Decoding the Key Factors That Will Determine the Success of Your HR Tech Solution

Alas, technology is not a silver bullet. The outdated thinking that if you “buy and implement, they will engage” is hindering the C-suite’s ability to get the most out of solutions. Employee experience must be the center of the decision-making process for HR tech.

HR technology is accelerating rapidly as an industry, as companies look to optimize every touchpoint across the talent experience. A CB Insights surveyOpens a new window for PWC estimated the HR tech market has reached a value of $148 billion this year, with the vast majority of recent growth coming from cloud-based platforms serving companies wrestling with the impacts of a global pandemic, which has accelerated digital transformation in HROpens a new window . While decisions to purchase and implement software solutions are often made by C-suite officers, it’s the HR and People teams who determine the success of any new HR tech purchase because they are often the ones using the service.

Technology is not a silver bullet. The outdated thinking that if you “buy and implement, they will engage” is hindering your ability to get the most out of your solutions. Users must be a part of the decision-making process to ensure you center their needs and can communicate the value prior to implementation in an effort to drive adoption.

Here’s what to consider when selecting and implementing an HR tech solution:

Start With Empathy

Begin your product hunt from an empathetic place for your employees. In marketing, we seek to understand the consumer. What is valuable to them? What is comfortable or uncomfortable for them? Candidate experiencesOpens a new window and employee experiences are not very different from the customer journey and intertwined with your overall customers’ experience (CX).

Executives and HR departments must identify what the technology provides for users, articulating clear value focused on why adoption will benefit them, makes their lives easier, and supports their goals. Not all tech platforms are created equal, and those that put candidate and employee experience front and center will delight users and make adoption more successful.

Bear in mind, though, the HR department itself is the first choke point for HR technology implementation, and automation of HR processes could be perceived as a threat to their jobs. “Automation drives advancement not by eliminating jobs but by eliminating particular job functions at which humans are inefficient, inconsistent or exposed to risk,”  according to Ravin Jesuthasan, co-author of the Willis Towers Watson report “Reinventing Jobs: A Four-Step Approach for Applying Automation to WorkOpens a new window ”. Bring members of the HR team into the room when demoing a new product, and meet directly with representatives from human resources to gauge their stated needs before making a firm decision. Communicate plans around the realignment of functions, and make sure HR teams are clear about how their roles are shifting and adapting. Make HR stakeholders — they should be part of the process and be included as partners in digital transformation, not obstacles to overcome.

Commit To Transform

Once you’ve decided to invest in HR technology like an applicant tracking system (ATS), a talent management system (TMS), and an integrated assessment, commit to making the big changes necessary to evolve your business. HR is a traditionally risk-averse group, and for good reason, but risk-averse does not have to mean innovation-averse as well. Companies that embrace the transformation with purpose typically understand the pain points of their employees and have done real work to understand the personalities of those within their organization. Having these key pieces will allow you to make a clean break from analog or legacy processes and create a new mindset in your employees, lessening their resistance to new technologyOpens a new window and clinging to old processes.

It’s not just about the relative size or dollar amount of the investment. Set up internal programs with the expressed purpose of driving change through technology. A TMS tool, for instance, requires input from employees as they complete modules for review or approval by a manager. Ensuring adoption of this kind of technology may require a degree of incentivization. Research from Columbia Business SchoolOpens a new window has shown technology that requires employees to take additional steps (i.e. responding to surveys or completing reports) are harder to implement without an upside for the employee. Make the case to your employees that technology will make their jobs easier, their performance better, and compensate them for their help in building a better, more efficient business.

Accept Feedback and Be Flexible

Feedback is an essential final step in successful implementation of HR technology. Recent hires are a great source of qualitative data, as their candidate experience can reflect the success or failure of a company’s ATS and assessment. Trying to fast-track adoption of new technology like a TMS without establishing a clear opportunity for employee feedback can torpedo the whole endeavor. This is especially true while many HR representatives and managers are operating remotely. Joel Martin of Software ReviewsOpens a new window advises that companies “need people to be able to use technology right out of the box during COVID-19 because they can’t come to a conference room to be trained on it.”

Send additional surveys and build technology-focused questions into managers’ meeting agendas, but bear in mind that employees should be rewarded for their additional effort. Source feedback on both the pace of adoption and effectiveness of the technology itself.

While an extra level of care might elongate the period of implementation — or even the sales cycle — it’s worth it to make technology adoption stick. Lean into the customer success team of your technology vendor to determine the best way to train employees and message new expectations. They likely have programs already in place to ensure your success.

Digital transformation has taken an incredible leap in the last year, due in large part to the pandemic, but many companies haven’t yet dipped a toe in the HR technology pool. For those enterprises yet to begin their HR tech journey: do the research, commit to the changes, and monitor employee feedback all the while. In the end, the employee experience will determine your success or failure.