13 Things to Consider When Choosing a HRIS

Despite the significant upheaval, some positives have come out of the pandemic, in the commercial world at least. One of these is the elevation of HR as a key strategic function in organisations, which has given rise to greater digitalisation of human resources.

Now, as the digital transformation of HR continues to unfold, more and more companies are looking to Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) and Recruitment Applicant Tracking Systems (Recruitment ATS) to streamline operations and automate time-consuming administrative tasks. While this makes perfect sense, it must be done so with a firm on the broader financial picture and the expected return on investment.

If you’re looking to invest in an HRIS or Recruitment ATS, here are 13 pointers to take into consideration.

Having worked in HR at companies in the tech, professional services, not-for-profit and construction sectors for more than 30 years, I have witnessed a dramatic rise in overspending on HRIS and people management systems, particularly in the past seven years.

There are several reasons for this:

1.????People selecting systems may only do this one or twice in their careers, so they are prone to buying big systems with lots of bells and whistles and only using a fraction of the functionality.

2.????People selecting systems underestimate the importance of scoping out the business problem that they are looking to solve and get baffled by salespeople selling features (some of which look great, but you may never use them).

3.????HR and operations people can spend 4/6 weeks+ researching systems for companies and the actual cost of researching ends up costing more than the system itself. This makes no sense. As an example, my cousin, when selecting a HRIS for a 15-man Company that wanted to scale to 30 people in one year, spent circa ￡4,000 of resources to source a system that cost ￡1,599. That’s more than double the price!

Let’s face it, there are a lot of HRIS systems out there most will do the job for you.

4.????People selecting HRIS systems normally start the system selection without working out what budget that they must work with. People who are selecting systems should also ask the system provider what the return-on-investment look will like if they spend x on the system.

Most systems providers, including us, ?will have an ROI (Return on Investment) calculator that will allow you to guestimate that play. You can check out HRLocker’s here.

Please note at HRLocker Premium includes the ATS recruitment piece. The Hire/ATS or recruitment system will be the biggest savings. The cost of hiring a person as a rule of thumb will be 20% of the salary if you just take recruiters and advertising fees into consideration.

5.????From my experience, most HR professionals in companies with less than 500 employees have little experience of working with budgets as they are rarely given one so selecting a system and budget management is new to them and like all humans, they make mistakes.

6.????Our experience is that 80% of systems are selected on the look and feel and not on return on investment.

7.????Companies that invest in systems underestimate the importance of the set-up and deployment communication and training. Underestimating set-up and deployment leads to low usage of the system and less ROI.

8.????Many companies leave the admin of a HRIS system to junior-level employees, which again leads to a low ROI. You need to invest time in your systems admin, so they know the system and how best to use it. At HRLocker, we hold two client webinars a month and send out endless supports and free downloads as well as providing instant messaging support to the Admins, FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) support to all employees and telephone support to HRLocker admins (yes, we do answer the phone)

9.????If you are growing as a company, make sure to establish that your chosen system can grow with you. When selecting a system, it should be with a four-year view to ensure your system can support your growth in numbers and requirements.

10.?Be aware of companies giving you big discounts in year one and ensure you take the system cost over the period you want to have it into consideration to find the actual cost.

11.?Too many people put a big weight on integrations without looking at the ROI for the integrations in most cases outweigh the cost of the integration.

12.???Make sure the company/system you select reflects the culture in your company. If you are an open transparent company, select a system that reflects enables that, if you are a tightly controlled organisation make sure your systems reflect that.

13.??Always look for easily accessible supports. Make sure your system provider is familiar with your sector and some ISO certification is preferable as at least you know they are being managed and audited and are intent on making constant improvements.

To sum up, make sure that you …....

·??????focus on the business problem that you are looking to solve not the pretty features that the sales agent wants to sell you.

·??????Always look at the return on investment your preferred system can bring over what you perceive will be the lifetime of the system.

·??????Make sure if you are scaling that your preferred system can scale with you relative to your numbers and the features will be required by you and your Company.

·??????Always seek short easy implementation and do not scrimp on deployment set up training and communications, if you do the system will be underused

·??????Selecting systems is not an exact science; if you get 80% of what you are looking for at the point of purchase and the ROI looks good over the life term you want for the system, then you are in the right ballpark.

The most important thing is that every system you select must make you and your employees’ lives easier, because if it does not people will complain, and those complaints will land at your doorstep as it’s likely all your employees will have to interact with the HRIS at some level, considering such systems today should have employee self-service as a given. Good productive employees want to manage their own careers in the business your HRIS system should allow this.

For more information, please book a call with us we would be delighted to do an initial discovery call with you.