“Lauren Williams, SPHR |Sr. HR Consultant 
Converge HR
Solutions 

There are 5 Key Tips
to Select an HR Software Solution:

1) Areas of Necessity

Take time to do some
research before you dive into selection. Determine what is MOST important to
your organization. This could mean meeting with stakeholders internally to
conduct interviews with various key players from your organization (this will
also, help to gain future buy-in for your solution). Try to include IT or
Business Systems teams as early on as possible (make them your friends).

2) Identify 1 Key
Stakeholder:

You need someone
internally to rally around your cause. They should work outside of HR or People
Operations. They must see and feel the need for an HCM solution. This person
can be from an adjacent department (it really helps to have Finance or CFO on
your side for this).

3) Ask your HRIS
Vendors the right questions:

• What is your customer
  retention rate?
• Why do you lose
  customers?
•  What is the biggest
  feature that you wish the software had but it doesn’t?
•  Do you use your own
  software internally? Will this solution
  grow with my organization?
•  We use x,y,z for our
  current HCM process – how will your solution save me time and resources?

4) Take time to make
referral calls:

Referral calls should
be provided by the vendor and also from your own sources. LinkedIn can be great
for sourcing users who are willing to share their experiences. When conducting
referral calls make sure you listen more, talk less – allow the person to share
their experience whether or not it relates to you today. Don’t settle until you
speak with at least 3 to 5 individuals for each software solution. Keep the
contact information of the people you speak to- you might be able to leverage
it later for questions, follow up information or user experience tips.

5) Once you make a
final selection – stick with it.

Go with your gut
instinct – it’s usually right. Have key stakeholder support especially through
kick-off and implementation. It will be critical to have someone in your corner
when you start your implementation. Communicate the decision to those involved
in the process, and build a rock-solid communication plan to the larger
organization to build excitement, provide awareness for the change and explain
the benefits to the new software (what’s in it for them).

Doing these things
will prevent you from becoming trapped in analysis paralysis and keep your
process moving along. You are spearheading this project because of your
knowledge and expertise. Since there is a time commitment involved in any
technology identification and selection, be able to delegate tasks and ask for
help.

If you would like some
advice please reach out to your Consultant, we can help with recommendations,
identification, and selection of an HRIS that will fit your company now and for
years to come.