How do you choose the right HRIS for your business?
Running accurate and seamless HR processes are a core fundamental of any business, from three employees right up to large corporations. In fact, SHRM data shows that 70% of organisations agree that running HR processes smoothly was a significant challenge for them.
Before we get into the how, let’s look at the why. Why is it important to choose the right HRIS for your business? Don’t they all offer pretty much the same solutions?
Choosing the optimum HRIS for your business is key to two things – accuracy, and time.
Great HR and payroll platforms can directly increase your bottom line by minimising the time that employees take on menial tasks like data entry or even requesting a holiday. The right HRIS can also save your internal recruiters time finding the next star employees by streamlining the recruitment process and automating some onboarding tasks too.
Accurate employee data, payroll and tracking of important things like schedules and holidays also supports a better working culture, with fewer errors and easier access of information for staff reducing in-work frustration and boosting satisfaction.
Knowing why a HRIS is important is one thing, finding the correct solution is another. The business software market is a crowded one, and the HR and payroll space is particularly busy with various software offerings from both established and newcomer platforms. There are also variations in the different types of platforms available, from HRIS and HRMS to HCM!
The first logical step, therefore, is to assess what it is you actually need.
Before you even start considering signing up for some platform demos or free trials, it’s advisable to make a list of your core requirements, as well as any ‘nice to haves’.
What tasks do you want to automate? What data does your new system need to be able to handle? What additional features would you like the platform to have, such as managing rotas and holiday requests, employee documentation storage or even automated recruitment processes?
This step will help to focus your search and remove large swathes of the HRIS market from consideration.
HR and payroll processes cover your entire business, so adopting a new platform without the input and buy-in from all departments could leave critical day-to-day processes unaccounted for.
Key stakeholders you’ll need to discuss requirements with include IT who can set out any integrations and security considerations of the new platform. Your HR and payroll teams will let you know what features they require, from must-haves to desirables to streamline their tasks, whilst managers and team leaders can also let you know of any current issues they’re facing, where efficiency savings can be made, and gripes your employees have with existing software.
Ensure you also speak to finance to assess and confirm what your budget is for the new HRIS too, on a per-employee or annual basis, and where the new platform needs to be free-to-launch, or if there’s budget for any onboarding, set-up customisation and integration support.
With requirements noted and budgets in place, you can take to the HRIS marketplace and begin making shortlists.
This can be an extremely time-consuming task with hundreds of software options available, and not all of the features your organisation requires are easy to compare in one place from vendor to vendor.
A great place to start is with a HR system selection tool.
At Phase 3, we have developed a comprehensive free-to-use tool that helps organisations like yours to quickly filter relevant HRIS options based on the specific functionality you need. From payroll and 360 feedback, to compliance and timesheets, our HR system selection tool can filter the HRIS market based on subscription types, platform hosting, countries serviced and even specialist industry focuses.
After assessing the most relevant HRIS options on the market, you can schedule your platform demos. Look to go into these sessions armed with questions surrounding your most important feature requirements, as well as any security, onboarding and ongoing support enquiries too.
Consider the look and feel of the HRIS being demonstrated – is it user friendly, or will employees find it frustrating to use? Are there a wealth of training and onboarding documents or even videos that can help to familiarise future new starters with the system? And, most importantly, does it offer the core functionality you need and offer the flexibility to add features in the future and grow as your business does?
It’s important for these demonstration sessions that any and all relevant stakeholders are on the calls to support stakeholder buy-in, but also so any additional questions relevant to their departments can be brought up if needed.
To help streamline this process, especially for busy diaries, it may be preferable to have initial demos with the core HR and payroll teams, and then secondary demos with wider department heads once a final decision is closer to being made.
Demos done and system selected, it’s time to implement your new HRIS.
Setting up a brand new HRIS, or migrating from one platform to another, can be a time-intensive project that needs planning and the input and coordination from numerous departments. This will ensure limited downtime between systems, the smooth transfer and security of business and employee data, and the correct integrations with your existing business software and processes.
Your incumbent provider won’t have a vested interest in supporting your switch to another platform, so seeking external specialist support when it comes to data migration could be advantageous.
The final step will be to train and familiarise employees to the new system, and communicate any updates to internal processes – from requesting holidays to accessing payslips or updating personal information.
Selecting the correct HRIS for your business can save time, boost the bottom line and support a great working culture. But the process from deciding your requirements to launching a new system can take time to deliver and internal coordination to achieve smoothly.
At Phase 3, we’ve supported hundreds of businesses in their system selection process, guiding clients through the HRIS market to find a solution that fits all of their considered requirements (and some they haven’t considered yet too).
This is a process that you want to get right at the first time of asking, with minimal disruption to daily business operations. This is what our award-winning HRIS consultants deliver every time, supporting businesses with:
Learn more about our system selection services and how Phase 3 can support your business to find the right HRIS here.
Laura’s role as Head of Marketing sees her continually looking for new opportunities to tell the world how great Phase 3 is.
