Human resources develops rapidly with the influence of technology. The cloud, big data, artificial intelligence, and other advancements in technology are changing the way HR professionals work and reshaping their role within the organisation. In fact, industry leaders are investing in human resources technology heavily more than ever.
As cited in Bersin by Deloitte, companies are spending 10 percent of their HR budgets on new technology as nearly half (47 percent) companies surveyed are using HR software that is at least seven years old. The study also revealed that business leaders invest in human resource information systems (HRIS) to effectively manage their HR information, better manage employees, gain insights, and improve business outcomes.
HRIS is a software solution that enables HR people to replace their company’s HR spreadsheets. Using a single cloud-based platform, all HR data can be inputted, stored, managed, tracked, and analysed in one place.
HRIS is also used to enhance business functions, cut costs, increase efficiency and accuracy, as well as save time. This allows HR leaders to focus on strategy to boost business credibility and success, instead of busied on administrative tasks.
Read also: Six Thinking Hats for an Effective HRIS Implementation
While HRIS could advance and critically help the work of the HR team, there is one major barrier in the use of HRIS: its implementation.
IT and Human Resources are filled with failure stories in implementing well-designed and advanced computer technology. These failures not only occur in the implementation of HRIS, but also in the basic operating systems, marketing, and computer systems. Although technical challenges will always be addressed in implementing HRIS, the key challenges for successful implementation are important to the technical behaviour.
Knowing the barriers could help the HR and IT team identify the problems, thus creating better HRIS that function well for the HR team. Below are key factors contributing to the ineffective HRIS function:
Lack of executive and management support is one of the main reasons HRIS implementation failed. Without top management’s support, organisations will not have the funds, approvals, and leadership needed to implement, integrate, and maintain the system. Individuals are given the responsibility to manage HRIS projects that are knowledgeable in HR or IT, but they cannot effectively lead large projects unless they have effective leadership and communication skills. Any successful change initiative must be driven by a management team that relies on strong and stable projects consisting of key executives, department heads, management, and frontline employees committed to change and who can work together in a team.
Effective planning is essential to change management. Successful project has a clear scope and strategy to outline the key business needs and goals. It is important to retain team members and work toward the same results. In addition, the scope of the project clearly prevents the scope movement from occurring. While the scope of changes such as business requirements might change, the scope of the project can be challenging to control and potentially unwanted risks during the change process, project timeline, and organizations that often start HRIS implementation projects without a clear definition of project scope.
Thus, the scope of the project must be defined in advance and must identify the project objectives, priorities, goals, and tasks that will serve as a guide to the team throughout the project life cycle.
Effective communication can make the difference between the success and failure of the HRIS project. It is important for HRIS leaders to develop communication plans to build awareness and enable understanding throughout the development and implementation process. Experts believe that having a plan helps reduce the likelihood of obstruction by meeting the following objectives:
Effective training is essential to any change management initiative, especially when new technologies and work processes are involved. Training is also used in the final phase of “refreezing” as employees get a better idea of how to handle the change. Targeted training plans are one of several components of change management that need to be developed as part of any HRIS implementation project. The training plan identifies the key elements and steps required to train various staff on the use of different function and component of HRIS.
Read also: Surviving the Tech Era: 6 Skills HR Professionals Need to Master
