UK 
United States
Marcus Küppers
Process Consultant
Human Resources departments have a huge and expanding remit, as organisations call on them to add more strategic value for the business. But this evolving role isn’t typically reflected in their existing IT systems, which now need to evolve in keeping with the diversifying role of HR.
Here are 6 considerations which should form part of any HR systems review:
1. Connecting HR with the broader business
HR today should be well connected with the rest of the organisation, to cement its position as a vital central hub connected to and serving every other part of the business. This includes seeing entire processes through, whether that’s recruitment, or running and measuring incentive programmes.
This doesn’t have to mean buying a single piece of software that can do everything out of the box, but rather choosing an over-arching HR document management and workflow platform that can cater for the broadest range of content types, new application connections and future use cases.
2. Recruitment & development: addressing skills gaps
Skills gaps and talent retention are a persistent challenge in most market sectors. With easy coordination of diverse information, optimised HR content management platform will make it easier, faster and more automatic to feed job opportunities or recruitment campaigns directly to target audiences. Ideally it will be possible to automatically publish messages and opportunities to job-hunters’ web sites, social platforms like LinkedIn, and online newspaper listings, as appropriate – ideally with links straight back into the HR department as candidates submit their applications.
3. Employee self-service
Letting employees do more to help themselves is a popular driver for HR digital transformation. Staff should be able to look up online when they are next due a pay review or how much sick leave they have amassed; discreetly look up occupational health services; or request time off.
Company portals, or intranets, offer a powerful, low-touch way to open up the lines of communication too, keeping everyone feeling connected and part of a shared cause.
4. Personal data management
Updated data protection requirements under GDPR are another contributor to the digital HR imperative. A modern HR management platform will be able not only to adapt to and enforce the latest data compliance parameters, but also trigger automated prompts – for instance if someone leaves the business, and the time comes where they must wipe or remove access to their data.
People’s increased rights to request access to any data kept about also need to be managed. A sufficiently well controlled self-service facility could help to lighten the load.
5. Mobility
Organisations should also consider their future options when choosing a HR management platform, for instance the possibility of later wanting to securely mobilise HR platform access via an employee ‘app’.
Other considerations may include how the software will be provisioned. Although some organisations still feel HR is too sensitive to manage in the cloud, that’s likely to change as the benefits are seen to outweigh any risk. So it is worth planning for a dual hosting strategy.
6. Management reporting & analytics
Organisations’ appetite for data has evolved into a need to turn this into actionable insights. Increasingly HR teams are being called upon to provide more granular insights into employment issues, trends and forecasts. The ability to construct diverse and ad-hoc reports, and display these in different formats and dashboards, is important in a modern HR management platform. Being able to integrate with adjacent systems such as payroll, meanwhile, will boost the value of these reports.
Formulating a plan of action
As HR discipline morphs into something broader and more strategic, so too must the IT that underpins it. Yet, none of this needs to require a complete overhaul of legacy systems. As long as there is compatibility and easy integration, it should be possible to blend the old and the new to create something powerful and transformational to HR productivity and efficiency.
