A service company with 400 employees at 7 European and Asian locations was using simple Microsoft Office solutions (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) for its HR management. This no longer met the demand for modern, customer-oriented and efficient work in any of the classic HR areas. The manual processes throughout the entire employee life cycle (from recruiting and hiring to personnel development and training to remuneration issues and severance management) were overtaxing the small HR team. In addition, the outdated processes led to a high frequency of errors and rework as well as great frustration - among HR employees and internal customers alike.
The interim manager was entrusted with the task of selecting and introducing a suitable HR information system (HRIS).
Assessment of actual and target processes and derivation of system requirements
The most urgent task was to systematically map the annual performance management process, which leads to relevant personnel decisions (promotions, remuneration, separation...). Other priorities were defined as the management of training and development, modern employer branding and recruiting, as well as the automation of administrative processes and HR analytics.
In collaboration with the HR team, the interim manager defined the key core processes and derived a catalog of core requirements for the individual modules of the future system.
Vendors for HR information systems identified and recommendation developed
During the initial survey of existing providers and HR information systems, two basic criteria quickly became apparent. Firstly, only providers of "SaaS" - Software as a Service - were considered in order to avoid the cost of purchasing expensive hardware and software in-house. Secondly, individual programming or system developments were to be avoided in order to keep the acquisition costs and future maintenance costs as low as possible. The interim manager therefore decided to only include configurable standard systems in the shortlist.
A screening of the market revealed 5 providers. Based on a detailed catalog of requirements and decision criteria, the interim manager shortlisted 2 systems. Based on specifications from the finance department, he entered the bidding process and ultimately recommended a system for implementation.
Planning of internal personnel resources and coordination with the system provider
In the following month, the interim manager prepared the implementation phase. Among other things, he drew up a time and resource plan. One of the challenges was to plan the personnel capacities in HR and IT in such a way that other projects and day-to-day business were not impacted. The interim manager also appointed 2 system administrators for the central management of system usage and basic functionalities, who received in-depth system training. He also nominated key users for the various application areas and planned their basic system training.
In addition, the interim manager coordinated cooperation and interaction models with the system provider and planned configuration sessions, test sequences, training and more.
Performance module selected as pilot application and successfully installed
The interim manager selected the system's performance module as the pilot application for the introduction of the HR information system. The system provider's implementation model is highly standardized, with interaction limited to pre-planned configuration sessions and the use of the online help desk. Over the course of the first two weeks, it became clear that a user-friendly configuration of the entire performance and talent management process could only be achieved within this framework with a time delay or additional capacity. An additional external team of system developers had to be brought on board in order to meet the tight deadline.
All requirements for implementing the HRIS were met on time
In the end, the interim manager was able to deliver the performance management module on time and with the appropriate quality. A few errors were corrected during the go-live, meaning that the 2019/20 talent and salary round could already be fully mapped via the system.
At the time of the interim manager's departure in February 2020, all modules of the HR information system had been prepared, the people involved had been appointed and trained and all necessary resources had been provided. In this respect, the successful implementation of four further modules and the integration of the HRIS with the payroll system can be expected within a further 12 months.
