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Taking a measured approach before you implement HR tech projects is key in ensuring long-term success. Learn why here.
In part one of this article series, we examined what Pinpoint HRM’s Craig Aunger describes as the first critical stage of the HR technology journey: the evaluation stage.
Here, the founder and managing director shares the second stage, highlighting the need to conduct pre-implementation planning and look at the long game in order to set your project up for success.
“There’s more to success than selecting the tech,” Aunger said.
“So, although finding the right HR solution (Part 1) gets you off to a good start, it’s what you do next that can really shape how seamless and successful your project will be.”
A measured approach
It is vital organisations take a measured approach to implementing HR technology solutions. By diving straight into a project without doing this, many see their projects falling short of expectations.
“One of the key reasons I started Pinpoint was because large, forward-thinking organisations were turning up to the implementation, not knowing what was about to hit them,” Aunger explained.
“The biggest risk is that the organisation hasn’t got the resources they need to make a project a success. What that does is creates a really unpleasant project for everyone that’s involved – the vendor, implementation partner, the customer. You get to the end and everyone can’t wait to move on from the project because it’s been ill-prepared and they didn’t have the right resources on board.”
Poor management of HR tech projects can quickly lead to a blame game being played, Aunger said.
“People start blaming the system for the change that's been forced upon them and if it's not supported properly, then they start to blame the system for breakdowns in process and then they start to blame HR for not managing the project well. And it's really hard to claw back from that,” he said.
When to start your pre-implementation preparation
“You don't actually have to have selected and finalised the vendor, but once you've identified the preferred vendor, you can really start to kick off that pre-implementation. Because the design that you come up with for the future state and the number of resources, the skills that you're going to need, the timeline it's going to take, the order in which you roll out the solution – all those things depend on the vendor,” Aunger explained.
Without knowing the vendor, it’s challenging to plan these critical elements effectively.
It's also important to note that when you engage a vendor, they often start billing for license fees once the implementation begins. By introducing a pre-implementation phase where you prepare and plan, you can avoid incurring these costs prematurely.
“Typically, if you sign up with a vendor, from the day that they provision the instance, you're going to be paying for the license fees, and they typically provision the instance once the implementation starts,” Aunger said.
“So, by introducing another step before you get into implementation – this pre-implementation stage – you’re getting yourself ready and you’re not paying for the license fees during that time because that could take three months, we've seen it take six months. In the case of a big law firm, it took 12 months.”
The big wins
The benefits of doing the pre-implementation stage right are substantial. Not only will it help your organisation achieve a more efficient and cost-effective technology implementation process, it will go a long way in achieving long-term goals.
Rushing to implement a solution that only addresses immediate needs can lead to new challenges in the future, Aunger explained.
“I think that’s a really key step: to take that step back, draw a breath, don’t think about where you’re going to be in six months, think about where you’re going to be in three to five years,” he said.
“If you implement something that’s just going to solve your problem today, it’s just going to knock onto a different problem down the track.”
Improving credibility and influence for HR professionals is another key benefit that comes with taking a more measured approach in the pre-implementation stage.
By demonstrating the ability to plan and execute technology projects effectively, HR can have a more significant impact on the business.
“You get one chance often so you’ve got to do it right,” Aunger said.
Reducing project risk
Finally, pre-implementation planning can significantly reduce project risks. By addressing critical issues before starting the implementation stage, organisations can avoid costly delays and complications during the project.
“This leads to smoother implementations, reduced pressure on project teams and better alignment with expectations,” Aunger explained, pointing to a practical example.
“A customer has just gone live and they said, ‘Well, if we hadn't done this pre-implementation planning, the project would have blown out by two, three times as long because of all these key decisions that we were able to bring forward and make before we even started the implementation, which just meant the implementation project went really smoothly’.
“That [example shows how pre-implementation planning] puts a lot less pressure on the people that are involved in the project,” Aunger said.
“My team are the most valuable part of my business and I don't want to put them in a caustic environment. I don't want them being a situation where the customer has unrealistic expectations or the vendor has unrealistic expectations in terms of timing, budget or resources.
“The only way you can really do that, to avoid this loss of or this mismatch of reality versus expectations, is adequate planning around this stuff. And the pre-implementation stage is what does that excellently.”
To hear more from Pinpoint HRM’s Craig Aunger, check out the latest podcast on HR Leader here.
To learn more about how the team at Pinpoint HRM can help you on your tech journey, click here.
Stay tuned for the third and final part in this series where we outline the importance of what happens after go-live in determining the true success of the HR transformation.
