Now that you've identified your talent needs, aligned them to the business' strategy, and have support from a couple of key stakeholders, it’s time to turn to the HR tech’s benefits.
Before choosing an HR software, consider these factors that will impact the way you work and manage people operations:
1. What core features you need (e.g. automation capabilities) and whether there's an HR tool that meets multiple requirements.
2. Integration capabilities with your existing tech ecosystem.
3. How fast the tool’s learning curve will be, what training opportunities your team can access, and whether you're willing to compromise on this to get a functionality-rich solution.
4. What will the support be like from the vendor post implementation? Will you have a dedicated person you can turn to with questions?
5. How well is the tool able to adapt to your changing (future) needs
6. Feedback from past users regarding the solution’s onboarding experience, usability, and privacy options.
7. How extensive the app's security and privacy capabilities are.
8. Whether the tool suits your work culture when it comes to its features, data privacy options, support availability, and even interface design.
Next, make a list of your options. Compare the status quo (i.e. the case where you did 'nothing') with at least two other solutions. Note their advantages and disadvantages compared to the key talent and business drivers you’ve identified earlier.
When listing these benefits there are four fundamental steps to consider to ensure the output is easily digestible for the C-suite executives you’ll need to convince:
Attribute every key feature of the potential HR systems to their return on investment. When presenting to the C-suite, the ROI will be a decisive factor along with the costs of the solution and the potential savings it could bring.New tools generally require implementation fees and software adoption training. Plus, switching from one solution to another will require extra resources as you move your data. All of these costly resource allocation steps should be justified by the new tool’s ROI.
Rely on the quantitative benefits of your proposal. Look at your current metrics and see where they are behind the industry standard. For instance, automating tasks could save you time. Meanwhile, simply using one core tool for all HR duties will reduce your staffing costs. These metrics let you assess the overall health of a business and where HR’s role comes in.
Along with state-specific legislation, the CCPA, CNIL, and GDPR are just three common factors that require HR tools to support data privacy. To minimize risks, list all potential compliance issues and see how much the tool you’re considering covers. Let’s break down what to pay attention to when analyzing a tool from a privacy and compliance perspective:
Now that you’ve got the legal aspects out of the way, it’s time to go over the qualitative benefits and their effects on business drivers. While you can’t measure qualitative benefits and claim you’re going to be saving money, you can demonstrate how these will impact the bottom line. Aspects that aren’t quantifiable can be used as proof within a business case as long as they’re tied to general business goals. For illustration, if the company is trying to position itself as a top workplace for employees, you could be more likely to get the green light for a tool that’s proven to boost employee morale.