From selecting the right Human Capital Management (HCM) solution for your business needs and developing a well-structured implementation plan to providing organizational training and ensuring effective communication, there are a few essential strategies that will ensure that your implementation process runs smoothly and fosters success in the long run.
This article will offer a more in-depth view of 8 HCM Implementation Strategies to help your organization maximize the value of your implementation, increase employee satisfaction and engagement, and ultimately achieve greater ROI from your chosen system.
Read on for some tips and tricks to successfully implement your new HCM solution and learn how our team of senior-level HCM consultants can help optimize your business processes and make the most of your new HCM software.
1) Establishing a Project Team
When implementing a new HCM system, it’s important to establish a capable HCM implementation project team including a project manager, project sponsor, business analyst, and other experienced team members, to ensure a successful implementation.
Identifying key stakeholders and project leaders and assigning roles and responsibilities to each team member helps to ensure all areas of your project plan are covered and critical steps for your HCM implementations are handled in the most efficient and effective way possible.
And, with the help of an experienced HCM consultant, your project team can develop a realistic timeline for your projects, create a communication plan between teams, and assign specific tasks to each employee to ensure a smooth transition to the new system and foster buy-in across business units.
Assign Roles and Responsibilities
Assigning roles and responsibilities to project team members helps to provide your team with the necessary technical knowledge, functional expertise, and level of experience needed to see the project through to success and utilize resources in the most efficient way possible.
Here are a few things to consider when assigning project roles to each team member…
- Develop realistic expectations based on the availability and skill set of each employee
- Understand internal resources available for use through each project phase
- Ensure technical requirements are met through the knowledge or skills of team members
- Prioritize project steps to maximize efficiency across teams
- Negotiate training plans and session requirements to ensure all teams are prepared
- Leverage agile project management principles to facilitate quick implementation phases
Identify Key Stakeholders
With the right team and strong communication and collaboration between individuals, organizations can leverage key technical resources to build and execute an HCM software implementation strategy and identify key stakeholders in the process.
Key stakeholders involved in any HCM software implementation project include…
- Project managers
- Company executives and leaders
- Team leads
- Human Resources professionals
- Customers
- Software users
- Team members and other employees
By planning early, defining stakeholders, outlining SMEs, developing criteria for success, and setting realistic expectations, project teams can reduce time-to-value for their new HCM solutions.
2) Defining Goals, Outcomes, and Metrics
When implementing a new Human Capital Management system, it’s important for your project team to define goals, outcomes, and key metrics that are aligned with your organizational priorities to create the most value for all teams and business units.
And with any implementation project, your team should also consider the impact of the new system on the employee experience, assess the need for change management to ensure a smooth transition, and establish realistic timelines and measurable OKRs to ensure your HCM implementation is successful in the long run.
Establish Performance Measurement Criteria
Establishing performance measurement criteria and ensuring your team has the right metrics in place to track performance, measure milestones, and use key employee analytics and insights to improve adoption rates is critical to the success of your implementation team.
Key areas of consideration for performance measurement criteria should include…
- Compliance with local, state, and federal laws and regulations
- Security permissions and privacy setting requirements for all users
- Employee performance reviews and key performance indicators (KPIs)
- Criteria to assess HRMS implementation success
- Productivity rates for all employees involved in HCM implementations
- Benchmark performance metrics to compare performance over time
Organizations should also consider performing due diligence on customer satisfaction to determine how quickly and effectively a vendor responds to customers, facilitate engagement with product and R&D teams, and allow customers to engage directly with each other.
Project leaders and company executives should strive to create a consistent job architecture and standardize processes when implementing HCM systems to identify potential inefficiencies and gaps in internal processes, realign jobs, address system requirements, and set expectations and requirements for a successful rollout.
Set Milestones and Timelines
A typical HCM implementation can take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years to complete, so setting milestones and establishing timelines can make all the difference when it comes to optimizing solutions throughout the entire project.
Here are a few key considerations to ensure your project stays on track…
- Assess organizational priorities, goals, and objectives when outlining project phases
- Complete thorough testing to ensure data is accurate and complete across departments
- Ensure applications in HCM suite align with digital roadmap and strategic objectives
- Design a collaborative roadmap to meet project requirements and realize faster ROI
- Leverage job architecture to identify the level and type of work completed
- Set realistic expectations and deadlines to realize the full value of your investment
- Build an integration foundation to connect systems and support more robust functions
3) Gathering Requirements
Gathering requirements is the next step in the implementation process as it ensures the new HCM system meets all the needs of the organization.
In this step, members of the project team should analyze current business processes, consider the impact of any changes to existing processes, and take the necessary steps to keep the new system up-to-date with the latest technology.
From understanding core business needs to maintaining data integrity, identifying project expectations, leveraging support from a qualified implementation team, and everything in between, gathering requirements and ensuring your team is prepared for their new HCM software is critical to your success.
Analyze Current Processes
The analysis of current processes is a crucial step in achieving implementation success, providing a thorough understanding of the existing processes and identifying key areas for improvement.
Here are a few key steps to ensure your teams and processes are prepared for a change…
- Build a project team with knowledge of your current HR management processes
- Create a change management team to ensure changes are properly implemented
- Demonstrate why a change to your HCM systems is necessary for your organization
- Set realistic expectations to ensure the right people are selected for each team
- Develop a deployment strategy to implement your new HCM solution more efficiently
- Implement and leverage the right HCM technology and tools to meet your needs
- Consider the impact of any changes to existing processes and operations
Collect Feedback from All Stakeholders
In order to ensure a successful HCM implementation, your project team should collect feedback from all stakeholders to ensure everyone is on the same page.
This phase of the process involves taking a few things into consideration, including…
- Involving stakeholders early and often throughout implementation projects
- Communicating and building relationships with key stakeholders for better collaboration
- Investing in digital adoption platforms to keep everyone connected across teams
- Boosting cross-stakeholder familiarity and trust
- Setting realistic timelines and expectations for the tasks at hand
- Prioritizing programs based on the needs and expectations of each key stakeholder
Organizations should also consider the advantages of migration tools to help with moving data to new HCM systems and validating the data flowing between each solution. It’s important to understand the processes and data that will be migrated and to map and organize the data within the HCM system to enable the best possible long-term outcomes.
4) Change Management
Effective change management strategies involve building a functional change management team, ensuring executive alignment, facilitating organizational readiness and impact assessments, and managing the change through a comprehensive change management plan.
The main steps in creating a well-defined change management plan include…
- Conducting readiness assessments to identify knowledge gaps and areas of improvement before implementation processes begin
- Analyzing roles and responsibilities and the skills required for each team member
- Assessing the impact of changes to your organization’s reporting structure, corporate culture, and employee skill sets during an implementation
- Anticipating and proactively resolving employee resistance and other issues associated with change throughout the company
- Outlining objectives and setting goals for a flexible change management and employee training strategy across business units
- Leveraging feedback channels and support resources to monitor employee sentiment and create an employee experience that fosters growth and productivity
Develop a Communication Plan
When it comes to developing a communication plan, your implementation team should focus on communicating upcoming milestones, assessing key messages regarding the change, and managing additional workloads that accompany change management and deployment of new features.
Your organization’s communication plan is dependent on individual and team needs, but employee engagement and performance can be managed by tracking usage data and analytics to identify skills gaps, analyzing drop-off rates, and measuring completion rates for each member of the team.
And, by creating a well-defined communication plan across teams, your organization can not only facilitate stronger collaboration between individuals, but also reduce time-to-value by completing tasks in a more efficient manner.
Train Employees on the New System
To ensure a successful HCM system implementation, it is important to provide employees with the right training at the right time and ensure your training strategies are aligned with business goals and objectives.
Conducting employee training effectively and efficiently involves…
- Understanding employees’ current skill level and capabilities
- Establishing a common language for training to keep everyone on the same page
- Leveraging a skills-first approach to prepare employees to do the work on their own
- Monitoring employee feedback through surveys and regular check-ins
- Communicating changes in data related to personnel, workforce performance, and open enrollment across to keep teams informed
- Creating training materials and providing ongoing support to ensure employees are prepared to use the new HCM system effectively
5) Data Migration
Data migration is another critical step in the HCM implementation process as it involves transferring employee data from the old system to the new one in order to ensure that all necessary information is up-to-date and accurate and setting realistic expectations for the amount of time and effort required to complete the migration.
Data scrubbing is also an important step in the data migration process, helping to ensure that all data is accurate and up-to-date. This involves cleaning and organizing data to make sure the new system works optimally and conducting testing processes with dummy data to identify any issues with the data before it is fully migrated to the new system.
And, by auditing data before, during, and after the migration process, defining test scenarios, and understanding the lifecycle of an employee, your organization can ensure your most important employee and company data is migrated properly and your team has the resources needed to complete a successful HCM implementation.
6) Beta Testing
Beta testing is an important step in the HCM implementation process as it allows the system to be tested before it is launched to ensure new HCM solutions meet the pre-defined requirements and teams are prepared for new operational practices in the new system.
Here are the most important steps to take during the Beta Testing stage…
- Create a testing plan to identify project objectives and identify any potential issues.
- Outline a timeline for testing and define objectives and metrics to measure success.
- Build a communication plan to foster collaboration and keep everyone on the same page.
- Leverage customer involvement and feedback to assess the usability and effectiveness of the new HCM system.
- Launch the beta test with a small group of users (and gradually increase as testing procedures progress.)
- Consider a soft launch for the HCM system to ensure all bugs are identified and fixed before the solution is made available to the entire organization.
By following these best practices for Beta Testing, organizations can identify any potential issues with the system, address them before the system is launched, gain better insights into the usability of the system, and ensure that the system meets the needs of the organization.
7) Launch and Monitor
Once all the necessary steps have been taken to prepare for the launch of the new HCM system, it’s time to launch and monitor the system…
The implementation team is responsible for ensuring that the launch goes smoothly, including ensuring that all data is migrated correctly, the new system is tested thoroughly, and all the training is completed accurately and efficiently.
After the launch is complete, your team needs to monitor the performance of the HCM system by evaluating the user experience and the effectiveness of the new features, as well as tracking the key metrics that were identified in the project planning phase. With this, your teams can identify any hiccups in the system, such as missing data, incorrect reports, and slow response times to improve the system and ensure that the desired outcomes are achieved.
By monitoring the system and gathering feedback, organizations can achieve HCM implementation success, provide the desired returns on investment, and make the most of their Human Capital Management investment in the long run.
8) Gather Feedback
Stakeholders should be involved from the earliest stages of the implementation process, and their input should be assessed and used to define goals, outcomes, and metrics for the new HCM system.
And, with the help of a digital adoption platform, companies are enabled to streamline implementation processes and share feedback more efficiently, helping to achieve a successful HCM implementation process across the organization.
Here are a few best practices when considering feedback from key stakeholders…
- Keep an open mind and ask questions for clarification on feedback
- Conduct conversations in a way that gives each party a voice in the matter
- Offer discovery workshops to allow stakeholders to share input and ask questions
- Set realistic expectations and communicate any changes with all teams involved
- Proactively discuss any potential issues to resolve them before they arise
By gathering feedback from stakeholders and using such feedback to tweak the system as needed, organizations can ensure that their HCM implementation is successful and meets the needs of their individual employees and workforce as a whole.
How Can We Help?
Whether you need help outlining plans for a new HCM implementation, an extra hand assessing operations in your current system to find and address key areas of improvement, or additional support navigating complex integrations between your old systems and your new HCM solution, Surety Systems is here to help.
Our team of senior-level HCM consultants has the skills and experience needed to lead your team to success, no matter what. Your technology. Your priorities. Our expertise. That’s the name of the game with us.
From planning a Workday HCM implementation to building a team to handle SAP HCM implementation processes, defining requirements for a new UKG HCM solution, or leveraging a new Infor HCM system to create more value, our team is guaranteed to meet all your needs with flying colors.
Getting Started with Us
Interested in learning more about our HCM consulting services? Ready to get started on an HCM implementation project with our team of top-tier consultants?
Contact us today for more information!
Frequently Asked Questions
What does HCM stand for?
HCM stands for Human Capital Management, and it refers to the practice of tracking and managing employee data, such as salaries, benefits, attendance, performance reviews, and training information, automating processes, and providing valuable insights into workforce management practices across an organization.
What is HCM implementation?
HCM implementation involves the process of integrating Human Capital Management (HCM) software into an organization – providing end-to-end HR services and optimizing workforce data for improved organizational performance.
It involves deploying HCM software, optimizing configuration and settings, customizing processes to fit the organization’s needs, employee training, and more.
HCM implementation requires careful planning and execution. It’s important to ensure the software is configured correctly, organizational processes are tailored to the new system, and employee training is conducted to ensure the system is used effectively and efficiently.
What are the benefits of HCM implementation?
The implementation of Human Capital Management (HCM) software enables businesses to quickly and easily organize employee records, automate HR processes, foster a positive work environment, and gain insight into workforce performance.
And, the analytics capabilities offered by new HCM software solutions help organizations spot potential areas for improvement in their Human Capital Management strategy.
What does HCM stand for in Workday?
HCM stands for Human Capital Management and is the all-in-one Workday solution to effectively manage Human Resources processes and support the workforce in faster, smarter and more agile ways than ever before.
It helps organizations streamline their HR processes, reduce costs, and improve employee engagement and productivity. It also provides insights into workforce trends and analytics to help organizations make better decisions.
