One of the most common questions we are regularly asked is “how long will it take to implement an HR system into our company?”. Whilst this is a difficult question to answer due to the varying needs of each business, we can offer some advice which will enable you to understand the intricacies involved in the process.
Firstly, when considering HR technology, you need to contemplate if your business is ready for it. What are your chosen goals and priorities for your new system? Are you looking for a system to aid payroll or are you looking for a piece of software to support you in your recruiting and onboarding activities?
Determining your business needs will affect how long the implementation process will take.
If you are implementing a particularly complicated HRIS, you may also have to consider allocating some time towards up-skilling your staff; ensuring that they have the skills to cope with any new technological demands asked of them.
Once you have decided on your priorities, you may need to write a business case for your senior management team to justify the additional investment into your chosen technology.
This should not only outline the costs and timescales involved, but will also outline the ways in which your chosen vendor can save the company time and money, and provide a comprehensive ROI.
Over the next few months, we will be producing a series of downloadable guides which will include sector-specific explanations of what to include within a business case. Keep an eye out on our resources section or pre-register to receive updates on when they are ready.
If this is something that you are keen to learn more about, we regularly work with clients to support their business case and sign-off procedures, which may help speed up the implementation process.
To find out more about how we can support you in writing a business case for your management team, simply give us a call and we will be happy to discuss this with you.
We know that once you have approval, you will be keen to implement this new technology as fast as possible but it’s important to consider any seasonal impact. For example, if your chosen project involves payroll support, it is understandable that most UK companies will want to be fully functional by April to coincide with the start of the new tax year.
However, it’s worth noting that this is the busiest time of year for vendors and delivery partners, so you may find that resources are stretched compared to other times of the year.
You may also need to factor-in other key dates of the year when organisation are likely to be working at a slower pace or with skeleton staff, such as Christmas or Easter.
Below is a suggested timescale for implementing a payroll software system from start to finish for a company with over 1,000 employees.
Larger complex organisations, or those that work globally may take longer, but our dedicated consultants will always discuss expected timescales with you to manage your expectations.
We work closely with all our clients to ensure that the whole process is as fast and seamless as possible. We’ve already mentioned how we can assist you in preparing a business case, and our expertise and understanding of different HRIS vendors allows us to suggest a suitable shortlist of options, therefore streamlining the selection process.
Our project managers are available to help you manage the whole process from selection, right through to go-live.
We can also assist you further by providing a detailed people-data review; something which will become increasingly important as we move towards the new GDPR regulations. We can look at your current processes and establish if your employee and stakeholder data is held securely and in accordance with the new directive.
To find out more about the ways that our dedicated consultants can support your HR needs, please get in touch.