time and energy in implementing a new HCM platform yet skip this critical step. It’s understandable. After all, with the number of things on HR’s plate, it’s tempting to launch the system, check the “done” box, and move on to the next project. However, taking the time to get back to employees – or better still, connect with them regularly – ensures everything is being used as intended. It’s also a great way to capture minor concerns before they become big headaches.
At Covalence, we pride ourselves on simplifying the complex at every level of the organization… and would love to help you as well. Whether you need a system assessment or want some help determining if you need to find a new platform or just a tune-up, implement a new system, or anything in between, we’re here when you need us. Hit this link, and let’s get a chat on the calendar today. You’ll be glad you did.